Against monetary dogma
“We’re captive on the carousel of time,” sang Joni Mitchell, “and go round and round and round/In the circle game.” The circle game is Pakistan’s dependence on stand-by credit, this…
How to challenge a dogma – Part I
A few weeks ago, former finance minister Dr Miftah Ismail created a small political and social storm in the country by speaking out about the elite of the country, claiming…
World Bank needs to revisit its policy and lending focus
In its recently released report ‘Pakistan development update October 2023: restoring fiscal sustainability’ the World Bank (WB), just like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policy thinking, including as highlighted in…
Austerity and the threat of another pandemic
‘During the peak of the Omicron wave in January 2022, US congressional leaders across the political spectrum were frustrated by the need to transform the country’s pandemic response. “We can…
Crimes against logic
In August 1985, at a conference in Havana, Fidel Castro laid out the facts and figures and indeed the mathematical impossibility of the Third World ever being able to repay…
Learning from hitmen
Despite the disastrous consequences of the policies imposed by the global monetary institutions on Pakistan, a brigade of new liberal experts is still of the view that the salvation of…
How to prevent inflation
Than Attacking Working People With Higher Interest Rates’ A deafening silence defines ‘debates’ among US leaders about stopping or slowing today’s inflation. Alternatives to the Federal Reserve’s raising of interest…
How to avert economic collapse
The worst kept secret about the present economic crisis is that it has resulted from our rulers having saddled the people with a huge debt while harvesting its proceeds to…
A post-Covid-19 world
Major wars and pandemics, are the sort of happenings that change the world as we know it before they have happened. The Black Death lead to massive deaths in the…
Growthmania, again
There is an old Sindhi saying to the effect, loosely, that: When God is displeased, he turns the mind, he wields no weapon; he shows (safety in) that way, which…
