11 Rules for the Modern teenager - Who Wrote - Bill Gates or Charles Sykes?

Who Wrote - Charles Skykes and Bill Gates  ?

In the mail box after about a decade again it was an alleged speech of Microsoft miraculous man - Bill Gates. Many have raised doubts about the origin of this mail. Some claim these to be words of Charles Sykes, Author of "Dumbing Down Our Kids". A few email chains attribute this to Kurt Vonnegut's sunscreen speech at a college graduation. 

According to Urban Legends website it is a pared-down version of an op-ed piece by education reformer Charles J. Sykes, originally published in the San Diego Union-Tribune in September 1996. It began making the email rounds under Bill Gates' name in February 2000, and has continued to do so ever since. Without going into the controversy we first read these Golden Rules because they are worth reading for all school and college students.

To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school.

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one

Duncan Macleod Kiwi Posts

Duncan Macleod  in October 2005 on a website Post kiwi republished the work of original writer where 14 rules were mentioned. Following three are the additional ones.

Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you’re out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That’s what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for “expressing yourself” with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven’t seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school’s a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you’ll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You’re welcome

You tube carries a video claiming it to be a speech of Bill Gates.
Bill Gates' 11 Rules on U Tube

But this link has only text and stills of Bill Gates.


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Monetary Policy Points to Government’s Inaction to Clear the Bottlenecks

RBI Governor

The Indian central bank on Monday has given a clear signal to the government that its task is to mend monetary policy to check inflation, rest has to come from the government through reforms. This was consecutively second occasion when  the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)  has gone away from the expectations of the market, which was expecting a cut by 25 basis points (bps). The same RBI had  surprised market with a larger-than-expected 50 bps rate cut in April.

Since 2010  UPA-II government has failed to nail the inflation. Burden to bringing down the rates by regulating the flow of money fell on the central bank. As a result RBI raised its lending rate 13 times between March 2010 and October 2011. The trend was given a reversing mode in April by slashing its key repo rate by 50 bps and a two-stage CRR cut of 125 bps since January.

Snubbing aside the concern of slowdown in growth  RBI opted  status quo and said, “ Its assessment of the current growth-inflation dynamic is that there are several factors responsible for the slowdown in activity, particularly in investment, with the role of interest rates being relatively small”.

RBI took initiative with  a reduction of 50 basis points in April  because it expected that the government would take steps to reduce the fiscal deficit and take other “supply-side initiatives”. The government has been irrational in adjusting the fuel price and subsidy on petroleum products. The government’s inability to rein in subsidies is “crowding out public investment”.

While declaring the mid quarter monetary review RBI governor clearly pointed out that  failure of governance is responsible not only for slowdown in development but also for the inflation. This has made task of the central bank difficult.  When slowdown is combining with inflation  the government should have taken apt action to augment supply. The government is responsible for the current account deficit as well. The widening current account deficit is  a pointer to the urgent need to resolve the supply bottlenecks. RBI’s stance seems to be that unless the government does something to reduce the fiscal deficit and ease supply constraints, it cannot reduce interest rates.

Reacting to the monetary  policy CMD of Canara Bank said,“There will be no cut in the lending rate. We are already tight on rates. Margins are tight and we cannot reduce the deposit rates and thereby lending rates. We would be awaiting the next policy action.”  The central bank’s next policy announcement will be made on 31^st  July.

If the interest rates remain high will that affect the growth aspects of the country? By common sense, yes.  There are many other factors before coming to them, let us see if the nominal rate of interest is same as the real interest.  Nominal rate of lending is 14.5% to 15%, average – 14.75%.  Nominal deposit rate is 8.75% to 9.25% , average 9%.  Industry cost will have impact of the whole inflation factor which is 7.55%.  This gives real rate of lending to be 9.20%.   The deposits get discounted by Consumer Price Inflation which is 10.4%, making the real deposit rate negative 1.4%  Hence to cut down the deposit rates seems difficult, making to bring down the lending rate impossible for time being.

