tale on recession and countenance of FM Pranab Mukherjee

Dear (s)

First, this story  about a man who once upon a time was selling hotdogs by the roadside: 

He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hotdogs. He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales. His sales and profit went up. He ordered more a more raw material and buns and use to sale more. He recruited few more supporting staff to serve more customers. He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove.  As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from College, joined his father.

Then something strange happened.  The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times." The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, listened to the radio and watched TV. He ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly.  So the next day onwards, the father cut down the his raw material order and buns, took down the colourful signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic.  He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hotdog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly, same is the profit. The father said to his son, "Son, you were right". "We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

Moral of The Story: It's all in your MIND! And we actually FUEL this recession much more than we think …

                                                                                                                                                                See also the end to read the moral again.

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Cut pay but save jobs, says Pranab 

As fears surface in India over large-scale job cuts due to an economic slowdown, Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee Friday said interests of the country's labour force will be protected even if it meant some slight cuts in emoluments.  The government has been conscious of the magnitude of this still-deepening crisis and has been taking steps to mitigate its impact on Indian society," Mukherjee told a national labour conference at the Ashok Hotel.  "Jobs must be protected even if it means some reduction in compensation," said the foreign minister, who has been given temporary charge of finance since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who holds the portfolio, is recovering after a heart surgery.  

His comments come against the backdrop of Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes informing parliament Wednesday of large-scale job losses in sectors like mining, textiles, gems and jewellery, automobiles and IT.  Fernandes had said the government had not undertaken any exhaustive study on layoffs due to the economic slowdown, but that the Labour Bureau in Chandigarh had conducted a study on the job situation in these sectors.  "According to this study, job loss of half a million persons has been found and average earnings have declined by 3.45 percent during October-December, 2008," Fernandes had told the upper house of parliament. 

Speaking to reporters later, he said that the government will not shy away from giving a further stimulus to the economy. "Adequate resources will be provided," he said, but did not go into the specifics of the measures. All stake holders agreed on the fact that India was going through an unprecedented economic crisis. There is no idea about how long the tough time might last or how it is going to bottom out. Most seemed to agree though, that both the industry and the labour sections must be protected. The one thing missing was the road map to get there.

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THE MORAL REVISITED

It's a nice feel good story but think further of the proposition - If there were 100 hotdog sellers and the economy slows  down and all of them did NOT have educated sons then would they forever go on adding staff, selling more & more hotdogs and be happy in the ignorance of current affairs? Sentiments, experiences and opinions at an individual level can give one a very skewed view of the overall condition but that doesn't take away from the fact that the overall condition is what it is. So whether its hotdogs, real estate, jobs, auto sales or whatever, the FACT is: we have a slowdown, jobs have been lost, stock markets & real estate have fallen, gold has gone up, etc etc etc ... and it will be while before we recover.

With regards - S Sampathkumar

PS : One circulated to a group on 25^th Feb 2009 when Pranab was the FM and posted on the blog now.