cafeconomics

 This theme of differentiating between financial and real wealth seems omnipresent and economists often distinguish between the two. The chart below compares the personal savings rate and equity market cap. The personal savings rate is represented as a percentage of disposable income for the US economy and the equity market cap is represented by S & P 500 closing each year.  As S & P  500 market cap keeps climbing since the 1970s the personal savings rate keeps dropping. This behavioral aspect of a typical US investor is more or less true of investors anywhere in the world. The 'wealth effect' of increased market cap seems to have a large impact on investor behavior amongst  other things.  Remember that when every equity investor chooses to cash in the equity market falls in a heap. In the best interest of investors, specially the small investors it would be prudent to convert some part of financial wealth in to real wealth by diversifying into other ass...

Yellow journalism is a style of newspaper reporting that emphasized sensationalism over facts . ... Once the term had been coined, it extended to the sensationalist style employed by publishers in their profit-driven coverage of world events.....(google search)  The role played by media in a democracy cannot be understated and with greater proliferation of online platforms - the impact of media is only going to grow further. At the end of the day media houses need to pay their bills and salaries to employees. So some 'entertainment' stuff is acceptable but media can help better by focusing on the following areas: 1. Status and progress of key infrastructure projects by state or region. Details on financials and cost overruns, time delays etc. Governments are spending thousands of crores on infra projects and common people may not have the time and inclination to look for these details. 2. Last mile delivery issues - last mile delivery needs continuous monitoring - it does n...