Intellectual Thoughts by Sanjay Panda


I pad the lattest from apple



Apple finally unveiled, labeled as the next-generation gadget which will bridge the gap between smart phones and laptops named as iPad. It's a half-inch thick and weighs about 700gm, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display running with a Apple A4 Chip with a 10-hour battery life.

It'll be available in 3 different disk space of 16, 32, and 64GB. Starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will be available in March , and the 3G models in April2010.

Few disappointments are no multitasking, no camera, no flash playability.

Another Bubble likely

A year ago investors were panicking and there was talk of another great Depression. Now the share prices in all most all the economies are 70-100 % higher than their respective lows of 2009. This was mostly due to interest rates of 1% or less in America, Japan, Britain and the euro zone, which have persuaded investors to take their money out of cash and to buy risky assets.

Central banks see these market rallies as a welcome side- effect of their policies. The market rebound was necessary to stabilise economies last year, but now there is a danger that bubbles are being created. Apart from high asset valuations, the other symptoms of a bubble are rapid growth in private-sector credit and an outbreak of public enthusiasm for some particular assets. The longer the world keeps its interest rates close to zero, the greater the danger that bubbles will appear and its most likely in emerging markets specially China.

The remedies could be forcing banks to adopt higher capital ratios which will curb speculative excesses apart from the interest rate which clould me a major tool to curb speculation. But central banks are wary of using these measures to pop bubbles because it risks of crushing growth as well. Current scenario of high asset prices, low interest rates and massive fiscal deficits seems unsustainable.

Interest rates will stay low only if growth remains slow. But if economies grow slowly, then profits will not rise fast enough to justify current share prices and incomes will not rise far enough to justify the prevailing level of house prices. On the other hand, if the markets are right about the prospects for economic growth, and the current recovery is sustained, then governments will have to react by cutting off the supply of cheap money.