How much did the Congress Cost India?

We all know that politicians by and large are corrupt. They steal from the public by a variety of means, ranging from kickbacks on purchases (defense equipment is a favorite) to allocation of scarce resources (radio spectrum and land are examples.) But as I have argued before on this blog, public corruption is a consequence of government control of the economy which is mandated by Nehruvian socialism. Being in control of the economy is hugely privately profitable. The profits from public office are well publicized. That’s one side of the equation of profit and loss. What about the loss?

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India: Past, Present & Possible Futures

Like last year in September, I am once again in Bangalore. Once again I am going to be speaking at Infosys on Wednesday. This week’s presentation (not yet composed) will be on the relationship between positive rights, freedom and prosperity. These are some of my thoughts related to last year’s presentation.

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Quote: Robert Lucas asks an Important Question about India

Robert Lucas Jr, Nobel laureate pondered India’s lack of economic prosperity and asked, “Is there some action a government of India could take that would lead the Indian economy to grow . . . ? If so, what exactly? If not, what is it about the “nature of India” that makes it so? The consequences for human welfare involved in questions like these are simply staggering: once one starts to think about them, it is hard to think about anything else.”

Source: On the Mechanics of Economic Development. Journal of Monetary Economics. July 1988. Read more at the Library of Economics and Liberty.

Hauled from the Archives: Manmohan Singh Epitomizes Evil

The following excerpt is the tail end of a post from March 2011 — over two years ago. Read it now in the context India’s precipitous economic decline brought about by Manmohan Singh.
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Do it for yourself

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Change is a Vector, not a Scalar

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The above tweet was prompted by a comment made to an old post “Why a Vote for the AAP is a vote for the Congress” referred to in the tweet. The comment in question was posted yesterday by one Mr Rajesh Debnath.
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The Gutless Über-Monster of India

More and more people are coming around to the realization that the man (I use the term loosely) who has enabled the loot of the country and driven its economy into the ground is despicable. Hundreds of millions already poor people will suffer increased hunger and deprivation. To say that I despise him barely comes close to how I feel. Anyone who feeds the awful monster of poverty with hundreds of millions of humans is an über-monster.

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The Unbearable Collective Stupidity of the Masses

It’s all karma, neh?

I usually use that line as a sign off to some of my posts. But this time I lead with it because — well, let me come to that. Karma is a Sanskrit word whose meaning is difficult to convey precisely but the two (of the many) important facets of the word are salient in this context. First is karma as action, and the second the consequence of action. This bears repetition: the same word refers to action as well as the consequences of action. This is by no means accidental.
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