balasrini's comments

the piece displays a stunning indifference to the real problems of the huge numbers of real people.is it all ultimately a question of vote calculus. and what after that? when will you ever get serious?

it's all of a piece. a column written by a conservative for other conservatives in a conservative magazine.
want an idea of the basest qualities in human beings? look into today's conservative's heart. their thought process has degenerated so much that they are in denial (and that's putting it charitably)on climate change and global warming - the big issues of today, tomorrow and the day after. they have the gumption to challenge the most eminent scientists and nobels. the tragedy is that the anglo saxon peoples are still voting for this bunch of selfish, self-centred petty minds. not true of europe where the parties to the right of centre still embody decent qualities and believe in the oneness of society and mankind.
it wasn't so in the old days. we had great ones in the good old days - harold macmillan comes to mind straightaway. and what happened to kenneth clarke?

To ' economic freedom'
thanks for your long answers. they could have been lifted out of any friedman article or book and preach the most elementary free market economics.let me ask: why on earth didn't your darling george w bush allow all the rescued banks to collapse. he didn't have the guts to when it came to decision time.the financial system, the world as we know it was destructing.the widely-parroted stuff that markets will work perfectly left to themselves was shown for the crap it is.(that bush was bailing out a lot of fat cat friends is a different matter).

know what 'economic freedom'? you should read a piece, 'the economic role of private activity' by paul samuelson, found in the book, 'readings in economics' ed by paul samuelson. extraordinarily brilliant writing in which he demolishes the myth of free markets and concludes that even the most ardent libertarians must admit there's no such thing, it's just a question of haggling over the terms of how much government.heaven knows, you might convert after reading it.

govt spending is absolutely mandatory to pull out of the mess. it's got to be a combination of income and welfare support for the hopelessly unemployable and unemployed and sustainable growth and job-maximising investments.obama got it right when he spoke of the latter as the drivers. seems he has lost or given up the theme, possibly scared off by the right and deficit cutting crowd.

krugman unerringly (as has congressman dingell)put his finger on the problem.you have to have a 60-40 majority in the senate to pass legislation. neither the democrats or republicans can get there.every sensible policy initiative is being easily killed.so we are going to see an endless stalemate. the overwhelming obama mandate seems to count for nothing.

ricardian equivalence!? inflation expectations, rational expectations. nobels for such arrant nonsense. and it forms the basis for policymaking. forget lavishly-paid investment bankers. it's hi time public and society decided they've had enough of economics and economists.a subject, profession full of half-baked theories, dishing out ridiculous advice leading to costly mistakes. and, no hint of remorse at getting things wrong all the time.

in india, to the knowledgeable, rating agencies are a joke (or abound in mendaciousness). consider that they are rating private banks above government-owned (and run) banks.i thought a sovereign always enjoys the highest rating. have they got their fundas right?
another howler. when enron was putting up its indian power project, with the support of of one of the top raters, it demanded guarantees from the maharashtra state government and government of india because it thought the electricity buyer, maharashtra electricity board, was financially weak. enron collapsed long back, the electricity board survives (and will be around for a long long time).
one of america's boutique raters asks (this is the clincher): when did you last make money on the rating or advice of any of the big boys.
jail is the place for them.

you sound too much like you want obama to fail-only the crude explicitness of limbaugh is missing.
the basic point has eluded you- that for the first time after god knows how long we have an ethical politician. that he is a black is even more disconcerting for many. when will the pin-sized brains of right wingers ever understand that reaching out - to the poor, yes the rich also, to other countries, peoples- is not a sign of weakness but one of utter self-confidence.
as far as obama's economic policies are concerned, not even his worst opponent seems to be questioning if they will work, but how it is bad in the long-run. the criticism is laughable. not even the most diehard economist and addict of the subject will disagree that economics is far from a science-in fact a lot of it is just guesswork and voodoo.

the nationalisation of banks was widely criticised. yet it was government ownership that prodded banks (and the now extinct financial institutions)to lend to new projects and made possible india's industrialisation. few would have made it had west-like financial norms been applied.they are giants today but there was a time when every reliance, birla and tata was funded by banks and financial institutions. they dare not deny that this played a big growth role in their early years.
india also has a prospering small industry sector which would not exist but for public sector bank funding.it is not widely known that infosys was financed by a karnataka state financial institution after an international bank (now in deep trouble) turned it down.
foreign banks in india are mere cream skimmers.just one example will suffice. tirupur, a small town in tamil nadu, has scores of hosiery exporters. just as bees are attracted to honey, foreign banks found tirupur was fantastic hunting ground to sell exotic derivatives at huge markups. shorn of all the ugly details, the unwary victims lost huge capital-wiping out sums of money. years of toil wiped out in months.
can anyone please quantify the value addition of foreign banks to the indian economy? i bet when the sums are done, it will be a case of value subtraction.

i am surprised you did not mention the mpc's david blanchflower who consistently argued for lower rates. his was a lone voice, but was perfect in the assessment of the sharp economic pullback. is it because he is ideologically to your left? surely that is not a reason for denying credit where it is due?in fact, the shamelessness with which monetarists and fiscal conservatives are jumping on to the stimulus bandwagon is a spectacle by itself. is it because their constituents, the giant banks and corporations, are in such deep trouble? catch them proposing loose policies if main street is the sufferer. the first quality one expects of intellectuals is intellectual honesty.