Indian banking regulator’s luddite licencing..

There is one thing about reform singing crowd. When a proposed reform goes awry, they do not just accept it. Instead they will find ways to still talk make a case for it (see this article for instance). And in this case, we have a problem even before the proposed reform started. There is no harm in accepting yes things did not go as per plan . It just shows the humility side of it. But it seems economics (economics reporting especially) and humility do not go hand in hand.

So in this piece, Debashish Basu hits out at the payment bank licencing. After all, he had spoken against the hype right at the beginning.

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Now IMF too views neoliberalism as oversold..

Amazing things happening.

Jonathan D. Ostry, Prakash Loungani, and Davide Furceri of IMF revisit neoliberalism approach to economics and say it is oversold.  IMF was perhaps one of the most fervent guardians of this neoliberalism approach to economics and now seems to question this very zeal. One component of this approach was capital account liberalisation where IMF religiously said abolish all capital controls. Now it thinks capital controls could be used. This was hailed as one big turnaround in thinking. 

So in this note the authors talk about the same capital account and add another part of this approach-  fiscal prudence:

India Post to deliver Gangajal at your doorstep

This is an interesting initiative from the government. As India post struggles to deliver usual post on time, we are looking at different ways to keep the entity going:

How are financial innovations regulated in India?

Very nice speech by R Gandhi of Indian Central Bank. It is a pity that such speeches are barely covered in media. All we care for is newsbytes and news that hardly matters other than create hype.

The speech is given in the context of recent developments in P2P lending space where India has decided to regulate the space. After looking at various ideas around financial regulation (which makes for a great read as well), the speaker talks about Indian approach:

Italy – historical heritage and future prospects

Nice speech by  Mr Salvatore Rossi, Senior Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy.

He gives a brief outline of evolution of Italy as a nation and its contribution to world economy:

Should Cryptocurrencies be included in the forex reserves of Central Banks?

Interesting paper by Profs. Winston Moore and Jeremy Stephen of University of the West Indies (Cave Hill). They try and figure whether it made sense for Central Bank of Barbados to hold cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in their forex reserves. What they are trying to figure is would addition of these currencies lead to any benefits like lower volatility etc?

They say the impact would not have been much:

What is in a batsman’s stance? Perhaps everything..

Some people are not just gifted speakers but writers as well. It is a rare thing to have,

Mark Nicholas is one such person who does great cricket commentary and writes equally well. Here he writes about stance of current English top order batsmen. One can apply the different ways to other batters as well:

Mission creep (or sweep) for India’s Bank Board Bureau?

Gulzar writes on this interesting development amidst series of other links/posts (check no 11).

India recently appointed bank panel – Bank Board Bureau – to select heads of India’s Public sector banks amidst huge hype as always. Gulzar says that it being just 5 months old is already undergoing mission creep:

Should railways offer opt-in or opt-out for meals in privileged trains?

As a railways and beh econ buff it is exciting to read this bit. It is even more exciting to see something come into action which this blog argued nearly three years ago.

One always wonders the logic behind food being compulsory in India’s privileged trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi. Most of the time food is bland and hopeless. If one takes a Rajdhani on a longer route rest be assured food is going to be the same across meals. As one has paid for it either one takes it or just wastes it. There are quite a few cases who carry their own food despite paying for it in tickets.

In 2013, this blog argued to change this default choice:

Getting rid of the word big bang from economics…

This word big bang reforms remains the most hyped and yet poorly defined term in economics. I was really happy that India’s PM responded to WSJ editors that he did not know the meaning of the term. Nor his experts could define it:

Keynesianism is the most successful and pernicious hoax in the history of economic thought…

Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. has a stinging piece on Keynes and his ianisms. The title of the post is Keynes must die which was picked from a Korean translator:

As the Korean translator of an Austrian text put it, “Keynes must die so the economy may live.” With your help, we can hasten that glorious day.

The piece goes onto show how Keynes successfully captured economics and politicians minds (but obviously) despite being a”tissue of distortions, fallacies, and drastically unrealistic assumptions”.

The History of Economic Thought website is reborn..

Kudos to Gonçalo Fonseca of INET for resurrecting the website on History of Economic Thought.

Here is an article on the announcement:

12 Articles Every Aspiring Economist Should Read..

Steven Horwitz points to the 12 articles all wannabes must read. The list is for all those wanting to enrol into PhD in economics. I am pretty sure students of most econ places barely recommend reading all these pieces unless students discover them by themselves. The list has  Tullock, Hayek, Friedman, Coase and so on..

How a wider and renewed Panama Canal will reshape world trade once again…

Withing the usual cacophony on world monetray and macro matters, it is changes like these which are expected to reshape the world economy.

Canals played a major role in world trading and there has been huge politics around their construction. Panama Canal was also one such canal which overnight allowed ships to move from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean by crossing the canal instead of rounding  the South American continent coastline.

The Panama Canal is being revamped now and is being widened. It will now be able to take wider ships across Pacific:

Three alternatives to become edcauted without chasing academic degrees..

Brian Ogstad has a piece on this.

I often ask myself, “If I could do it all over again, would I go to college?”

Most of the time my answer is a resounding no. The only reason I ever respond with a yes is that I love to teach economics at the college level and to speak and write about markets and liberty; but the gatekeepers would never let me “in” without a degree: a piece a paper draping me with legitimacy.

If it’s the education alone you value, you don’t have to go to college to get it. Learning can be had for free. If it is the shroud of legitimacy you seek, then who am I to tell you not to go? If your heart is set on a certain profession, and the gatekeepers of that profession demand certification, then go ahead and chase that paper.

For example, you can’t practice as a medical doctor without a college degree and state licensing approval. Otherwise, you shouldn’t just mindlessly ride the conveyor belt to ever more schooling. Here are three alternatives to the academic paperchase.

I am sure amny of us would agree and say no. Some might add they would love to go back to college but do completely different things than they did under peer and family pressure.

How 140 characters aka Twitter has become so integral to Indian Govt…

This blog is over 10 years and 6000 posts old. There have been so many posts that the blogger himself is surprised to read through some old posts. But there are some which have stuck like this one where Bruno Frey poses a Tullock challenges for Facebook:

Internship Program of Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance – 2016-17

The notice is here. Last date is 15th June 2016. A good opportunity to work at Ministry of Finance.

All these internships are highly welcome. Earlier there were no such things and required all kinds of contacts (called jugaad) to even get a glimpse, leave getting any such projects.

Though, I don’t understand why these internship programs from one ministry comes across multiple press releases. They should make it all consistent. A couple of months back there was one press release from DEA which the blog missed. Now DEA has declared the results.

The Finance Ministry could easily streamline this whole thing and make it free of memory. Just have one period to invite applications for all ministry departments and declare results together as well. Something like every Ist of April a press release could come inviting applications and results out by 15th May or so.  This will eventually get internalised and help many students who look forward to such opportunities during their summer break.

Anyways, just pass it on..

Did Prof. Joseph Stiglitz endorse Venezuelan socialism?

Things are falling apart in Venezuela as documented by scores of articles.

Here is a startling post by Tho Bishop who quotes Joseph Stiglitz:

How Capitalism created modern motherhood..

This post appeared on Mother’s day. Nevertheless still an interesting read.

Cricket should become more responsible towards waste and environment..

A good article by Tanya Aldred. How much should a person consume is not just limited to daily life but extending to other aspects as well like sports matches.

The whole idea behind anything in modern economy is buy, buy, buy and consume, consume, consume. If you get tired doing these two, start all over again. Cricket hasn’t escapes this curse.

The author looks at how cricket matches have changed with simple things available to everything available.