Mohit Satyanand of India thus (tongue-in-cheek?) wrote in the ‘Outlook Money’ blog on July 24th –
“A total of 18.6 million U.S. houses, apartments and condominiums stood empty, more than at any time in history, as lenders seized a record number of properties.” From Bloomberg, dtd. 24.07.2008
At an average of 5 individuals per family dwelling, the vacant homes in the US would accomodate almost 100 million Indians. If we arranged for them to take up residence there, think of the number of the world’s problems that would be solved at one stroke – the US savings rate would go up, since Indians don’t accumulate credit card debt; since Indian farm labour would be happy working at far below the minimum wage, US farmers would actually make money; this, and the added demand for food from 100 million mouths, would mean the US government could stop subsidising farms; the world’s airlines, now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, would be kept busy for several months.
In India, our creaking infrastructure would heave a sigh of relief; our food, fertiliser, and electricity subsidies would come down; and soaring real estate prices would come down – New Delhi bungalows may never become as cheap as San Fransisco villas, but some move towards parity might begin. And, all the gold that Indians carry with them might become useful to the US government when the dollar becomes worthless.
It’s an ideal plan, but the US government is too busy to listen – too busy finding ways to support a failing credit system, none of which is to going to work.
So after falling oil prices gave the markets a few days of relief, yesterday was reality check time on Wall Street. The Dow dropped 280 points, now heading back to 11000. If we don’t ship 100 million Indians to the US, only the Saudis can save its economy.
Tags: India, Indian rupee, Outlook, The United States of America (USA), U.S. dollar, U.S. recession
