Rankings of Economics Journals and Departments in India

Tilak Mukhopadhyay and Subrata Sarkar of IGIDR have a paper on the topic. It is quite interesting to know the state of economics in the country.

What would Friedman say on QE2?

After hypothesising views of Fisher, Keynes on crisis and policies, the next question is what would Friedman say on the crisis and QE2 in particular?

David Wessel of WSJ has a superb article reviewing asking Friedman disciples and economists on what would the great econ say?

A New Normal for Monetary Policy?

As per John Taylor the new normal for mon pol could be – The End of Monetary Policy as We Know It.

US in Liquidity Trap – What are the Options?

THis is the title of a new paper I have written. In this I summarise the debates going in US over economic outlook and various policy options.

My reading (little bit though) of Japan in 1990s and US now is in a liquidity trap situation (when central bank policy rate is zero/near zero), a central bank has many options. However, there are two issues. One, their effectiveness is limited. Two, some measures are not practice and cannot be adopted. And when one adds numerous economists’ arguments over benefits and negatives of each option, it is all chaos. Then political situation always plays a major role. With a dip in taxes and surge in expenditure the, government is on shaky grounds. They might want to stimulate but concerns of budget deficit/fiscal multiplier always muddles the whole thinking. Hence, it may not be a liquidity trap but surely a policy trap.

Let me know your comments.