Lifelong Learning - Fascination, Finance, Friends

  Pic is bad, click here to view the same Forget the meaning of the graph for a moment, see the historic trend. I didn't know until I saw a few YouTube videos. It is not difficult, believe me. Yesterday, Job numbers from Uncle Sam came in, October 2025 the worst month in 20 years, worse than 2008, and a few days ago, companies (consumer-focused) came up with earnings. You will see all the companies performing poorly, citing weak consumer demand, and the household debt of Sam has reached at an all-time high. A controversy I want to suggest: the current jobs data is coming from surveys done by independent entities, and the official data is still not there because of the shutdown. Maybe the shutdown is something that everybody wants so that when it lifts, everyone is surprised (probably in a bad way). How can markets be unaffected by a country's government shutdown, when the government spending is about 36% of the GDP? In the 2000s, NASDAQ (a tech stock index of the US) had crashe...

I am writing a blog after a very long time. I do have some blogs in my "draft" folder, but I am not willing to publish them at this moment. Perhaps because I am not so sure about the sanctity of those blogs. I never really thought of myself as a "good" writer. Therefore, the frequency of posting a blog is very irregular.  Over the past few days, though, I have started truly understanding a saying in Marathi which roughly translates to "Ignorance is Bliss". I don't fully subscribe to this idea, but recently, as I sat on my chair with my eyes closed, doing absolutely nothing, I realised that in some ways, it does hold true. Of course, someday your ignorance will surely catch up with you, but until then, you live in quite a peace, with your heart and your mind.  Think of the animals, the birds, the tribes that live deep within nature. They have no clue how unstable and unpredictable the world has become. We actually don't have to venture that far. Bef...

If we examine our rich history, there was a yagya performed called Samudra Manthan. Yes, as proud Hindus, we should refer to it as Bharatiya History and not merely a mythological story. There is a reason why this yagya was performed in the first place, but for the purpose of this blog, we will set that aside. In this Manthan, both the gods and the devils participated. The yagya was conducted to obtain Amrut, a divine elixir that would render anyone who drinks it immortal and powerful. Lord Vishnu instructed the gods to collaborate with the devils in performing the yagya. He also directed all the gods not to engage in conflict with the devils until they had secured the Amrut. Clearly, the Samudra Manthan would yield not only the Amrut but also another 13 Ratnas. If we observe geopolitics from a bird's-eye view, every time there has been a power shift, it has emerged through Manthan. The victors of those times adhered to Vishnu's order of refraining from conflict until they obtai...

Source: Internet, no intention of copyright infringement 'Drill Baby Drill' is an American slogan used by the Republican Party. Lately, former POTUS and current Republican Candidate for POTUS Donald Trump has been using this slogan for his politics. He believes the current inflation problem can be solved if America increases its oil and gas production. Americans are among the highest per-capita consumers of oil, about 917 Gallons per year. Compare that to India, which on a per-capita basis consumes about 51 gallons.  The total daily oil consumption in the US is more than 19 million barrels. However, it's about 5 million for Bharat. As India grows, oil consumption is expected to rise. In the coming years, India is expected to play a significant role in driving up the global oil demand. The point here is, the oil is here to stay and for a long time.  The problem is that Bharat imports most of its oil, costing us billions of dollars. It is in India's best interest to becom...

                                Source: internet, no intentions of copyright infringement Many of you must have read my earlier income statement and balance sheet blog, The Cash Flow Game (parts 1 and 2). I am attaching a link below so you can refer to them as and when needed. Today, I'll explain the difference between a cash flow and an income statement. Vijay Shekhar Sharma(founder of Paytm) has said that what differentiates a company is its cash position or the cash flow, all the other factors without this are trash. Cash flow game part 1... Cash flow game part 2... Indeed, studying through the cash flow game holds truth. To amass wealth, maintaining a robust cash flow is crucial for both individuals and businesses. Now, let's delve into the significance of these two potent terms: "Cash Flow." When you sell your assets in order to raise cash for the purpose of purchasing other assets, this ...

