Waiting at the Air-port

On the republic day,I left for Mumbhai to attend the Board Meeting

of Mafatlal Industries Ltd the following day.

I returned to the Air-port in Mumbhai on 27th Jan to catch the evening flight

to Bangalore. The flight was delayed and I had more than thrree

hours on hand. Initially, I thought of spending the entire time

sleeping in one corner. After ten minutes when I could not get

sleep, I becam restless. I went to the book-store and started reading

some magazines. First fifteen minutes, I read the Forbes Asia issue

of january 2012.

I read an interesting article written by Steve Forbes with the caption

"Obama-One Timer". In the article, Mr Steve has predicted that the

next American President would be a Republican. He is alo of the view

that after the election and Republican victory ,America will be put on fast

track on the road to recovery.

Mr Forbes does not endorse the German view that only strict

austerity will save Spain and italy. According to him, these two countries

should look at their tax structure and simplify laws to induce growth in

the economy. Only then, would there be growth in emplyment whether

through new ventures or existing business employing more people.

Here, I am remined of the the view of J.M.Keynes. He felt that

"wasteful spending is better than no spending at all." While reiterating

this, Mr keynes spoke of how Governemnts should pay for "digging holes

and then filling them up".According to him ,there should be some

economic activity always.Some of the European Countries like Spain,

Italy and Greece have landed themselves in big trouble because of 

"wasteful spending" and by following the above Keynesian theory.

After fifteen minutes, I was still looking for some reading material.

Suddenly, I saw a book with the title "THAT USED TO BE US-

what went wrong with America" written by Thomas L.Friedman and

Michael Mandelbaum. As I had very much liked Mr Friedman!s earlier work

"The World is Flat" published in 2005. I started flipping pages. It got

very interesting. For nearly 90 minutes I read the extracts from this book

standing at book-shop. 

I want to share his view-point with my children and friends.His comments are:

1) The US has stopped investing in the country!s traditional formula for greatness-

Immigration,education and sensible regulation. According to Friedman,if America

is to remain a great country,it must, while reducing debt and deficits, invest in education,

infrastructure,research and development as well as open US Society to

talented immigration.

2)Globalisation and It revolution have virtually put every US job under pressure

The challenge to America is now from low wage and high skilled workers

from across the Globe.It is in this context that US President Obama

has made the observation that "the country that out-educates us to-day will

out-compete us to-morrow".

3)The potential for individuals to-day to globalise their talents,hobbies and passions 

into applications is unprecedented and unbounded in potential.

4) Mr Friedman feels that the US Public Policy has lost focus after the Cold War

ended. In the last twenty years,America!s biggest problems relating to education,deficit

and debt,and energy and climate change have been neglected to the point that

they cannot now be addressed without collective action

and collective sacrifice.

5)The "American Dream"--the glue that has held together a diverse and fractious

society depends on robust economic growth

There were other points mentioned in the book which I am  unable to remember

now. The man at the book shop objected to my scribbling a few points in my

letter pad.

I agree with one important point mentioned by Friedman.IT revolution and Globalisation

have changed the nature of the job market-with routine workers being

replaced by non-routine "creators and servers" In time,this revolution will efface

the distinction between "developed" and "developing" countries with the world being divided into

high-imagination-enabling and low imagination-enabling countries.

The book made an interesting reading. The prohibitive cost of the book(Rs 799-for 630 pages)

prevented me from buying this book for one time reading.Besides, I had almost covered 

70 percent of the book.

I never imagined that long waiting at the air-port  can be this much informative and useful.

V.K.Balasubramanian

28th January 2012