A Giant Tree Falls!

One of the most outstanding economists of our times Prof Samuelson died on Sunday at the age of 94.It is a great loss to all students and teachers of economics .
Prof Samuelson was responsible for making MIT an outstanding place to learn and teach Economics.
He once said about inflation "In the good olden days we used to go to market with money in our pockets and come home with food in the baskets;
Nowadays people go to market with money in the baskets and come home with food in their pockets"
We have seen in television women carrying money in the baskets and going to markets in Zimbabwe where hyper inflation crossed 24000%.
He once commented on the population explosion in developing countries like India "in future before an aircraft lands the pilot will have to make an extra announcement that you are now going to land in a city where you have only standing room!"

List of e journals in Economics

List of Open Access (FREE) Journals in Economics


1. Alaska Economic Trends
2. Analisis Economico
3. Annals of Economics and Finance
4. Asia-Pacific Development Journal
5. Asian Development Review
6. Australian Review of Public Affair
7. BILTOK
8. Business Communications Review (Registration required)
9. Business Finance
10. CESifo Forum
11. Computers in Higher Education Economics Review
12. Cuadernos de Economia
13. Cuadernos de economia - Latin American Journal of Economics
14. Decisions in Imaging Economics
15. Demographic Research
16. Economia Mexicana
17. Economic Analysis Working Papers
18. Economic and Financial Policy Review
19. Economic Bulletin
20. Econ Journal Watch
21. Economic Perspectives
22. Economic Trends
23. Economics : The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal Economics Bulletin
24. Economics,Management and Financial Markets
25. EconSouth
26. Ekonomska Misao i Praksa
27. Ekonomski Pregled
28. Electronic Journal of Evolutionary Modeling and Economic Dynamics
29. Erasmus Law and Economics Review
30. European Journal of Comparative Economics
31. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences
32. Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review
33. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Economic Review
34. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas Economic Review
35. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly
36. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Review
37. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review
38. Finance & Development
39. Financial Advisor
40. Financial Counseling and Planning
41. Financial Management
42. Financial Planning (Registration required)
43. Financial Stability Review
44. Financial Theory and Practice
45. Financial Update
46. Finnish Economic Papers
47. Global Finance
48. IMF Research Bulletin
49. IMF Staff Papers
50. IMF Survey
51. Indiana Business Review
52. Industrial Economist
53. International Journal of Applied Econometrics and Quantitative Studies
54. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics
55. International Review of Economics Education
56. Ivey Business Journal
57. Journal of Applied Economics
58. Journal of Economic Education
59. Journal of Economics and Finance Education
60. Journal of Financial Planning
61. Journal of Home Economics of Japan
62. Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy
63. Kyoto Economic Review
64. MyBusiness Magazine
65. New England Economic Indicators
66. New England Economic Review
67. New Perspectives on Political Economy
68. Nova Economia
69. Regional Economist
70. Reserve Bank of India Bulletin
71. Reserve Bank of India Bulletin: Weekly Statistical Supplement
72. Revista brasileira de economia
73. Revista de Economica Politica
74. Russian Economy: Trends and Perspectives
75. Theoretical and Applied Economics
76. Theoretical Economics
77. Western Economic Developments

LIBRARY WITHOUT WALLS: Librarian's Blog

The Economics Club in association with the R. A. Podar College of Commerce & Economics is organising a one-day workshop, the first of its kind, for librarians on the theme ‘Library Without Walls’!

At this workshop, 30 librarians from across Mumbai will be each creating a Librarian’s Blog ! This blog will bring the library to your doorstep and act as an ‘interactive source of information’ about your library! A Librarian’s Blog is a very interesting and powerful tool which can empower libraries!

Venue: R. A. Podar College Date & Time: 7th October - 8:30 to 3:30pm

For further details you may contact, Mr. Santosh Patil, Librarian, Podar College - 9969077092 or Prof. Rajam Rajagopalan, Vice-Principal, Podar College – 9820338267, or Mr. G. S. Panikar, President, The Economics Club – 9324818296

The Economics Of Black Money.

I read an article in 'The Indian Economy Blog' titled "How Nehru and Shastri made Dubai Rich". It was about two years back and generated a lot of discussion on how our socialist regulations resulted in smuggling of gold from Dubai and other Gulf countries. Similarly, MRTP and FERA Acts also have done heavy damage to Indian economy. There is no correct estimate of the extent of capital moved out of India by businessmen and politicians. However, a few studies by some retired government officials and Swiss Bank reports give us a fair idea.

Recently Mr. K.V.M. Pai a former Chief Commissioner of Income tax, Mumbai delivered a few lectures organised by the Forum Of Free Enterprise on the topic 'Black Money Menace in India time for Action'. In his lecture he quoted a Swiss Bank Report 2006 which deals with deposits held by individuals from different countries in Switzerland. It is not surprising that India topped the list with $1456 billion in deposits which was more than the total deposits by the citizens of all other countries put together in Swiss banks. Who says India is poor? (Perhaps India is still poor where as rich Indians support the Swiss financial system by providing all the necessary funds!)

Mr. Pai in his talk argued that the amount deposited in Swiss Banks by Indians is about 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt in 2006. Once this huge black money comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours!According to Mr. Pai "It is one of the largest loots witnessed by mankind in entire economic history of the world since 1947."

Secret Banking in Switzerland
Secret banking in Switzerland is not a new phenomenon. It dates back to 1713 when the Council of Geneva passed a law preventing banks sharing information about their clients. In the 1930s France and Germany tried to change this rule to prevent flight of capital. The Swiss responded with a new law which made releasing of client information a crime. The other factor encouraged people to deposit money in Swiss Banks was the political stability. At present it is estimated that the Swiss Banks hold about 7 trillion in private deposits. The Swiss laws make it a crime to release the name of an account holder. The only exception is when a particular client is suspected of evading tax authorities in a country and the client is given an opportunity to answer to Swiss authorities. We have the 'Saga of the Bofors case' involving a former prime minister of India.

