The Indian budget every year has always been an eagerly awaited event. For many decades, the best minds in economics, finance, tax, business and industry throng the media house to analyze the provisions shared by the Financial Minister.
Sometimes major events completely disconnected may be data points for the plans of the different powers around the world. The challenge is to discern what purpose they serve? More critically, what are we moving towards?
When the US Ambassador threatened India's "Strategic Autonomy" policy over India's friendship with Russia - much more than meets the eye was at stake. Let us unpack how the Ukraine war has fundamentally changed the US and the world. And why are we here anyway?
International Monetary Fund (IMF) has dinged China. It says that the Chinese economy is very vulnerable right now. Why?
Rampant lending since the 2008 financial crisis has left many companies and local governments in China with huge debts, while a recent slowdown in economic growth and falling property prices have fuelled fears of an explosion in defaults.
I have maintained that the Chinese economy is a giant Ponzi scheme. If Maddoff could run his scam for 30 years, so can China. And that is precisely what it is doing.
Before IMF came out with this evaluation, a recent survey talked about contracting manufacturing sector.
A survey of Chinese purchasing managers, just completed by HSBC and Markit Economics, shows a third consecutive month of contraction in the manufacturing sector. The release of the survey results Thursday contributed to a global slide in stock markets that day.
Instead of labor shortages earlier, the factories are seeing labor surpluses. Is the unemployment going to grow? It seems like.
And instead of the labor shortages that plagued many manufacturers last year as workers sought better jobs elsewhere, more people now seem willing to accept assembly-line tedium. Short term, that could help exporters. But it could be an early sign of looming unemployment problems.
Even the soaring real estate is headed from a more conservative scenario.
A government survey released Sunday showed that prices had fallen in August compared to July in 16 cities, notably Chongqing in western China. And prices stayed flat in 30 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, although they did continue rising in 24 other cities.
In themselves, all these things may not seem to be able to break the back of Chinese economy, but together they could spell a lot of trouble.
Rare Earth Elements (REE) will change and rule the world as oil did in the last century. China dominates that industry like no other. And it uses that monopoly to beat down on its adversaries.
The Great Depression of the 1930s led to World War 2 in a significant manner. Current economic crises and geopolitical battles are converging. What will the coming wars be like? We look at the scenario deeply.
Attack by Hamas took a lot to accomplish. The sudden Chinese bonhomie with Syria and the bringing together of Arab - Sunni and Shia countries and actors by Xi Jinping's regime raises some questions .
When Hu Jintao was thrown out of the 20th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress, many things were set in motion. So what happened and why? What is Xi Jinping up to?
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