Wakeup to a world of lesser America

I was once asked by a beggar in Los Angeles downtown “do you have some change to spare?”, I don’t exactly remember if I paid him or not but when I reflect on it for a moment, is this “sophisticated begging” American style, making you feel little if you can’t spare some change? This was not a physically challenged man or senile enough to feed for himself, put that in perspective to some beggars in India for instance one who cleans the floor of a train with a cloth and then asks for change or one who cleans your car window in the traffic signal and then reaches out for some change. This truly may not amount to begging but offering of an “unwanted” but not “undesired service” and then asking for money. I find it hard to resist comparing that incident to American consumerism predominantly driven by financial imprudence and built on the myth that it’s not important whether you can afford it, but if you want it, go get it. Contrast that with Obama’s views on Gandhi and the simplicity that was always a part of mahatma. Anyway that’s that.

I m no expert on analyzing any of the predominant columns or columnists of any nation’s major newspaper but news that has been hitting the headlines pertaining to America and its president have forced me to stop (not pause) and wonder if the downhill ride of this great nation has surfaced in different domains and no one seems to have connected the dots. Here is an attempt.

It all started as soon as America elected its new president we saw Russia launch its most potent nuclear armed warships cruise into the Caribbean right across the border where American waters and later Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president lands in a fighter aircraft on the warship and together with Dmitry Medvedev a joint naval exercise is announced.
The Russian president's aim was to show Washington that if the US does things in Europe near Russia's borders which Moscow does not like, then Russia can pursue its own policies in a region long seen by Washington as its backyard. Remember the Georgian conflict with South Ossetia or a proxy conflict of USA with Russia? Poor Mikhail Saakshaville could not have imagined that the newly crowned president Dmitry Medvedev would have given such a disproportionate response to the misadventure and new found comfort of American military weapons and strength that Georgia had obtained forcefully under the pretext of humanitarian aid. Russia gave a telling response there and it did not stop there, it carried on to American waters and still continues with America recently revising or abandoning some of its missile shield programs in Europe especially in Czech republic and Poland. While Obama and his strategists could see it as a scrapping of Bush’s policy it is also the strong influence of Russia to ensure it is scrapped. Make no mistake of a revision of any such missile shield program in favour of America will be mightily matched if not bettered by a Russian response in America’s backyard. I have not even brought Chinas 60 years celebration as people republic by the opulent display of military might or Iran’s nuclear arrogance into the picture who are pro Russian, so much so that Russia has threatened to veto for any strong action on Iran. The last word on this is yet to come from either side (US or Russia)where both have allies and enemies of unequal capacity, but we can admit there is not only a challenge but a heavy price to pay for a problem that cannot be dictated onto from one side to the other.

Let’s take another area of the globally omnipresent capitalistic fools or the so called investment banking geniuses, I m convinced of the former being closer to the truth. Nevertheless the collateral debt obligation (CDO’s) and credit default swaps (CDS) invented by the IB geniuses made taking loans and keeping interest rates lower and ultimately generating high profit an infallible proposition which lasted for so long as to attract all the other herd mentality folk until most collapsed without even a chance of recovery for some. The famous “Green Shoots” now synonymous with the economic recovery needs to be seen in light with some of the below metrics to really put it in perspective if its green shoots or green shits. What about the fact that till date more than a 100 US banks have collapsed, quarter million jobs lost every month since early 2008, unemployment ~10% of the workforce in America. Add to this a dying healthcare system that needs overhaul and their GM (Government err General Motors-- pun intended) that is dying despite the “cash for clunkers” program which was aimed to resuscitate the automobile industry to fuel efficient cars has ended up in “rich” trading in their old cars for big time luxury fuel guzzlers. On a lighter note the word Guzzlers leads me to the American Budweiser beer which has been bought by the Belgian beer giant Inbev, identity or nationality crisis for American beer giant?

