This information is based on the data related by the national housing board of India.

Real estate price variation - Data statistics as per the national housing board (India). {{Click on the image to enlarge}}

Biggest gainers in 2012 (Q2): Pune
Biggest losers: Kochi

A small amount of inflation is actually necessary for economic growth. At zero inflation, money sitting in an account can be more valuable than taking an economic risk.

It is even worse if there is deflation. Deflation is a viscious cycle, where money is even more valuable in the future than now. The deflationary spiral goes like this:   Increased value of future money --> save more ---> less investment ---> less capital ---> fewer jobs ---> lesser salaries ---> increased value of money --> ....

Two main reasons:

Till now I was of the opinion that owning the physical commodity of something like Gold was best achieved by owning an ETF that buys and manages physical gold (GLD, SGOL).

The amount of gold represented by the Shares will continue to be reduced during the life of the Trust due to the sales of gold necessary to pay the Trust’s expenses irrespective of whether the trading price of the Shares rises or falls in response to changes in the price of gold.
Each outstanding Share represents a fractional, undivided interest in the gold held by the Trust. The Trust does not generate any income and regularly sells gold to pay for its ongoing expenses. Therefore, the amount of gold represented by each Share has gradually declined over time. This is also true with respect to Shares that are issued in exchange for additional deposits of gold into the Trust, as the amount of gold required to create Shares proportionately reflects the amount of gold represented by the Shares outstanding at the time of creation. Assuming a constant gold price, the trading price of the Shares is expected to gradually decline relative to the price of gold as the amount of gold represented by the Shares gradually declines. Investors should be aware that the gradual decline in the amount of gold represented by the Shares will occur regardless of whether the trading price of the Shares rises or falls in response to changes in the price of gold. The estimated ordinary operating expenses of the Trust, which accrue daily commencing after the first day of trading of the Shares, are described in the Trust’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, incorporated herein by reference.

According to a recent projection by one of the analyst, Apple (aapl) is slated to have $200B in savings pretty soon.

Apple projected and historical cash per share

During the recent patent wars, these giants have had to give out their numbers here

Smarphone sales comparison - apple (aapl) and samsung USA

Comparison of tablet sale performance - aaple and samsung in the US.

.As can be seen from the numbers in the US markets, Samsung sales numbers are not even close. Hence if Andriod is really doing well in the US, it should be selling a lot more of HTC and other manufacturers than Samsung.

The simplest reason could be that for any amount of money invested, these countries typically growing economies like India and China have a high rate of equity dilution resulting in a decrease in the EPS (and hence a reduction in growth seen per share brought).

This item was originally discussed here.

This is also clearly seen from the plot below by an analyst at Morgan Stanley:
(click on fig to enlarge)

Country-wise comparison of the average earnings growth with the annual dilution  - highest for high growth countries.