Credit Crisis :(

The fall of Lehman Brothers raises the risk of a deeper U.S. recession that engulfs a broader swath of the global economy as skittish banks around the world lock their vaults.

JPMorgan Chase bought Bear Stearns;
Bank of America absorbed Merrill Lynch;
Lehman Brothers sold for scrap after it declared bankruptcy;
Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley having tough times...

The market value of the top 10 foreign banking firms fell from $1090 billion to $476 billion. The market wealth of Deutsche Bank dropped by 78 per cent to $ 17.97 billion; followed by Merrill Lynch ($ 26.11 billion); USB ($ 58.93 billion); Citigroup ($ 97.80 billion); Royal Bank of Scotland ($ 62.06 billion) and Barclays PLC ($ 51.10 billion). Almost all foreign bank stock hit a 52 week low.

ICICI Bank's market value was down by 61.92 per cent; while State Bank of India's market cap fell by 45.3 per cent and HDFC Bank was down 32.66 per cent. Markets have lost confidence in the financial foundations on which investment banks are built. Financial sector analysts said that financial institutions are much more vulnerable to sudden withdrawals of liquidity or loss of confidence.

Today morning FID instructed us not to add more exposure on CITI and Barx.

Think what if every bank goes bankrupt? What if CITI & SBI goes bankrupt? I have all the savings with them. What if EBI goes bankrupt? Will I be jobless and homeless?

Its time... all banks go bankrupt and everyone will slowly realize that and there will be no value of money...

Live In Relationships...

A decade back when I was in college... the concept of live-in relationships had just started emerging. Many of my hostel-seniors shifted from hostel rooms to independent flats to start living with their partners.. were in one and few of those relationships eventually culminated into marriage.

Last week I was watching 'Salaam Namaste'... starring Saif & Preity Zinta. Yash Chopra could not have found better actors than Preity & Saif... bcoz they both actually do follow somewhat similar pattern in real life other than reel life. Saif since his spilt with wife Amrita Singh was living with his firangi girl-friend Roza and Perity has a live-in boyfriend - Ness Wadia. As far as i can think its the first Bollywood movie showcasing 'Live-in' relationship of a boy and girl. Anyways the focus of my post is not the movie but the theme of the movie.

India still remains a conservative society where the institution of marriage is considered sacred. Plus chastity on the part of a woman is highly rated. The woman with a history of pre marital relations with a man will have less chances of getting married in the future.

I feel... In a live-in relationship people are scared of commitments... so they need a testing period. The margin for error and the tolerance levels for the errors are very low. Most people enter into a live-in relationship to test compatibilty or convenience with the partner. No strings attached is something which does not work for me. Test driving a relationship without the binding of commitment seems so pointless. It resembles of taking a car for test drive. The 'trial period' gives people a chance to discover whether they are compatible. But there is a problem with the car analogy... the car don't have emotions; if the driver dumps it back at the used car lot and decides not to buy it... it will not be hurt. The analogy works great if you picture yourself as the driver but it stinks if you picture yourself as the car... On the other hand... A marriage gives so much of security to both the partners. Both work towards making the relationship successful. There is stability and financial security. Marriage means... I will always be here for you... it encourages emotional investment in the relationship. While live-in relationship seems to mean... I will be here only as long as the relationship meets my needs.

Some parents may approve and support for the live-in relationship and may no longer associate it with sin and social disapproval. But in many families it's still considered morally wrong and embarrassing to extended family members.

With the increase in number of couples opting for 'live-in' over 'marriage'... there are conflicting views on this subject but I would like to know what would you prefer if given the option to choose between the two?