With The Fall In Oil Prices, The Gulf Economies Now Appear Vulnerable

According to few oil analysts the Gulf countries are not immune to the overall problems in financial system. If they get below $60 a barrel, some of these countries will suffer. This is evident to an extent when the benchmark indexes in Qatar and Oman fell more than 8 percent Sunday. Kuwait stocks fell 4.4 [...]

The Dragon Lady-Empress of China !!

One of the most powerful women in Chinese history was Cixi. She controlled China for more than 40 years in the late 1800s.Cixi was so ruthless, heartless, cruel and greedy tyrant that people called her the Dragon Lady. In western countries such as Great Britain and the Unites states, Cixi was also known as the Empress Dowager. But in reality she wasn’t [...]

Most expensive painting-price tag $140 million

We all know buying and selling paintings is no less than any other passion. Hundreds or thousands — even millions — of dollars are spent every year by art patrons who are eager to become the owners of the world’s most expensive and sought-after paintings. There are many famous artists who still command the highest [...]

Caves: as second homes !!!

 
I have always thought of spending a day in the cave….walking through its lanes – turned and twisted- as we watch in the movies.And if I tell you that that there’s a place where caves are the hottest real estate trend, are you going to believe me. Sounds incredible..it did to me as well when [...]

Daily Dump – Makes you a Better Person Instantly !!

Daily Dump is a new start-up (Bangalore, Karnataka, India), which offers its consumers with a simple and easy solution for reducing landfill waste: composting. Daily Dump offers a range of products and services that help compost at home. It also provides solutions and knowledge through an open source platform. The Daily Dump offers an array of [...]

The Economics of Christmas

A very interesting article on the Wall Street Journal explaining the economics of Christmas caught my eye. The article titled, “How Christmas Brings Out The Grinch in Economists“, talks about how some economists say we would be better off without Christmas as its an inefficient mode of connecting consumers to what they buy by squeezing [...]

Christmas Special –Chocolate Cake !!

Everyone must have been busy opening and sharing their gifts. Kids must have been enjoying and eating special dishes cooked by their Mom and Aunts together. Here below I share a yummy Chocolate Cake Double Layered Recipe , which you can bake for your kids and relatives to add a flavor to the Special Eve. [...]

Ten Surprises for 2009

In a collaborative effort between Global Equity Strategy and Global Asset Allocation, and in keeping with their year-end tradition, UBS presented in their final publication of 2008 a list of ten possible‘surprises’ for the coming year. Its aim is to identify plausible scenarios, representing risks—up or down—to investor consensus thinking, and in some cases, to its own views. 
UBS’ list of ‘surprises’ include:
1) Corporate default rates [...]

Jingle bells Jingle bells jingle all the way !!!!!

 Isn’t it amazing that tonight people will be all set and excited to welcome Santa Claus who will arrive on his sleigh drawn by reindeer to slide down the chimney in his red suit with long white beard and a sack over his shoulder? And tomorrow will be the Big Day when people will open [...]

Merry Christmas

Team - Grey Matterz wishes everyone Merry Christmas. Have a Blast !!!
Posted by - Deeptaman Mukherjee.

Beware of Number 23 –subterfuge !!!

 

I recently watched “Number 23” starring Jim Carrey as Walter Sparrow / Fingerling. The most fascinating part in the entire movie was the Number 23 itself. The movie compelled me to think if numbers can actually explain the occurrence of things around us.

· 23 is the most commonly cited prime number and the only prime [...]

Booze Breeds Philosophers

 
Before you get amazed and shocked by the caption of this post, let me clarify all doubts that might have creeped up in your mind. I am in no mood to become a philosopher because philosophy is not my cup of tea. But, the tagline “Booze Breeds Philosophers” was suggested to me by Amit a few years [...]

Taj–The Luxury hotel Reopens!!!

 

I was glad to read the reports on reopening of Taj and after viewing the pictures posted with it, I felt it was a day of pride and love for all Indians that the Taj have reopened in such a short time after the terror attacks. Indian Hotels Chairman Ratan Tata today said the restored iconic [...]

Where Asia stands…

The question everyone wants to know is When will things get better? I am talking about Asia in particular and Asia has a very serious concern that investors in US, Europe and Japan might choose to part ways for the time being….

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Posted by Rahul Gosain

Market Failure and the Big Three

 
It was much debated on whether the Federal Reserve should bailout the U.S auto industry or not. Many were of the opinion (with a conservative view) that the Big Three could probably survive and be competitive if the U.S government would let them go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy instead of bailing them out with taxpayers’ money.
In a capitalist economy, government intervention is [...]

India’s ready for SSZ-Sky Scraper Zone !!

 
The large cities world wide are known and defined by their iconic skyscrapers. To name a few: The Petronas in Kaula Lumpur; the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan (levelled by 9/11) and the Empire State Building, in New York; Sears Tower in Chicago, Taipei 101 in Taiwan and the Burj tower in [...]

WikiAcademy–Now in Asia!!

Wikipedia, the most accessed online encyclopedia is heading its way to India. There are various reasons and it does make sense for this encyclopedia to take keen interest in India. It is not one country’s encyclopedia but a global encyclopedia. So, “Being a global encyclopedia, we need an east-west balance in our content, quantitatively as well [...]

Social Media Networking & its Effects

Chris in his blog mentions that there are various benefits of social networking which have an effect and require you to be vigelant about who you are connecting with. It is also common logic that your network only increases when you have good relations with everyone in your circle. He further mentions the benefits of growing [...]

Erotica & Economics

A brain-scan study may help explain what is going through the minds of financial titans when they take risky monetary gambles: sex.
When young men are shown erotic pictures, they are more likely to make larger financial gambles than if they are shown a picture of something scary, such as a snake, or something neutral, such [...]

Madoff’s Ponzi Scam–

Investors sent stocks lower as anxiety over the growing list of firms affected by investment manager Bernard Madoff magnified Wall Street’s concerns about the health of the financial sector. Madoff stands accused of operating an elaborate Ponzi scheme, using cash from new investors to pay off older ones, to the tune of $50 billion. US [...]

The Indian Desi T-Shirt

I was reading a piece of news when I was completely shocked when I saw some pictures that made me laugh and pity the retail market. The headline said “The T-Shirt gets a desi voice” under the section ‘Retail Therapy’. Moreover, these t-shirts were priced at INR 1000/- as their starting price. Couldn’t do anything [...]

Virtual world economy–Gold Farming!!

Gold farming is a game in which a player attempts to acquire certain items of value within a game, usually by exploiting repetitive elements of the game’s mechanics. This is how the Chinese gold farmers earn their livelihood by playing the massive multiplayer game. They then gather the virtual money earned in the game and [...]

Sex Advertisements as Borrowed Interest Devices

I read an article about an ad which was actually a poster across a room and had “SEX” written on it in the largest font size possible. As every human secretly fantasizes about it, I (please consider me a human) would have also gone closer to it; just to read a smaller print at the [...]

The Smoker’s Grave

Adpunch mentioned this ad as one of their favourites. I agree with him.
The print ad shows that the smokers are situated in a room which actually looks like a grave from the top. This is actually true, because that is what smoking does.
One of the best socially responsible ads I have ever seen.
Posted by – [...]

Rational Religion?

Religion works on a key principle and that is not of belief but of anti-rationality. The fact that it is faith, denies one from asking questions which can have tricky answers or tend to look for rationality. Take any religion, the reason for belief is not faith per-se but Fear. So does fear psychosis drive [...]