“For what it’s worth, a key conclusion from the IMF’s new World Economic Outlook is that recessions caused by financial crisis typically end with export booms, with the trade balance improving,on average, by more than 3 percent of GDP. I find this a disturbing result: we’re now suffering from a global financial crisis, which means [...]
Vivek Wadhwa’s latest column in Business Week,which says we shouldn’t blame H1-B workers for job losses, invites a (predictable) barrage of comments. Here’s an earlier IEB post on Wadhwa’s research — Don’t Try Kicking Sand In America’s Face. On another note, Sunita Narain’s at it again — after colas, now it’s edible oils. (HT: Amit [...]
Are we going to see a sequel to Smoot-Hawley? Richard Fisher, President & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, tells it like it is. Commenting on C-Span about the “Buy America” provisions in the stimulus package: Protectionism is the crack cocaine of economics. It may provide a high. It’s addictive. And it leads [...]
Indian inflation fell back again in the last week of October, as energy and commodity prices continued to fall, and the impact of the global financial turmoil and credit crunch ricocheted its way across one country after another. The IMF last week forecast annual growth for India of 6.3% in 2008 while India’s manufacturing expansion, [...]
Unorganised and organised retail must coexist and flourish in India… After almost scaring the Tata Motors away from West Bengal, Mamata Bannerjee has now trained her guns on Reliance Retail. Well, Reliance Retail should be used to being targeted by feisty women politicians. Immediately after coming to power in Lucknow, Ms. Mayawati had earlier undertaken a [...]
He advocates a false morality to disguise his government’s failures Dr Manmohan Singh the prime minister has routinely relied on platitudes (instead of on incentives) to motivate the UPA government’s policies. But he is getting even the platitudes wrong. In a country where the average annual per capita income hovers around an unacceptably low US$1000, [...]
The first Africa-India Forum summit was held at New Delhi earlier this month. There were several other events organised on the sidelines of the Summit: the first ever India-Africa Editors Conference, joint performances by Indian and African cultural troupes a seminar of intellectuals from Africa and India on India-Africa Partnership in the 21st century, a [...]
Who gets hurt when grain exports are banned? Swaminathan Iyer took the words out of this bloggers mouth. The UPA government, he writes “has suddenly shifted from protecting Indian farmers against cheap imports to protecting the consumer by cheapening imports”. He is referring to the ban on rice exports (which follow the export of wheat [...]
So the UPA government is set to improve credit availability (and write off loans) for farmers. Laveesh Bhandari tells you why, if improving the livelihood of farmers is a policy goal, the Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram are barking up the wrong tree. Here lies the crux of the matter. If use of new seeds, [...]
A new research paper titled Trading Population for Productivity: Theory and Evidence by Oded Galor and Andrew Mountford focuses on a novel Unified Growth Theory. The paper argues that the – differential effect of international trade on the demand for human capital across countries has been a major determinant of the distribution of income and [...]
As another year draws to an end, extracts from two speeches delivered this year — one by an ex-finance minister (who happens to be the current Prime Minister) and another by the current Finance Minister. Both the speeches were delivered to a foreign audience and the extracts reproduced here cover only the hard facts, not [...]
Renowned Australian author and economist Stewart Klegg brings a new angle to the India and China debate. He is scathing in his criticism of the Chinese state apparatus while claiming that there are enormous distortions in the Indian growth model due to a small oligarchy atop the system. India is often compared with China. But [...]
Demolishing the myth of “historical ties” and “strategic partnership that has stood the test of time”. Noted defence analyst Ajai Shukla, in his column for the Business Standard (reproduced on his blog Broadsword ), has highlighted the changing paradigm of the Indo-Russian relationship. He also suggests that India has been unable to come to terms [...]
One of the criticisms leveled against India’s SEZ policy is that the zones are too small to make a real difference. But there’s a very big zone that could be an SEZ, especially if the state’s politicians—who are all for ‘autonomy’—decided economic freedom is something that is well in their capacity to achieve. And set [...]
Ajay Shah has a post on the results of the Pew Institute’s latest survey: They have three key questions that measure economic liberalism, covering attitudes towards international trade, attitudes towards foreign companies and attitudes towards free markets. The results contain many surprises. As an example, in urban India, they find 89% are supportive of international [...]
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