There was a very good article by Lord Meghnad Desai about market ups and downs and capitalism in Times Of India's editorial today. It talked about how humans have a tendency to blow things which can be explained through simple explanations, totally out of proportion. An example being the death of Lady Diana. Conspiracy theories involving the royal family, MI5, MI6 have been floated. Its just hard for people to understand that a young and beautiful princess could have died in a clear case of drunk driving by her driver.
Don't know how far it's true but it does make a lot of sense. In our bid to make sure we know the truth, we over-complicate matters. In the current context, the current market recession or the impending recession (atleast in the US) is also part and parcel of a similar cycle of recession and boom of capitalist markets. Unfortunately, I haven't spent a lot of time reading up the exact reasons due to why, whatever is happening is happening, but the current events which I think can be safely traced back to last year's sub-prime crisis teach us one thing for sure.
The markets and for that matter, the world is not run by a single very strong force or a few very strong forces such as governments or rich institutions. We all ultimately perform actions and the sum of such infinite actions lead to whatever happens, outside the realm of control of a single or a finite number of strong forces. As often suspected, it is not the American government or a few American multinational banks which 'run' the world, instead it is a self-organising system bigger than a single or a group of such institutions. Biggest proof of this is the sub-prime crisis which caught Wall Street unawares and created the problems it did for the American government.
Today, we see the biggest and the best American multinational banks going to the Asian (Middle-eastern actually) funded Sovereign Funds to get them out of the hole they have dug themselves into. In simple language, middle eastern governments will now have stakes and control in some of the biggest symbols of American power and wealth. And an irony it is. The very same people who the Americans drive out of their country, after 9/11, are now the ones bailing them out of this crisis that they now face. An end to white hegemony? Too early to say, another conspiracy theory maybe, but to some extent, I am sure the poles of power have shifted. The coming few years though should be interesting in the sense that where the US economy now go to.
Maybe I should have a read up a little more on the various articles about the current crisis, to be able to answer this question. Would request some of the more knowledgeable readers in this regard to educate me.
Call it a coincidence but the recent controversy in Sydney, regarding Harbhajan Singh has led to the Indian press agog with reports of how this is the end of white hegemony and how the shift of power is taking place, to where it rightfully belongs. After almost half a century of playing 'soft' cricket, of being 'gentlemen', our players have now learnt to respond back when sledged at, our Board has now learnt to raise its voice when needed. In the current case though, that of Bhajji, arm twisting Cricket Australia into the decision the Indians wanted was wrong according to me.
The debate is not however, whether BCCI was wrong or right. In two entirely different worlds, the world economy and Cricket, we see a shift of power; the focus is on whether the dynamics of the world as a whole are actually changing. Or is it just another conspiracy theory?
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