I used to play Estimation alot back during school and university days. It's a card game for four players and the objective is that each player estimates exactly how many hands they'll get depending on their cards. The interesting thing is that you lose if you get more or less hands, the only way to win is that you get exactly the number of hands you asked for. And since there are 13 hands in total, the sum of the hands that the four players will estimate can't be 13. This rule is there to ensure that at least one out of the four players will lose. Every couple of weeks or so we'd get a game that we called 'Game Sa3ayda' (loosely translated: Fool's Game). This game meant that all four players lost, so some ended up with more hands they asked for and some got less.
I'm no expert on global economy but couldn't help but notice the resemblance. Consumers are screwed, companies are screwed, big banks are screwed, governments are screwed, the American economy is screwed and the European and Asian stock markets are in the red? Is there anyone gaining anything from this? I can understand that one country would have a recession and its currency and economy will plummet. But how could we have designed such an elaborate global economic model that simply allows everyone to lose? That's one hell of a Game Sa3ayda.
8 comments:
I can't believe I'm actually gonna say this, but: well said.
See.. I'm deep and complex and stuff..
Yeah whatever, get back to the monkey thread.
Si papi.
Everyone is loosing?
You're on the wrong side of the map my boy...
If you are refering to the GCC economy, I understand that oil prices are at an all-time high. But I thought this was offseted by:
1. Most GCC pegging their currency to the failing US dollar.
2. Record inflation rates in GCC countries (I read inflation is at it's highest point in the UAE in 20 years!).
3. The fact that most GCC countries have worked so hard over the last few decades to invest a significant part of their oil revenues in buying assets in the American, European and Asian economy.
But then again, as I mentioned earlier I'm no expert on global economy. They have a nice article on this on the KJ Times here.
1. The UAE's Dirham is fixed to the US from decades... So as the US dollar falls from grace... we remain secure.
2.Inflation is at it's highest, but salaries are comfortably tagging along.
Consumer's buying power is strong, the economy is definately booming, not just in UAE but in Qatar, Bahrain & Saudi too... & the whole world is pouring in to get a piece of this pie...
Thanks for the interesting read & it could definately apply to business. But my comment above is actually meant for consumers, average people, the population - I've been here for a little over 3 years & strangely enough, all I can see is more money circulating, more businesses opening, more people populating the country getting high salaried jobs...
It's actually quite a strange phenomenon this Dubai...
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