This is a week-long festival of lights. People across the Hindu culture wait for a year to celebrate this wonderful week with friends and family. There is a specific day called “Dhanteras”. Dhan means money. People usually buy gold, and other precious things on this day. It is to attract more wealth to the house. It is traditionally considered a good day to make purchases in the Hindu society. Last year during Diwali, my mom gave me Rs. 6000 and wanted me to buy a pair of shoes as mine were very old. I think it was Dhanteras, I can’t recall now, but I am sure it was the week of Diwali. Back then, I was looking at the global central banks, and my observation was that they were preparing to diversify their forex reserves by adding more weightage to gold. They had already started accumulating gold after the COVID-19 crash, but now I could sense something big might happen. Gold Reserves of Turkey, source: tradingeconomics.com Gold Reserves of Bharat, source: tradingeconomics.com Gold Reser...

  Recently, I have been thinking a lot about assets. These days, we can find plenty of products marketed as assets. It caught my attention and I could not comprehend the meaning of an asset. Though there is a technical/accounting-based definition of an asset, I am more focused on the behavioral definition of an asset as it influences the common people. Source: Internet To market a product, saying it is an asset, even though it isn’t has become a norm. My curiosity led me to read an old document written by the then Chief Accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission — Walter P. Schuetze. There he wrote extensively about the practices of the Financial Accounting Standards Board in defining assets. This paper was more about the accounting of assets. Companies and their auditors use this technique to map balance sheets. I have explained in earlier blogs about assets and liabilities from the perspective of Robert Kiyosaki. Read:  https://therutvikdiary.blogspot.com/2024/08/C...

Why Voyage? Because it was one. You must have read my earlier blogs and they are very much monotonous. Today I am here to share my journey through the love for writing. I was never a good writer, probably I am still not one. However, the passion for writing has emerged over time. It took almost two years to land here, and coincidently it was not started with blogs. I began my writing journey with poems. Yes, I became a poet almost two years ago. FYI, I was terrible at languages and writing. The funniest part is, that I always thought poets were idle people. But that thought changed when I became one. It is one of the most beautiful gifts God has presented me. It all began with some romantic (shayaris) — two liners, and with little meaning but today I can write well. I started listening to the shayaris created by others. Many of my earlier poems drew inspiration from the songs and stories of Bollywood. Thinking of this art I feel very doubtful and humble at the same time. I get doubtful...

  This is the second part of the story. If you haven’t read the first part, do read it. In the last blog, I discussed the history and the significant reasons for the US dollar to earn the global reserve currency status. The US Dollar The reasons included: 1. The Strongest Economy. 2. Great Fire Power(Military) 3. Huge influence in global affairs because of World War 2. 4. The accumulated gold during war times. Post-war, the US provided huge financial aid packages to Europe for rebuilding. It also opened its economy to Europe and East Asia, primarily Japan. This allowed the US to create a hegemony in the world. Then came the Nixon Shock and the Petro-Dollar agreement, due to which the US dollar, even after losing its convertibility to gold, stayed as the world’s reserve currency. All the above things are discussed in detail in the earlier blog… After decades of global reliance on the US dollar, why an increasing trust deficit? Reason 1: Too much debt. Currently, the USA has a huge d...

  We all know that the US Dollar is the world’s reserve currency. However, it has faced some trust issues because of its over-leveraging. The US Dollar has been used to finance countries, companies, and organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for the last 75 years. All countries measure their economy in the Dollar. When we talk of wealth we say, “That family has a net worth of $100 Billion”. That is the level of hegemony the US Dollar enjoys. A common person hardly knows, what leverage it brings to the United States. The United States can impose unilateral sanctions on independent nations because of the US Dollar. It has been doing so for a very long time now. However, this over-leveraging might have caused a trust deficit in the United States. History: The Bretton Woods Agreement:- The Bretton Woods Agreement. Post World War 2, the United States had become the world’s largest economy. If Pearl Harbour hadn’t happened, the United States would have neve...