Gettin' Jiggy With It - Globally

Here's what symbolizes the title of this post.

For those of you who are not familiar with the matter, although I must admit it's hard to miss, here's a quick, simplistic, humorous explanation of the entire situation (thanks to greatbong).

Part 1
Part 2

The times, they are a changin'. 6 months ago, who could have imagined that stocks could plummet globally from where they were to where they are now. Each day where the stocks rally, there is jubilation all around the globe and hopes resurface as the end of a nightmare. Well, the very next day, things are back to the way they were. Stocks are tumbling, people are committing suicide, and I am losing sleep.

Losing sleep not because I have a significant investment in my company's stock options (which are pretty much worthless right now), but am wondering whether I am ready to brave the next 12-24 months and retain holding the stocks till the worst phase is over. The worst part about the entire thing is that there are no guarantees in life and the meltdown is no exception either.

As mentioned earlier, I don't have any money in stocks. I prefer playing it safe. I don't miss the highs of the stock market and definitely don't care about the lows. However, considering that I intend making some changes to the way I live, be it in terms of lifestyle or responsibilities, these are nervous times. I guess this is what they say about growing up - you start caring about things that don't affect you directly in the least bit. I believe in playing it safe and investing my money in very very safe avenues, also because I don't have much to save (isn't that a global problem as well?). Each day I wake up, I frantically search for my blackberry, and key in the stocks that I care about the most (on google.com/m), only to be disappointed with a graph that is slanting downwards to the right bottom of my tiny mobile screen.

Can anything be done? I honestly doubt it. We have to pay for our greed and what better way to pay for it than to have that thing taken away that gave rise to a vice in the first place?

I am sure people must have seen this coming at some point in time. All conversations that I have with my friends/relatives all surround this terrible state of affairs. Some of the things that come out of the conversation are:

• "I am not going to invest in stocks ever again"
• "This global crap has happened all because of human greed"
• "Suicides by stockbrokers is spreading like an epidemic"
• "What's your guess on what's going to happen?"
• and like a fresh breath of air - "Where/when do you think will the next bomb strike be?"

Depressing, ain't it?

Changing tracks slightly, 2008 hasn't been all that a great year for the citizens of the world. Some failures that come to mind immediately, in no order as such:

• Failure of the Nano project in W Bengal
• Number of bomb blasts (we are second only to Iraq) in the country
• Waving a wad of currency notes in the Indian Parliament reminiscent of this disgraceful scene
  
• Globally weak economies
• Iceland declaring itself bankrupt
• No hikes in salaries
• Weakening job markets
• No decent movies to watch (so far)
• Reality shows becoming passe' except of course that fateful evening on Bindaas TV and the confusion of the participant shouting 'How can you slap?' and then clarifies again "How can she slap?"
  
• No great music either this year
• Sourav Ganguly announcing his retirement - by far the best leader (cricket, et. al) India has ever had.
• Prices of petrol going through the roof
• Benazir Bhutto's assassination...well to be honest, this was Dec 27, 2007...but close enough.*
  
• Hurricanes Ike, Hanna, Gustav
• iPhone overpriced in India, and therefore, much beyond the reach of the common man.

(* thanks Suhel for pointing the date out...)

Some points to make the Indian at heart feel better:

• India launched 10 satellites at once, setting a world record for most number of satellites launches.
  
• Finally a gold medal for India in the 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Lalu at his best: Part 1 / Part 2
  
• Zardari acts all amorous
• umm... I guess that's it.
  

Hopefully, towards the end of the year, when and if I still own a laptop/PC, I will write to enumerate all the significant events in the year that was.

Coming back to getting jiggy with it - it's just getting more and more 'jiggier'. Watch out for the rest of this year for the ultimate shakedown of the millennium.

God bless!

~ Hef.