This article was published in today’s Mumbai Mirror.Reading it took me back to another time when India was a very different place.I was then still in school.India was anything but shining.Poverty and shortages were so much a fact of life that few of us really had an idea of how poor we were since everyone around us was in the same situation and most people had very little exposure to what was going on in the rest of the world.There was no talk of India being an emerging/emerged nation.We considered ourselves as belonging strictly to the Third World and few asked why we should not want better for ourselves.Read the article below and if you’re Indian take a minute to pat yourself on the back for how far we have come in 2 decades.Take heart from it and know that we have it in us to overcome out present problems.And remember the story so that we are never again in the same situation. Read more of this post
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The volatility of the Indian market which is above 26% is one of the highest in the world. So though the long-term CAGR of the Indian market is 15.60%, there have been specific points in time when the market returned 1.25% pa for a 10-year period as well as 19.98% pa for another 10-year period.
One of the biggest impacts of this volatility is that it increases the entry-point and exit-point risks in investing. The simplest way of tackling this risk is to invest in the market at regular periods of time, irrespective of its levels to achieve cost averaging and also participate in the long term upward trend of the Indian markets. Also it is better to stick to the stable large-cap blue-chip companies. Read more of this post
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The Reichsmark was never an international currency.So studying inflation in the Weimar Republic is not enough.This post traces the history of the Drachma,Denarius,Bezant and Dinar–the international currencies of antiquity.I think knowing this history will help us see the parallels and understand our world better.If macro-economics is not really your thing,atleast knowing about the coins should give a rough idea of which ones would be more collectable for their bullion content!
The Drachma
The Greeks minted stunningly beautiful coins.Non-Greeks thousands of miles away treasured these coins and so they became the first “international currency”.Archeologists have found Greek coins as far away as China, India and Northern Europe. In fact, even though Rome soon rose to eclipse Greece, most Asians kept using Greek money for centuries.
The main currency of Greece was the Athenian Drachma (pic on the left). It was a silver coin, and its weight and quality stayed amazingly consistent through the centuries. From Solon, around 600 BC, to Alexander the Great, around 300 years later, it stayed exactly 67 grains of fine silver. This was the money Alexander brought to India, and from there it traded yet further East becoming the monetary standard of all Asia. And even as Greece declined and was finally absorbed into Rome, its value did not fall much. By the end of the Drachma’s life, it had only declined to 65 grains of fine silver. This is an extraordinary achievement. No other civilization has ever had an international currency that stayed the same value —or pretty much so, since a fall from 67 to 65 grains of silver is a loss of less than 3%. And this was not only during the period of its greatest influence, but even as it declined in power over a period of six centuries.Whatever the secret of the Greeks was, no international currency since then has ever been able to keep its value, even as the government issuing it started on its seemingly inevitable decline.Certainly the conquering Romans were astounded at how the Greeks had mastered money. They paid Greece the ultimate monetary compliment by fashioning their own money, the Roman Denarius, as an exact copy of the Drachma right down to the size and weight. Read more of this post
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As gold continues to hover round 21,000 Rupees per 10 grams and silver round 50,000 Rupees per kilogram there is a great deal of change taking place in the Indian jewellery market. The following article which appeared in the ‘Times of India’ is a must read for anyone looking to invest in silver jewellery and artifacts.
Now, silver is worth its weight in gold and more
24 Feb, 2011, 0854 hrs IST, Meenakshi Sinha, TNN
NEW DELHI: For generations, silver jewellery has been a source of enthrallment for millions of families across India. The exquisite craftwork of an anklet, the sheer weight of a beautiful baazuband (ornate upper arm amulet) — the metal has been a source of pleasure in every way. Its versatility and durability has only added to its allure. While gold has always been the preferred metal for weddings , the cheaper silver has offered more opportunities to indulge.But now with the sky-rocketing of silver prices, customers are being forced to make adjustments. The traditional heavy silver jewellery is giving way to lightweight varieties. Imitation metals too are making their way in.
Sachin Aggarwal of Mohit Gems and Jewellers, Sector 27, Noida says that the demand for heavy items has gone down.“Silver gift items like statues of gods, bridal jewellery like anklets , maang tika, traditional key rings for household keys or sindoor dani (vermillion container) have gone lightweight. Most show pieces like dolphins or photo frames for gods have now been reduced to being designed in a thin layer called patra,” he says. Read more of this post
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