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“We will not solve our problem by electing the right people. We will only solve our problem by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.” — Milton Friedman.

He was one of the greatest economists of the 20th century not just because of his academic contributions but also because he was tireless in his public outreach. Unlike his colleagues whom he greatly respected, such as Friedrich Hayek and James Buchanan (both amazing scholars) who did not address the general public, Friedman patiently explained economics to everyone who cared to ask him.

It is never too late to start learning from his books and lectures about how to think about public policy. Here’s an excerpt from one such Q&A session:
Continue reading “For Wrong People to do the Right Thing”

The world economy was pretty huge at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The aggregate global GDP was US$ 88 trillion according to howmuch.net.

US continued to lead at $21.43T, about 50% larger than the next biggest, China at $14.34T. China, which used to be neck and neck with India around 40 years ago, is now five times as large as India in annual GDP terms: China’s $15T versus India’s $3T. The US and China together account for 40% of the world GDP and 23% of the world population. India accounts for 3.3% of the world GDP and 17% of the world population.

howmuch.net notes that:

• The U.S. remains by far the largest economy in the world with a GDP of $21.43T or 24.42% of the entire globe.
• China’s economy grew from 2018 to 2019 to $14.34, but the country is still nowhere close to catching up to the U.S.
• The rest of the world’s economic powerhouses have comparatively much smaller economies, including Japan ($5.08T), Germany ($3.84T) and India ($2.88T).
• Our visualization doesn’t take into account the size of each country’s population.

My focus here is on India. India’s economy is estimated to have shrunk by 10% in 2020, thanks to the usual brain-dead economic policies of the Indian government; China’s economy expanded by 2%. In 2021, China’s GDP is expected to grow by 8% or so in 2021.

Well, the one constant in this world is change. The world’s biggest economies move in their rankings over time. According to satista.com, this is projected: Continue reading “The World Economy”

I am offering an online 10-week course titled “How the world works – an introduction.” The course will be on zoom for one hour every week on Friday at 9 PM IST (10:30 AM Eastern) starting Jan 15th. Homework will be announced a week in advance of class. Click the link (pdf) above for details.

“Temples and churches, pagodas and mosques, in all lands and in all ages, in splendour and vastness, testify to the metaphysical need of man, which, strong and ineradicable, follows close upon his physical need. Certainly whoever is satirically inclined might add that this metaphysical need is a modest fellow who is content with poor fare. It sometimes allows itself to be satisfied with clumsy fables and insipid tales. If only imprinted early enough, they are for a man adequate explanations of his existence and supports of his morality. Consider, for example, the Koran. This wretched book was sufficient to found a religion of the world, to satisfy the metaphysical need of innumerable millions of men for twelve hundred years, to become the foundation of their morality, and of no small contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody wars and most extended conquests. We find in it the saddest and the poorest form of Theism. Much may be lost through translation; but I have not been able to discover one single valuable thought in it. Such things show that metaphysical capacity does not go hand in hand with the metaphysical need. Yet it will appear that in the early ages of the present surface of the earth this was not the case, and that those who stood considerably nearer than we do to the beginning of the human race and the source of organic nature, had also both greater energy of the intuitive faculty of knowledge, and a truer disposition of mind, so that they were capable of a purer, more direct comprehension of the inner being of nature, and were thus in a position to satisfy the metaphysical need in a more worthy manner. Thus originated in the primitive ancestors of the Brahmans, the Rishis, the almost superhuman conceptions which were afterwards set down in the Upanishads of the Vedas.” Continue reading “Schopenhauer on the Upanishads”

Asking the question “compared to what?” helps in putting things into perspective. The year 2020 was bad. Yes, but compared to what? It looks bad only when compared to what one would have expected from the relatively peaceful and prosperous past few years. Humanity has endured a lot more pain and suffering in many wars and pandemics. It’s far from being the worst year ever in human history. I am afraid that the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are yet to come, and when they do, 2020 will not look as bad.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s aphorism “Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker” (What does not kill me, makes me stronger) is obviously true of infectious diseases. If an infection does not kill, the organism develops immunity and becomes better at fighting infections. In an analogous way, if a collective is able to survive a shock by developing an appropriate solution, it becomes better than what it was before the shock. Continue reading “The Nietzschean Ladder”

Once in a while I like to review stuff that I have on this blog. Here are some excerpts to fill in the gap while I get around to writing new material. Here’s a bit from Konark and Beyond (January 2007). Continue reading “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”

I missed marking the Winter Solstice of 2020 which was at 10:03 UT yesterday, December 21st. The wiki notes that “the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky.” This day onward, the period of daylight will continually increase in the Northern hemisphere until the Summer Solstice (which will be at 3:32 UT on 21st June, 2021) when the process will reverse.

It’s curious that although the night of Dec 21st is the longest night, Dec 21st is not the day with the latest sunrise. Sunrise time depends on the latitude of a place — the more distant from the equator, the later the sunrise and the earlier the sunset (making appropriate adjustments for the differences in the two hemispheres.) Where I live, sunrise was around 7:19 AM on Dec 21st; the latest sunrise will be on January 5th, 2021 at 7:23 AM. After Jan 5th, the sun will rise earlier on each subsequent days. Continue reading “Happy Winter Solstice”

From Dec 2010, here’s the post “Wikileaks is good for you.” Go take a look. If Trump has any sense, he would pardon Assange, Snowden, and Manning while he has the authority and redeem himself a tiny bit. But I have a sneaky suspicion that he wouldn’t do that. He’s too stupid and ignorant.

Please note that I didn’t say that Trump is evil. Trump is a megalomaniac and most certainly a shyster. But I don’t believe he is evil. The guy who won stole the US presidential elections and his running mate Harris are evil. (Just BTW, Biden’s basement is just a few miles from where I live.)

I don’t believe that Biden will serve out his term. I suspect the Democrats have a plan for him. Harris will get the Oval office before half the term is over. They will “retire” him. I don’t know what precise mechanism they’ll use but all I say is that they will do it as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow. This is for the record, and when the time comes, I will say, “I told you so.”

So you may ask, “what’s with that Costco mission picture in this post?” Here’s why. I think the politicians should learn the bit that’s at the top: “Obey the law.” As matters stand now, it appears they don’t give a rat’s ass about the law.

“Precepts for living together are not going to be handed down from on high. Men must use their own intelligence in imposing order on chaos, intelligence not in scientific problem-solving but in the more difficult sense of finding and maintaining agreement among themselves. Anarchy is ideal for ideal men; passionate men must be reasonable. Like so many men have done before me, I examine the bases for a society of men and women who want to be free but who recognize the inherent limits that social interdependence places on them.”[1]

Buchanan’s point is that there is no authority other than us humans and that there’s a tradeoff. Social interdependence cannot be avoided because we necessarily have to cooperate with other humans if we wish to enjoy the gains from trade and the division of labor that it entails. For that we have to arrive at some set of rules that we all agree to abide by through some process of negotiation. These rules will limit our own freedom of action but in exchange for that we will gain greater scope to exercise the freedoms and rights that we do retain. Continue reading “The Bases for a Free Society”