The Unsustainable US Recovery C. P. Chandrasekha and Jayati Ghosh
Even the limited and unsteady recovery of growth in the US a decade after the 2008 crisis is based on an increase in debt that renders it unsustainable. Unsustainable_US_recovery (Download the full text in PDF format) (This article was originally published in the Business Line on June 5, 2017)
Why workers lose C.P. Chandrasekhar
A long-acknowledged feature of global development since the 1970s is that in many countries—advanced and poor—those at the bottom of the income pyramid have benefited little, if at all, from whatever growth has occurred. One empirical outcome of that tendency has been a decline in the shares of labour in national income over time. While this has been noted earlier, it has become the focus of attention recently because of evidence of a popular backlash against globalisation as reflected in the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, the Donald Trump victory in the United States, and the rise of Far-Right…
Where will Global Demand come from? C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
As the US reduces its role as engine of global demand, there are no signs that other economies will be able to pick up the slack. The mercantilist approach exemplified by Germany is creating net global slowdown. Global_Demand (Download the full text in PDF format) (This article was originally published in the Business Line on May 22, 2017)
Public Bank Privatisation in a Post-truth World C.P. Chandrasekhar
Narendra Modi government appears to have decided to privatise public sector banks (PSBs). Preparations are underway with arguments being marshalled that “there is no alternative” to privatisation. Privatisation (Download the full text in PDF format) (This article was originally published in the Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 52, Issue No. 19, 13 May, 2017)
The Illusion of an Economic Spring C.P. Chandrasekhar
While policy makers, analysts and observers paint a picture of an ongoing global economic recovery, the numbers seem to drag the optimists down. Barely days after IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, declared at the spring meetings of the World Banka and the IMF that, “Spring is in the air and spring is in the economy as well,” came bad news from the US. The advanced economy that was being looked to as the one that would pull the world system out of a decade long period of sluggish growth performed poorly in the first quarter of 2017, growing at an…
Lopsided Industrialisation C. P. Chandrasekhar & Jayati Ghosh
Recent trends in the organisational form of units in the registered manufacturing sector suggest that India’s factory sector is not just abnormal but backward to boot. Lopsided_Industrialisation (Download the full text in PDF format) (This article was originally posted in the Business Line on May 8, 2017)
The De-digitisation of India C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
Despite the government's efforts to digitise the Indian economy forcibly, non-cash forms of payment appear to have declined as more currency has been made available to the public. This points to major flaws in the government's coercive approach and the underlying rationale for cashlessness. De_Digitisation_India (Download the full text in PDF format) (This article was originally published in the Business Line on April 24, 2017.)
The State in Chinese Banking C. P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
After four decades of financial reform China’s banking sector is still dominated by publicly owned institutions. But continuity in ownership does not mean that banking behaviour does not change. Chinese_Banking (Download the full text in PDF format) (This article was originally published in the Business Line on April 10, 2017)
The Rise and Fall of South Korea’s Chaebols C. P. Chandrasekhar
No discussion of South Korea’s dramatic transition from a poor underdeveloped country to a developed country member of the OECD club of rich nations can ignore the role of the chaebols—its ‘clans of wealth’. Consisting of a large number of legally independent firms controlled by a single family dominated-decision making centre (very much like India business groups), these Korean conglomerates grew rapidly during the regime of General Park Chung-hee (1961-1979), and today the top 10 of them earn revenues that are equivalent in value to around 80 per cent of the country’s GDP. For long credited as having implemented the…
ICT: Implications of imbalanced growth
An analysis of India's ICT performance suggests that software export success tends to hide both imbalances in production and their adverse balance of payments fall-out. ICT (Download the full text in PDF format) (This article was originally published in the Business Line on March 13, 2017)
