The global slowdwon and life

[blazeofglory]

That everything is a part of the whole and nothing goes out of the cosmic system is a fact we must accept. Europe and the US are wrapped by crises and that have left multiple effects on one and all.

Can literature and art be taken in isolation, unaffectedly. I do not regard literature as something unrelated to economics. Economics interests me as much as literature does as a matter of fact, and I take both on an equal footing, and at times when I write articles on economic issues I take the literary tool when it comes to polishing and pruning my style of writing. And when I write essays that can be economics in one part and literature in another when it comes to writing about the poor.

Now the world is watching the global financial crisis. Since literature studies human behavior, or to put it differently literature mirrors human life and his society and what is happening globally now on the financial issue also can be reckoned integral to man and it affects man's life literature can not be studied in isolation for that matter.

Now we see banks have failed and loses are mounting. Economists are assembling everywhere to arrive at a way-out but they have been left with no other choices than to bailout the sinking banking industry. This move is in point of fact against the very spirit of free economy.

All of us now are wrapped in a pandaemonium at this juncture and there are clouds of uncertainties and uneasiness everywhere.

I am from Nepal, a dot on the global map. I am not swayed by this global tempest, but many are affected. I could not remain unconcerned as the rest who are adrift in this whirlwind constitute or belong to the world where I belong.
Please share your views in this.

[motherhubbard]

I agree with you, Blaze. Literature and the Economy are related because people are affected by the economy and they write about that experience. Jonathon Swift and Victor Hugo come quickly to mind.

About three or four years ago I started watching the price of gold. I feel like the higher gold gets the less the dollar is worth. I became concerned. Then there was this housing thing where people who I thought shouldn’t be allowed to borrow were borrowing and sometimes more than their homes were worth. Credit card debt is a way of life for most Americans and spending beyond one’s means is the norm. These things also worried me. The national debt is in worse shape- we broke the debt clock last week!

If history is an indicator then it appeared to me that we were setting ourselves up for an economic crisis. We were right in line with many of the happenings of the 1920’s. I hate to be a doom and gloom kind of person, but I thought it would be best to prepare for the possibility of a depression.

My husband and I have taken steps that will help us get through even a terrible economic crisis. We’ve been really focused on this for about three years. In my area, the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, the depression of the 1930’s was long and hard. I love to hear stories from this time. In a lot of ways the people from this area are still shaped by the depression. I don’t worry about my family should the national economy fail, but I do worry about millions of others.

[caddy_caddy]

This move is in point of fact against the very spirit of free economy

How ????

what I know about this issue is that Islamic banks are not affected by this crisis.

[yanni]

"I am from Nepal, a dot on the global map. "

Were any banks bailed out in your country and what do you think about it?

[blazeofglory]

"I am from Nepal, a dot on the global map. "

Were any banks bailed out in your country and what do you think about it?

No, Yanni, and no banks have failed in Nepal. In fact Nepal is a very country economically. If banks fail the government of Nepal can not do anything. The government has no fund and it runs with deficit budget.
Huge amounts are borrowed from different agencies, the world bank, the general public and of course aide has been solicited from rich countries to fund the budget or the public expenditures of the country.

[motherhubbard]

BLaze, I just looked at pictures of Nepal on the internet and it is BEAUTIFUL!

[blazeofglory]

BLaze, I just looked at pictures of Nepal on the internet and it is BEAUTIFUL!

Yes, Mother,
Nepal is beautiful in a small way. It is indeed great in an un-technological way. We have mountains, rivers, aborigines conserving the distant past, and we have farmers contributing to preserving the riches of this Mother earth for posterities. We are economically an unsound people, but culturally, given the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Vedas, the Puranas, no modern or any other pieces of literature or philosophies can match the grandeurs of these great books.

We are doubtlessly a people, half-famished, and of course we are inadequately robed and unarmed militarily and strategically, yet we are a peace-loving nation no outsiders dare or have dared ever in the past to rule over us.

Nepal is a geography with great diversity, a history with profound antiquity and a culture with deep meaning. Nepal is rich in its own way, for richness can not be always measured in terms of what we weigh in the scale of physical reality, and indeed there are other realities and other dimensions wherein Nepal is richer than the rest of other countries. I do not ill-wish or ill-conceive other nations, but I take pride in the fact that Nepal is great in a small way which can be realized if you can look at it through an uncolored lens.

[yanni]

No, Yanni, and no banks have failed in Nepal. In fact Nepal is a very country economically. If banks fail the government of Nepal can not do anything. The government has no fund and it runs with deficit budget.
Huge amounts are borrowed from different agencies, the world bank, the general public and of course aide has been solicited from rich countries to fund the budget or the public expenditures of the country.

...a border case example, a future "sovereign country-investor paradise", much like Iceland (and now possibly Ukraine), now negotiating their IMF bonus for going broke.....after delivering....

see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/edmundconway/2787581/Fear-of-Iceland-bail-out-could-signal-new-future-for-the-IMF.html

btw: Is usury legal in Nepal?

"The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped to 6.74% (6.4% for a 15-year), the biggest weekly increase in 21 years, according to Bankrate.com's survey of lenders."