Sunday, February 1, 2015

An interesting perspective by an Economic Rock Star

“The slow going Industrial Countries cannot absorb a significant amount of additional imports in the foreseeable future, hence the world does not have room for another export led china… therefore we have to move away from subsidizing exporters with cheap inputs and undervalued exchange rates…”
These are the words of someone I classify as an Economic Rock Star. He is Dr. Raghuram Rajan the Governor of the Federal Reserve of India who is on leave from the University of Chicago where he is the Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School. Between 2003 and 2006, Dr. Rajan was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund.
I find his perspective absolutely unique and relevant though it goes against popular wisdom and the policies of the Modi government whose Mantra is “Make in India”
He also is against import substitution to improve domestic production via tariff barriers which reduces domestic competition and increases the cost to the consumer. You can find the speech in which he outlined his opinion here. It is 45 minutes long but absolutely intriguing if you are into economics.
However what amazed me the most is that he has the confidence and the balls to say it out loud without fear of reprisals. I sincerely hope that our central bank too would take a leaf or two from his book.