Well, Paul Kruggman the American Nobel laureate for his work on economics probably needs some lessons from our former RBI governor YV Reddy who maintained high interest rates in India so as to minimize if not insulate the collateral damage of west hitting India. This has ensured growth continuity and acceptable level of asset quality and lower NPAs and even lesser write offs in a country of India’s magnitude which arguably on PPP(purchasing power parity) terms is probably among the top 10 nations in the world.
Remember the billions of dollars poured into banks, insurance companies like AIG and Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, Citibank, BoA and others I ve even lost count, to ensure they are well capitalized? Today TATA which sells insurance policies in partnership with AIG in India can negotiate better or the brand value as opposed to AIG that it commanded when it entered India. What about NASA piggy backing on Chandrayan’s moon mission of finding water there at one tenth or lesser the cost of any successful or unsuccessful mission? We all have an idea how much capital has been put in by the Treasury, TARP (Troubled assets refinance program) to save the systemic failures that the IB geniuses never conceived. I wonder what the so called watchdogs of SEC, Federal Reserve and any others if any do to prevent a Robert Madoff’s ponzi scheme of more than 65 billion Dollars. One man, many watchdogs, no winner and yet many losers probably sums up this worldwide ponzi scheme for which America has to take the blame, the worlds watchdog remained watchdog unable to do anything more than just watching while this was happening.

Lets come to sports, Olympics is, was and will be regarded as ultimate glory for a nation to win the maximum medals showcasing its prosperity in any field at the world stage. To dwell on it a bit further why any field, today winning any medal is tantamount to supreme talent, exceptional hard work, incredible technology to support it apart from human characteristics like willpower, teamwork, training, tenacity and any other adjectives that I missed out. For instance an edge in top technology employed for training swimmers will certainly ensure they knock off a few micro seconds from their opponents. This is decisive in most sports today, now face the fact that it’s the gold medal that every nation wants and in last Olympics America has stood second in gold medals albeit they won more medals than china but a whopping 15 gold medals less than China. While we stay on this topic no other president of USA has thrown his weight behind gunning for hosting Olympics in an American city like Obama and unfortunately for him, he also becomes the only president of USA being ignored for all his efforts of flying his Air-force one to Copenhagen when his country has so many other problems to deal with. 2016 Olympics will be held in Rio,its official and Obama will have enough time to reflect on this incident and some more incidents like the much hyped beer at white house party he hosted for a police officer and a professor who was incorrectly arrested and some other member of white house who called him a liar or even his continuous unfair treatment of fox news channel and his handling of the peaceful protesters against his healthcare plan, probably he will do things differently given a second chance. A president is not a commoner, he is special,supreme commander, above us, more powerful, talented, high IQ and whatever that a commoner can wish to have for his betterment is a quality that any president already has and more so for an American president its always given. However in this case whether Obama overestimated his charisma or whether other world leaders underestimate America is not for me to judge but it is for us to ponder and wonder – Have the dark days of America begun? No pun intended.

For the moment though I can only pity Obama but this probably underscores the title of this article and the lesser influence America or Dollar or its President is having in most fields known to man so far. Who cares what I feel but I do as I lived in this beautiful country for nearly five years and had most of my career prosperity there. I owe a few things to this great nation like my house built in Bangalore, my career and above all my learnings which shall not cease. I still have so many of my friends and other well wishers whose 401K plan savings have shrunk, jobs lost, lifetime savings of real estate properties foreclosed and many other Indians who dreamt of a career in America while studying Engineering are very reluctant to take up a job in USA when they have passed out. Can you believe it that there are 18000 H1B visas still to be applied for? This is a visa where most people I know have prayed, preyed, waited and were willing to sacrifice all to get a visa to America student or work visa, it seems that chasing a dream is now avoiding a nightmare. Whether greenback will be back as the dominant world currency or not we will see in the days and years to come. Probably fair to say if someone went to sleep in Manhattan in year 2000 and woke up in 2010 there are no south or north WTC buildings and Dollar is not the dominant currency worldwide and there is no Lehmann and no G8.

Whether you wake up to a world of lesser American influence or continue to sleep is your choice but if and when you do wake up the world has changed.