The law of unintended consequences says that any policy will typically have consequences not foreseen by either its proponents or critics. Douglas North, the Nobel Prize-winning historian, says successful policy-makers are those who have made shrewd guesses and benefited from …
DRAMA, pathos, bathos, amazing twists and turns. The US presidential election has become a sensational non-election. It is stranger than fiction, more thrilling than a Tom Clancy thriller, more suspenseful than an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Some critics are having a …
Why did Al Gore not coast to victory in the US presidential election on the back of a boom economy? The US is currently enjoying the longest boom since World War II, unemployment has fallen and productivity risen to record …
Why did Al Gore not coast to victory in the US presidential election on the back of a boom economy? The US is currently enjoying the longest boom since World War II, unemployment has fallen and productivity risen to record …
In a recent column, I ascribed our phenomenal infotech success to the opportunities globalisation has opened to Indians with brains and English language skills. Yet that cannot be the full story. People from other ex-British colonies are just as brainy, …
Most of us regard Indian politics as particularly corrupt and distorted by money-grabbing politicians. We generally view politics in western countries as being much cleaner. Yet a look at spending in the US Presidential election is sobering. Astronomical sums are …
For decades, I have opposed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh\’s vision of an Akhand Bharat. This is little more than a vision of India dominating the sub-continent, based on the vague but unhistorical notion that the whole region somehow belongs to …
Foreign visitors frequently ask me for myassessment of India\’s prospects. I tell them that economicmanagement is improving, but governance is deteriorating, and beyond a point deteriorating governance can make good economic management impossible. This has already happened in Bihar: Economic …
In my youth I first heard of the theory of economic trickle down–that if the rich get richer, the benefits will trickle down to the poor, and so all will benefit. This was supposed to explain why, contrary to Karl …
Last week I talked of the concept of social capital–the social glue that enables cohesive communities to pull together, help distressed members, mediate conflicts, penalise deviant behaviour and reward desirable behaviour, far more efficiently and cheaply than government mechanisms. Successful …
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