What can be the driver to industrial growth?  The government had framed National Manufacturing Policy last year.  It had set a target  of raising the share of manufacturing in (GDP) to 25 per cent, (creating) 100 million jobs.  If policy reforms to cut red tapism and speedy clearances can be brought, scenario can change.  In practice this is against the philosophy of Congress party.

Another factor of pushing demand can be depreciation of rupee; This can drive the export led demand.  But global macro economy factors  in near future will not support this theory. Meaning that keep your fingers crossed till the presidential election and realignment of coalition in centre.

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Theories of World Economics Explained by Two Cows

Understanding of  the terms of Economics is not an easy task.  However, some examples make it easy.   Following examples make the eco-political terms easy to garsp.

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have 2 cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have 2 cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank,
then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned
by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have 2 cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has died.


A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have 2 cows.
You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have 2 cows, but you don’t know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 2 cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have 2 cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have 2 cows. You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have 2 cows. Both are mad.

A GREEK CORPORATION
You have 2 cows borrowed from French and German banks.
You eat both of them.
The banks call to collect their milk, but you cannot deliver so you call the IMF. The IMF loans you two cows.
You eat both of them. The banks and the IMF call to collect their cows/milk.
You are out getting a haircut.

A SINGAPOREAN CORPORATION
You have 2 cows.
One "cow-peh" and one "cow-bu".
Both are owned by a government linked corporation.

A  MALAYSIAN CORPORATION
You have 2 cows,
Both are staying in condo

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Which way will head Interest Rates?

Industrial production growth near zero, poor monsoon and so on….  Most pitiable thing is that in this situation also  there is no concern in government to act. Reserve Bank of India  is in dilemma which way should it tilt the interest rates.

RBI has  scheduled mid quarter review of the credit policy on June 18.  Fear of inflation has kept the interest rates high which has led to the anticipated fall in industrial production growth.  India’s industrial production growth has come to a standstill, with factory output expanding by just 0.1 per cent in April. Fortunately government has an excuse ready, “ It is all because of crisis in Europe”.  Until Europe Euro zone is resolved  babus in the government  need not to bother.

RBI was waiting  for a  sharp drop in prices  to go in for an aggressive rate cut.  Inflation at 7.23 per cent in April  was  considered way ahead of the RBI’s comfort zone.  But May data has further deepen the crisis. Wholesale prices accelerated in May to 7.55% 

Mantok Singh Ahluwalia

Contraction in trade deficit  to $16.2 billon has very little to cheer about  as exports shrunk by  4.1% . Non oil imports have contracted by 12% in May over the same period last year. The country’s economy grew 5.3% in the March quarter, its lowest level in nine years. India’s GDP growth for the full fiscal remained at 6.5 %. The economy had expanded by 8.4% in the preceding two years.

 Deputy chairman of India’s Planning Commission  Montek Singh Ahluwalia, is still hopeful  that the country’s economic growth will  turnaround in the July-September quarter.  He expects India to grow  @ 6.5-7.0% in the 2012/13 fiscal year that started in April.

However, as per the  National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), India’s economic growth is likely to remain subdued in the next two quarters as global economic slowdown will continue to hamper domestic growth prospects. The economists at NCAER assume,  “The global economy is in a very difficult period. What is happening in Europe will impact all the developing countries, including India.”

In this scenario, RBI’s interest policy proves to be a double edged sword. Whether, it should try to stimulate the growth by lowering interest rate or keep the inflation under check and keep the interest rates high. There is a division within both the government and the RBI, with many saying that the central bank’s primary responsibility is to curb inflation and not to boost growth. Any increase in inflation will make it difficult for the RBI to cut interest rates sharply.

Then where is the solution?  Chairman emeritus of Infosys Techonologies NR Narayana Murthy in an interview this week said that for the country to get a growth rate of 8-9%, it needed to build very heavy infrastructure. This build, he said, would need investments of $1-1.5 trillion. “Such a large pool of capital cannot come from India alone.”

Similar concerns were expressed by the world bank.  The reforms in the infrastructure have not taken place, which has marred the growth prospects of the country. Will the government listen to this and come out of inaction?

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