New Year 2009

2008 is over and for the first time in my adult life I have experienced so many people around me being happy about seeing a year going into history books. I can share their feelings as 2008 has been a brutal year worldwide in general and US in particular on the economic front. In US - millions of jobs lost, iconic institutions vanishing during the weekends, people overnight having zero net worth from millions a day earlier, losing homes to foreclosure; whichever way we slice 2008 the result is the same.

That brings increased hope and expectations for the year 2009. I pray that 2009 be good to everyone across the globe. No individual can prosper if the community around you gets hammered. I am sure with still lot of steam left in the chugging economies of BRIC countries, US will avoid a Great Depression of 30’s. What an amazing shift of power (I call it Equilibrium) our generation is witnessing. While on the one hand we see that countries like India and China still posting upper single digit growth in GDP, it is estimated that US economy might shrink by around 4% in the latest quarterly report to be out in 2nd week of Jan 2009. It is coutries like India and China that has really helped the world economy avoid total collapse. However, US is still a mighty force and it is in everyone's interest that US springs back out of Recession as quickly as possible and we can contribute our bit by

1. being prudent in our spending,
2. managing our resources well,
3. working smart and hard in our jobs,
4. avoid falling in bad debt
5. be good to people in need

Wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year 2009!