Long Time Coming: World has Changed

It has been only 3 months since I wrote my last blog entry and the world seems to have been turned upside down. I would have assumed that to be the case after presidential elections in November but the financial markets had a plan of their own.The financial market mess has shaken everybody from their ill conceived idea that we are going to always grow, and there is enough room of growth in the global economy. Not to say that the financial market mess is a contradiction to that assertion but definitely has gotten the world  to a grinding halt and make it reassess its modus operandi.  These last 3 months are going to be historical since they are going to be referenced in numerous writings, books and case studies for ages to come. The unflappable Alan Greenspan the most widely recognized messiah of free markets finally succumbed and finally admitted that he was wrong in his understanding  of the self regulatory power of free markets. Let me correct myself. He said he was partially wrong. Either way, the Adam Smith school of thought has had a foreclosure and the Keynesian school of thought is the hottest commodity in the market. Sure there are plenty of prescriptive articles being published, smart authors catching on with writing books (from pen to print in 30 days) claiming the deep understanding and dissection of the whole mess (in fact more account of unfolding of events) and tons of new lines of business(America is creative with it service economy) addressing the financial mess( consultants to manage your debt, avoid foreclosure and of course numerous law suits on the Wall Street companies and executives). Also it is funny and ironical that the 'Socialism' word has been picked up  in the media  like crazy whether it is the unfortunate branding of Obama policies as socialism by Sarah Palin and /or the bail outs being termed as big socialism efforts. I guess it is going to be debated ad nauseam for the next couple of years. But what does it mean for me as an individual? Yes my tax money is going out to saving these banks and investment houses as some one will say, yes my future is more unknown than before and yes, I will be struggling to assess the impact of all of this on my mind set towards spending, investing and self growth.  But I have to say one thing I will definitely cherish(cherish may not be an appropriate word) that I have experienced this in person. I was not living around the Great Depression and was too young to understand and decode the Black Monday in 1987 but this time around I have had the capacity to see and observe the the apocalypse.  Tough times ahead for each one of us and during tough times, we need to work as a team. I am sure someone will say this is leaning towards socialism but even the capitalists cannot deny that after all 'Man is a social animal' and that is is what makes us different from the rest of the animals.