Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

Corruption Perceptions Index, and Jesus and Mo

The 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of Transparency International ranked Pakistan at 117 out of 180 countries. India was ranked 81, worse than China at 77. The top spots are (in order)  New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore. US comes in at 16, Japan at 20, Bhutan at 26.

The correlation between poverty and corruption is evident, and it is easy to argue the direction of causation to be from corruption to poverty, and then back to corruption.

For the entire list, click this.  Continue reading “Corruption Perceptions Index, and Jesus and Mo”

Ask Me Anything — On Zoom

Recently I got to know about Zoom and even had a zoom webinar a few days ago. I think we should give Zoom a spin and hold an “ask me anything” session. Just generally chat. Particularly we can discuss why Shabana Azmi is a moron. Here are the details: Continue reading “Ask Me Anything — On Zoom”

Free Speech and Hate Speech

You know why free speech? Because we humans are not infinitely wise. That’s all. If we, or some of us, were infinitely wise, we would be able to tell which speech was OK and which not-OK. Then the wise could sort out which speech to allow. But none of us is infinitely wise.

The way out is to allow all speech, and let us be free to decide whether to accept whatever proposition makes sense to us, and let the nonsense just be. Let whoever wants to say anything have a go at it and allow us the listeners the freedom to choose what to believe and what to reject.

OK, so we allow all speech. But what good does it do us? It helps us advance our civilization. I am making an utilitarian argument here. It is good for civilization to allow all speech, and to let them compete in the marketplace of ideas, and those that withstand scrutiny survive and advance our understanding. Continue reading “Free Speech and Hate Speech”

Sabarimala

It may seem odd to begin a piece regarding the on-going struggle surrounding the centuries-old Sabarimala temple in Kerala with the first lines of a book, published relatively recently in 1974 by an American, which deals primarily with the rights of people and what the state can do. But it is actually quite relevant.

The preface in Robert Nozick’s book Anarchy, State and Utopia begins with the simple declaration that —

“Individuals have rights and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights). So strong and far-reaching are these rights that they raise the question of what, if anything, the state and its officials may do. How much room do individual rights leave for the state?

Continue reading “Sabarimala”

Webinar on “The Path to Prosperity” Today

Today, Saturday 20th October, Rajesh Jain and I will be hosting a webinar titled “How to Walk the Path to Prosperity”. It starts at 8:30 PM India time (8 AM Pacific, 11 AM Eastern.)

Register here for the event. To join the webinar, click on this zoom link at 8:30 PM India time (8 AM Pacific, 11 AM Eastern.)

Here are the details.  Continue reading “Webinar on “The Path to Prosperity” Today”

Modi Needs You to Transform India

Here we go again. Now that India’s 2019 general elections are just a few months away, Mr Modi wants you to help him “transform India.”

Here’s an opportunity for India’s best brains to work for PM Modi’s campaign in 2019. 

Take a sabbatical from your current job and work with Nation with NaMo till May 2019.

Dedicate your 8 months to transform India in the next 5 years.

“… work with Nation with NaMo …”  Seriously? Couldn’t find a decent copy editor even?

It’s déjà vu all over again, as the great sage Yogi Berra said.  Continue reading “Modi Needs You to Transform India”

Curing a disease by intensifying its causes

“War is a judgement that overtakes societies when they have been living upon ideas that conflict too violently with the laws governing the universe … Never think that wars are irrational catastrophes: they happen when wrong ways of thinking and living bring about intolerable situations.”
— Dorothy L Sayers.[1]

That quote is from E. F. Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful [2] where he meditated upon the causes of the bind that humanity finds itself in and indeed is responsible for. He posited that it was lack of wisdom that impels people to ‘cure a disease by intensifying its causes.’ Here’s what he wrote:  Continue reading “Curing a disease by intensifying its causes”

Visiting Houston TX and San Jose CA

So I’m going to be traveling. I’ll be in Houston TX, Friday 5th through Sunday 7th. And then I go to San Jose CA. I’ll be in the SF Bay area for an entire week, Oct 8th through the 14th. Continue reading “Visiting Houston TX and San Jose CA”

What Should the Government Do?

In a comment baransam1 asks, “Should the government fund primary education, fund higher education, fund research in basic sciences?” The answer is “No, no, and no.” Emphatic no’s.

No for the same reason that the government should not be in the business of income and wealth redistribution. It should not be in the business of charity. It should not be in the business of taking care of the indigent, the sick and the victims of accident and natural disasters. The government should not be in the business of religious indoctrination, or indeed indoctrination of any kind. The government should not engage in commercial activities like transportation and communications. It should not run hospitals and hotels, clubs and cafes, factories and farms. It should not run banks and non-banking financial institutions.

The list of prohibitions — the “blacklist”– is too long. It is best to have a “whitelist” of what the government is allowed and required to do, and nothing beyond that.  Why? The answer is one word: violence.  Continue reading “What Should the Government Do?”

Credit-constraint — the Inability to Borrow

For anyone concerned about the poor and poverty, the first task is to clearly define the words “poor” and “poverty.” Wealth and income are reasonable measures that usually serve in defining a poor person: one who has less than some defined minimum of wealth and/or income.

But that definition is not comprehensive. What if a person could borrow the money needed for an investment with a sufficiently high return such that it would be possible to return the money with interest, and still have some left over? Then the person is not poor. Meaning, anyone able to borrow is not poor. Conversely, anyone who is unable to borrow is “credit-constrained” and is comprehensively poor.

For a person to be considered poor, it is not necessary that the person have zero net worth or wealth. The sufficient condition for being poor is that one is credit constrained. Even if a person has negative net wealth, as long as the person is able to borrow, the person is not poor.

For example, consider a person who does not have money for acquiring a particular skill that would enable him to earn a very good living. Suppose further the person could borrow the money needed and be able to pay back the loan from the higher income from the acquired skill. When he borrows, his net wealth (his assets minus the loan liability) will actually be less than zero. Yet he will not really be poor because it will only be a temporary situation. In this case, he creates assets (acquires the skill) using the loan that later enables him to repay the loan.

We are familiar with many cases of “wealthy” people who at some point in their lives had negative or zero wealth but were able to borrow (sometimes to the tune of hundreds of millions) that allowed them to build up their fortunes and repay the loans. Even with a negative net wealth, they were not poor because they were not credit constrained.

So what is the main implication of this definition of being poor? It is this. An efficient way to help those who are poor is to somehow release the credit-constraint they face. Economic efficiency considerations recommend that.

But what if the poor are being denied access to wealth that they have a legitimate claim to, and which they need? Then it would be a moral imperative to return that wealth to them.

The poor of India have a share of the public wealth of India. It is economically efficient and morally right to give them that wealth. It has to be done now, and not in some indeterminate future. [Previous post in this series: Public Wealth Return.]