Two years into recession and... how many more?

Well, two years have passed, the downturn became a real recession, even "depression" as the journalists like to say, and we don't see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel, at least in Europe.

Worst of all, the initially very bold statements about "changing the model", "stopping bad practices" etc.... were only that, [empty] bold statements. The banks have recovered somehow, the bonuses are back for the big fish, nothing changes.

Recovery in Europe is challenging: currency devaluation is out of the question for the less wealthy countries, the debt is still there at the same value, but GDP is falling. At micro level the debts are also there while the assets that back them have 30% less value.... frightening.

Then we have China, booming growth again, its currency still too low, despite the requests to adapt the value to the real economy from all over the world, exporting unemployment to the West. And CALA: always the same, except maybe (hopefully) Brazil.

I see that tourist bookings for this Easter are up 5% Year-on-Year in Spain, that's good, even if 2009 was an all-time low, up is the right direction to go. Also housing prices are stabilizing and 2nd hand homes are actually up some marginal percentage points compared to December. There are some "experts" (and also some experts, without quotes) that say this is a "W" situation, where we will go up and down again with even more momentum.... since nobody knows what will happen, let's be optimistic and start spending!!!


So what's left? Well, there are industries that start to show positive signs, also some clever strategies that should bring up the activity, so I have hope in the future.

I will give example by consuming some electronics (always my favorite spending) or some guitars. Tools are also attractive for us poor males.

Long Time No See

It's been a long time since I wrote the previous entry to this blog, more than one year! It's hard to believe how much everything has changed in this relatively short period, from a relatively calm situation to absolute worldwide panic in only 12 months.

One of the outstanding things that I'm seeing these days is that it seems that we all expect things to happen very quickly: The EU launches a rescue plan and we are kinda' dissapointed the day after because the unemployment is still growing, the stock exchanges keep on falling, and so on... or the FED lowers the interest rate by 1 point and we dream that overnight everything will go back to normal... there are literally thousands of proposals to save this or that put on the table, but no positive effect is perceived: everything is falling apart around us.

So, I propose to the rulers that they should not only announce their ideas to save us (from what?, from them?) in terms of money, but they should also indicate a timeline: when should we expect some results? which results? Something measurable and trackable would be handy.

I know this reveals my technical background and also the "total-quality" mentality, but this all-qualitative way of doing things by the politicians is leading us to anxiety in the best case, or to depression in the worst. Not to mention the effect in the stock markets, where they buy rumours and sell news.

Am I the only one that is feeling cheated? There are some conspiracy theories around saying that this crisis is being created on-purpose by some evil organizations... difficult to believe, these guys would be real geniuses to execute a so-complete and effective plan. BUT, it is also difficult to believe that this is only a consequence of uncontrolled business operations, which fell off the scale in terms of risks, and plain felony. I mean, the people doing that will also lose all their wealth eventually, so it's kinda suicidal: 

What is the point of having a zillion dollar if the dollar is worth nothing???? The answer is "I converted it to Swiss Bonds, stupid", yeah, but they also have difficulties... or will have in a couple months.

OK, you buried the money somewhere in the Caribbean (a treasure chest?)... in gold... hmmm how are you gonna retrieve it? rowing? And after that, who is going to buy your gold? With what?

Anyway, let's hope this crisis is partially also an exaggeration from the media, so when they change their attention point to something else, this will calm down a little. This can be seen as stupid optimism, but bear with me, since nobody seems to be able to explain what's going on (and, more important, how to stop it), I prefer to be optimist and stupid, we'll have time to cry later on.

Let's have some discussion !!!

I created this blog to have some debate over the benefits and counter-benefits of living in this highly technological world. So all comments are welcome and desired, I would like this site to be a meeting point for everyone that has an opinion about this topic.

This is a moderated blog, I would like to keep a high standard of communication, whilst allowing lively discussions, so please keep your opinions within a reasonable level of common sense and good manners. No personal offenses of any type will be allowed, nor rude language. If you have the absolute need to say a four letter word, please use euphemistic representations, or emoticons.

Once I have laid down the principles (and these are very few as you can see), let me express some initial opinions to get this thing going.

Techno-living is great!
The technological world sucks!

You have probably heard these two contradictory statements more than once, and most probably both where justified in a certain context.
Why is that? Why do we usually have mixed feelings about the situation in which we have to live? I would like to elaborate on these, and hear your opinions:

We think the technology is great when we make use of it, of course. When we are in need of something and the answer comes from technology, we feel very happy to live in the developed world.
For example, you are waiting at the theater to get a ticket and the movie starts in 5 minutes... you know you'll never make it and the kids are pulling your vest asking for pop-corn and soda and... you name it. Just flip your cell phone open, click a few keys and voila!, you have the ticket selling website in front of you, asking how many tickets you would like to have. Some clicks after that you walk to the automated ticket dispenser, credit card in hand, and get those 4 tickets in a second: forget the waiting line, enjoy your film and... hey, don't forget the pop corn, you promised it!!

That's great, ain't it? Who can complain about it?

Now after the film walk away to your car, press the remote control button to open the car's door... nothing happens. The manual lock is broken since seven years, since you don't use it anyway... press again... nothing happens.

Kids start asking questions, you start asking not-so-nice questions to the air... Then you remember: “I've got 24h service, just a call away” bring your cell phone up... you realize that the number is inside the car. It starts raining... you wish you have stayed at home watching TV... maybe start swearing at the car, the rain, ... mmmm .... no, not at the kids, poor victims as you are. In the old days, you opened the car turning the keys,
not with a d...ed remote control!!!

Now it doesn't look so great !!

Obviously, as everything in life, this is very subjective, there are no absolute values... or are there?

In next postings I'll try to establish a set of absolute values about technological benefits or problems, but of course I will be glad to have your opinions and proposals about it.