Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

Happy July 4th

It’s 4th of July — the birthday of the greatest country on earth. It was born 248 years ago today in 1776. At the time of its birth, it was a tiny nation with a  population of 2.5 million people. It’s come a long way.

Thomas Paine (born 1737 Norfolk, England, died 1809 New York, N.Y.) wrote, “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like me, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” The time is upon the country to undertake the fatigue of securing freedom once again. The Democrats are destroying our country. Continue reading “Happy July 4th”

Funding the State

I was recently asked a very simple question. “Assume India’s total tax revenue is 100 in a year. If you are all-powerful in the government, how will you spend that 100?”

To answer that, we have to ask what should the government do? I take my cue from the classical liberals like John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith from the 18th century and from libertarians like Robert Nozick of the 20th century. The basic and only job of the government is to maintain order in society. In order to maintain order, it has to protect life, liberty and property. That creates the necessary condition for the creation of wealth and prosperity. Continue reading “Funding the State”

Rebirth of Liberty

A conference cosponsored by the Cato Institute and Libertad y Progreso titled “The Rebirth of Liberty in Argentina and Beyond” concluded a few hours ago in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The last two events on Wednesday evening were streamed live on X: a conversation between Johan Norberg and Elon Musk, followed by concluding remarks by Javier Milei.

Norberg and Musk conversed for nearly half an hour, in English of course. After that Milei spoke in his native Spanish. Perhaps a dubbed version of his remarks will be available later. Continue reading “Rebirth of Liberty”

Sachs on US Foreign Policy

The wiki page on the Foreign Policy of the United States states that —

The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America . . . are “to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community”.

All very noble and praiseworthy no doubt. But what exactly is it in practice and is it anything as advertised? Even if we were interested in understanding it (unlikely at best), we don’t really have the time to figure that out. But we should have at least some passing familiarity with the US foreign policy’s impact on the world. Spoiler alert: the impact is extremely terrible.

I am an enemy of the state. It is part of my nature. The state is to some extent a necessary evil but the bigger the state is, the greater evil it is. Continue reading “Sachs on US Foreign Policy”

Gender Apartheid

“In many countries, one category of human beings don’t even have the right to show their face – that’s apartheid, and it should be the social justice issue of our time.” — Bill Maher.

I enormously enjoy Bill Maher’s HBO show, particularly the segment on “New Rule.” Today I’d like to share this one. He has a wicked sense of humor, and I am sure that he has a great bunch of writers.

Naturally I don’t agree with him on most issues dealing with politics and economics. He’s a leftist and a “progressive”. I’m the opposite. But his social commentary is most of the time spot on. More than most commentators, he funny as all heck.  Continue reading “Gender Apartheid”

Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina

Writing that post about Javier Milei’s talk got me into the mood to listen to a couple of songs from the 1978 musical Evita. The lyrics are by Tim Rice and music is by the incomparable Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The movie Evita was released in 1996. Here’s Madonna as Eva Perón singing “Don’t cry for me, Argentina.” She’s awesome in this song. Here are some of the words:

It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange
When I try to explain how I feel
That I still need your love after all that I’ve done

You won’t believe me
All you will see is a girl you once knew
Although she’s dressed up to the nines
At sixes and sevens with you
 . . .
Continue reading “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”

“The Market is Ourselves”

Javier Milei at the Hoover Institution

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.”

I recalled that T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) quote on watching a recording of the talk Argentine President Javier Milei gave at the Hoover Institution in Stanford University on May 29th. He’s a dangerous man. He’s making his dream possible.

Argentina has been tremendously unlucky for over a century. It appears that its luck may be changing.

At the start of the 20th century, it was one of the wealthiest nations in the world, with a high standard of living comparable to many European countries. Then things went south. By 2001-2002, things had gone really bad. Continue reading ““The Market is Ourselves””

Albéniz and Satie

A village in Austrias. Credit – wikimedia commons – Markus Bernet

The Spanish or acoustic guitar and the piano are two favorite Western classical instruments. Here are two pieces: one on the guitar and the other on the piano.

First a composition by Isaac Albéniz (1860 – 1909), the Spanish virtuoso pianist and composer. He composed it for the piano but the piece is more popularly played on the guitar. It’s titled Asturias — after the Spanish region called Asturias. Continue reading “Albéniz and Satie”

The Problem of Economic Growth – Part 3

Most of the Founding Fathers of the American republic were seriously wary of “factions”—their term for what we call political parties—which they viewed as dangerous to the public interest.

Politics to them was a joint enterprise that the citizens undertook to seek out what was in the general interest, and after the appropriate deliberations of the various individuals were concluded and a consensus was arrived at, there was no room for different factions to pull in different directions.

For them, the political process was not about deciding winners and losers but about determining what served the common interests of all. If something is acknowledged to be in the common interest, there is no point in not pursuing it or opposing it.

With that, let’s continue on from the previous part of this essay — Continue reading “The Problem of Economic Growth – Part 3”

A Tale of Two Road Accidents

Road accidents are an unfortunate fact of life. The best we as a society can do is to minimize the chances of an accident. And when the “accident” is due to gross negligence, then the criminal should be so severely punished that it deters others from being negligent.

I read about an accident in Pune in which two people on a bike were mowed down by a speeding car a couple of days ago. The car was a Porsche (pictured above), driven by an apparently drunk 17-year old. The victims were both 24 year old, Ashwini Koshta and Aneesh Awadhiya, from Jabalpur. They had studied engineering in Pune and were working at Johnson Controls as data analysts. Continue reading “A Tale of Two Road Accidents”