Praxeology: My Reflexions on India

On 26th September, 2013 I ordered five books from Mises Store in USA. The books were on their way to my home when the Indian customs department detained my parcel in Ahmadabad foreign post office. I was waiting for my book parcel to arrive, but instead I got a letter from the postal department informing me about this detention. The letter gave no reason why Indian customs detained my book parcel. It just said that they have detained it, and I have to contact them for release of my parcel (see figure 1). Figure 1 In past also I have ordered books from Mises store, but my parcel was never detained by customs. I called customs office for clarification, and the custom official told me that he doesn't know anything about why they detained my book, but I need to send them some documents (purchase invoice, PAN card copy etc.). The very next day I sent everything to them. They released my parcel a day after, and feeling happy, I waited for it to arrive at my home. Next day when I ...

The Indian government has gone so insane over the issue of current account deficit and gold's share in it that they are now taking help of absolutely lunatic methods of filling that gap. The head priest, Shobhan Sarkar, of Uttar Pradesh Unnao temple had a dream of 1000 tonne gold hoard buried under the temple ruins. He saw this dream [sic] because he was troubled by the deteriorating health of the Indian economy - due to widening current account deficit - and wanted to help the Indian government mitigate this problem via this gold hoard. Working on the government's directives, the ASI (Archeological Survey of India) team has started the excavation work few days back. I know the whole situation looks like a dream itself, but sadly the matter is serious (recently ASI has started downplaying the whole matter). In fact, the Unnao temple ruin has become a favorite go to place for surrounding area people and media journalists! What does this whole situation signify? The way the...

The great “democracy” drama is about to begin in India. The election commission has announced the dates of state assembly elections for five states – viz. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Delhi - beginning in December, 2013. Many are calling this election round as a semi-final before the finals of Lok Sabha election in 2014. India is world’s so-called biggest democracy [sic], and voting is the main ritual of democratic religion. Voting’s symbolic power is tremendous as it keeps the slave population deluded in believing that they are the real owners of the government, and that the government officials work for their welfare! It keeps the Lincolnian myth of government of the people, by the people, and for the people alive. Millions of voters will go to polling stations to elect their so-called representatives thinking that doing so will change things for better. But, is it so? Is voting going to change anything for better? We have seen Indian public voting one el...

Lalu Prasad Yadav , the comic Indian politician, was finally convicted in the long running Fodder Scam . He, and his clique, was found guilty of siphoning off millions of rupees (950 crore) from the government treasury. His specific punishments will be announced on 3rd October, 2013. He mostly will get a jail time, and lose his political seat in Assembly. Many in mainstream media are describing this verdict as a harbinger of the end of political corruption in India. But, is it so? First, let's discuss whether this verdict serves justice or not. Lalu Yadav was accused - and now convicted - of gobbling up millions of tax payers' rupees in this Fodder scam. Justice demands that he returns this money to its lawful owners i.e., the tax payers. Is he and other convicted politicians/bureaucrats are going to do that? Did court order them to work in the market, earn those millions of rupee and pay it back to tax payers? No. Then, how can we say that this verdict serves just...

Recently while appearing at Frankfurt’s Goethe University to accept the Deutsche Bank prize in financial economics, RBI's new governor Raghuram Rajan asked an important question to the monetary authorities around the world. He questioned the merit of the unconventional monetary policy of ultra low interest rates to spur economic growth. Rajan said : We should wonder whether lower and lower interest rates are in fact part of the problem, I say I don't know . He also said: "We seem to be in a situation where we are doomed to inflate bubbles elsewhere" "In general, central bank stimulus risks letting governments off the hook... warning against central bankers seeing themselves as the ones who can solve all economic problems" "We need to think of the dangers of over stimulation. We need to think of the sustainability of growth created by stimulus measures" "It (interest rate tool) is very, very blunt ... targeted fiscal policy may be ...

Mr. Libertarian, Murray Rothbard, described the true nature of the State - aka government - in his monumental work The Ethics of Liberty in this way: " The State is nothing more nor less than a bandit gang writ large ". St. Augustine of Hippo, before Rothbard, said similar things about the State officials in his The City of God : “ What are kingdoms without justice? They're just gangs of bandits" . Famous abolitionist Henry Clarke Wright wrote this: States and nations are to be regarded as we regard combinations of men to pick pockets, to steal sheep, to rob on the road, to steal men, to range over seas as pirates - only on a larger and more imposing scale. When men steal, rob and murder as states and nations, it gives respectability to crime - the enormity of their crimes is lost sight of, amid the imposing number that commit them, and amid the glitter and pomp of equipage. (taken from, Carl Watner, The Criminal Metaphor in the Libertarian Tradition...

The new RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan, came with lot of fan fare in his new position as a central banker of this country. People, especially the industry,  had huge hopes from him that he will lower the interest rate and help revive the sagging economy, but he disappointed them by announcing an increase in the repo rate by 25 bps. After his policy announcement many media people are hailing him as an independent central banker who is not getting under the pressure of Indian government. But, is it true? Also, during the session with news reporters, after his policy announcement, Rajan said that his RBI is an "anti-inflation" institution! But, is this also true? First, the idea of an independent central bank is a joke. The Indian central bank RBI was nationalized in 1949 itself. This quote from the RBI's website will help dispel the myth of autonomous Indian central bank: Though originally privately owned, since nationalisation in 1949, the Reserve Bank is fully owned by...