The government’s economists must represent India

The government’s economists must not make the country subservient to any international system, but must facilitate the Indian ethos of saving money and working in a decentralized manner. Historically, international economic institutions have worked to the detriment of India while benefiting Europe and America. Now that the economies of USA and European countries are in a shambles, they want a new system so that Indian resources can be used to bail out their economies. The advocates of such a new system have articulated their objectives which will be destructive for India. According to their proposals, a new regulatory authority controlled by Americans and Europeans will control all banks in the world. Going by the name of Basel III, their measures will purportedly save banks from failure by applying economic theories taught at American universities.

Another plan is to impose negative interest rates, which is another way of saying that they will periodically deduct money from the savings accounts of depositors. It will not be possible to escape this system by withdrawing money from the bank because this system will be accompanied by what they call cashless currency, forcing everyone to use banks for all transactions.

The Western system is based on consumption and centralisation of financial power in the government and a few corporations resulting in one economic crisis after another. The seeming prosperity in the West is actually an illusion. While the American government freely prints the US dollar and hands it out to its citizens, people in Asia, Africa and Latin America work hard and create goods and services to earn small amounts of the same global reserve currency.

Americans who benefit through welfare schemes for corporations such as periodic bailouts and contracts from the World Bank swear by capitalism, while those who get freebies in the form of grants given to non-profit organisations, universities and other self proclaimed do-gooders swear by socialism. America also enables the socialism of Europe by supporting their currency, sharing the spoils of wars and sending them global contracts.

To understand how easy the West has it, one only has to imagine the Rupee as the global reserve currency with the Indian government freely handing it out to Indian citizens while Americans and Europeans working hard to produce goods and services for Indians in order to earn a few rupees.

Clearly, both capitalism and socialism which are extolled by the West are unsustainable as both these systems depend on owning the printing press of the global reserve currency. The disparity caused by the current set-up exists not only at the international level, but also within USA. For example, the bar to become a humanities professor at top ranked universities is extremely low for white people who thus have easy access to free money.

Blacks are shut out and any welfare payments made to them does not go beyond partial payments for their basic needs.

In the recent past, economists at NITI Aayog have recommended opening up India to foreign universities and modifying laws so that American corporations are granted more patent privileges. Patent laws are another manifestation of corporate welfare schemes and unfairly help American corporations become monopolies without having to face competition in the markets. NITI Aayog’s recommendations perpetuate the existing system of the West leeching off the rest of the world and their advice must be rejected along with all global economic systems.

The author comments on economic issues