Ah yes their moral and spiritual superiority has yielded them a superior quality of life. Are they still bathing in the shit laden Ganges?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26088236-2703,00.html 46% of children in India are malnourished The export trap http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13356518
'Ah yes their moral and spiritual superiority has yielded them a superior quality of life.' True, India's present practice is of very decadent form of Hinduism. In many a ways Indian culture is most violent and environmentally India is probably the most dirty country on earth. People are gentle or humble not because they value spiritualism but because they are physcially weak.
'they value spiritual wisdom much more than owning ipods, getting the next SUV etc' Nonsense, Indian are masters of crony form capitalism in the sense they exploit their labor to extreme levels and whereever possible they will cut of quality to cut costs. Government regulations are there but bribe culture makes sure that bigger party comes out the winner.
India is the worldâs largest consumer of gold, as Indians buy about 25 per cent of the worldâs gold,[34] purchasing approximately 800 tonnes of gold every year. India is also the largest importer of the yellow metal; in 2008 India imported around 400 tonnes of gold.[35]
Why India specifically? Compared to other developing economies, India has relied - proportionally - more on services than manufacturing. Not a loaded question. To be frank, one of the best things the US could do on a macro basis would be to give Isreal a kick up the ass; tensions are high, and whatever the intl trade conditions are at the time, the US will fall over crude prices if things really kick off.
Actually just a thought from watching the old Gandhi movie. The term "Home Spun" struck a chord. Get everyone working and the economy thrives. India has 1.2B people versus the US with 300M. Compared to the US they are still a third world nation as is 90% of the worlds population. Their economy is hurting like the rest of the world but their Government has prioritized their ability to self sustain and keep control of their currency value. 2006 - The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, asks the Finance Minister and the Reserve Bank of India to prepare a road map for moving towards capital account convertibility. The "Fuller Capital Account Convertibility Report" that came about was sharply criticized by experts, 2006-07-31, http://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/PublicationReport/Pdfs/72250.pdf Wikipedia... Convertibility Officially, the Indian rupee has a market determined exchange rate. However, the RBI trades actively in the USD/INR currency market to impact effective exchange rates. Thus, the currency regime in place for the Indian rupee with respect to the US dollar is a de facto controlled exchange rate. This is sometimes called a dirty or managed float. Other rates such as the EUR/INR and INR/JPY have volatilities that are typical of floating exchange rates.[6] It should be noted, however, that unlike China, successive administrations (through RBI, the central bank) have not followed a policy of pegging the INR to a specific foreign currency at a particular exchange rate. RBI intervention in currency markets is solely to deliver low volatility in the exchange rates, and not to take a view on the rate or direction of the Indian rupee in relation to other currencies.[7] Also affecting convertibility is a series of customs regulations restricting the import and export of rupees. Legally, foreign nationals are forbidden from importing or exporting rupees, while Indian nationals can import and export only up to 5000 rupees at a time, and the possession of 500 and 1000 rupee notes in Nepal is prohibited. RBI also exercises a system of capital controls in addition to the intervention (through active trading) in the currency markets. On the current account, there are no currency conversion restrictions hindering buying or selling foreign exchange (though trade barriers do exist). On the capital account, foreign institutional investors have convertibility to bring money in and out of the country and buy securities (subject to certain quantitative restrictions). Local firms are able to take capital out of the country in order to expand globally. But local households are restricted in their ability to do global diversification. However, owing to an enormous expansion of the current account and the capital account, India is increasingly moving towards de facto full convertibility. =========================== Looking at their historic actions on two fronts: Government Actions for Protection of their currency. Government Actions for protection of Commerce. ============================ They say if the chinese and indians used toilet paper our forests would be bare
Except that is not what is going to happen. IBM has offshored many "highly skilled" jobs. Engineering, Accounting, Programming, Chip plants, Design, Pharma and many other skills are increasingly moving to cheaper countries. Part is the labor costs. Part is the environmental, OSHA, workmen's comp, and many other costs that are cheaper overseas.