The Swiss Banks are in the news recently for a slightly different reason. The American Internal Revenue Service(IRS) filed a civic suit in a US District Court in Miami to force the largest Swiss Bank, UBS to reveal the identities of some American citizens who have secret Swiss Bank accounts. The UBS was forced to release about 250 names out of about 52000 Americans allegedly holding secret accounts in these banks. It has a tremendous long term impact on the Swiss Banking System. In the future it may be difficult for a Swiss banker to promise ultimate secrecy in bank accounts to clients.

Since the Americans and Europeans have a strong network of intelligence on the revenue side tax evasion is comparatively lesser than in developing economies of Asia and Africa.

The high marginal tax rates combined with notorious foreign exchange rules in India resulted in Indians (both businesmen and politicians) siphoning massive amounts of money from India. It is said that a major part of such deposits of politicians or military rulers in the tax havens are unclaimed since the depositors are either in jail or were killed in military coup. The unaccounted wealth is amassed using wrong means and many account holders have not provided nominees for their bank accounts.

A recent study by Wharton Faculty on secret bank accounts found that Switzerland leads with such deposits ($2.0 trillion) followed by UK and Channel islands($1.4 )and Luxemberg($800 billion). The other destinations for unaccounted money are Bahamas and Bermuda ($700 billion), US($600 bn), Singapore($550bn), Hongkong ($350bn) etc. Many Indian businessmen and politicians are believed to have large bank deposits and investments in all these places.

When millions of Indians live in miserable conditions and the government pleads lack of funds as an excuse for not investing enough in education and infrastructure, our rich and corrupt continue to enrich foreign nations!

India is shining again!!!

This is a great moment of celebration: all Indians can be really proud of the achievement at the Oscars. It is a triumph for Indian talent combined with the dedication of the British mind. Right from Rahman, Resul and the hundreds of people who worked hard to make Slumdog a perfect success no words can express their joy and excitement!

Rahman's success proves a known fact; to be successful one needs to be extremely passionate. Success came knocking when Rahman and music became inseparable. He dreamt that one day his music will be played all over the world and the dream has come true!

After all the hype one shouldn't forget the inhuman conditions in which millions of children live in India's slums. More than half of them do not go to school and are deprived of their childhood. Thanks to Danny Boyle, we can't hide our underbelly anymore!!

It is a golden opportunity for us to provide all basic facilities to the poor. The government, corporates, NGO's and the general public should come together to fight poverty in the country. We need to put all our children back to school. It is indeed a shame when more than 19% of our children suffer from malnutrition and more than 87% of India's population in the rural areas do not get the minimum calorie requirements.

But, this is a chance of a life time. Nobody can deny our right to celebrate. JAI HO!!

Crisis and Opportunities

This is a brief report on the Business Seminar organised at Y.B. Chavan Centre by MEDC on Economic Outlook and Business Prospects for 2009-10. The key note address was delivered by Dr. Suresh Tendulkar, Chairman, PM's Economic Council.

Dr. Tendulkar began by telling about a Chinese word "wei ji" which is supposed to mean both crisis and opportunities. The global financial crisis should be seen as an opportunity to increase efficiency and productivity. Further any crisis can make people wiser. It has brought all central banks together abandoning their usual 'beggar thy neighbour' attitude. Milton Friedman and even the current Fed Chief argued that central banks are to be blamed for such financial crisis.
"Great Depression is caused by the poor policy making by the central bank." Milton Friedman.
Dr. Suresh Tendulkar tried to lessen the anxiety of the people who came to attend the seminar by saying that one should not bother too much about the stock markets. "The most sensible thing about the sensex is that it does not make any sense!"
Elaborating the theme of his lecture 'Economic Outlook' he stated that any economic forecast is conditional since the policy makers can only provide incentives or disincentives while the success depends on many factors.
The economic outlook for fiscal 2009-10 is made on a number of assumptions relating to the expected turnaround of the global economy and a host of domestic factors. The positive factors are the expectations that the financial markets may revive sooner due to the co-ordinated efforts of the central banks in fighting recession. Since November, major central banks have been cutting interest rates to spur growth. The European Central Bank reduced the rate to 2.5% while the Bank of England went a step further to bring down the key rate to 2% for the first time since its inception.

The fairly optimistic outlook by the Prime Minister's Advisory Council is based on a couple of domestic factors like a 5% growth in agriculture for many years which created strong rural demand. He said that the Indian agriculture is not affected badly by the global meltdown. However, demand in the urban sector has been affected as a consequence of the rising interest rates. Dr. Tendulkar was of the view that the fiscal stimulus and easing of the rates by RBI would help the urban consumers. Better foreign exchange position is also giving us confidence.
He reminded the audience that the comfortable position that we enjoy today is the result of the dismantling of government controls since 1991.
On the flip side he pointed towards the poor progress in infrastructure due to lack of coordination between the central and state agencies and the underperforming power sector. Though we can expect some improvement in the power sector when gas from Kaveri Basin and other sources start commercial production.
Answering queries on the financial sector he opined that asset quality will deteriorate in the short run before the situation improves. After all, the so called 'vanila 'or 'exotic' instruments had turned 'toxic' all over the world. Dr Tendulkar ended his discourse by warning against the 'irrational pessimism' created by the media on the impact of global financial turmoil on Indian economy.(Are we moving from 'irrational exuberance' to 'irrational pessimism'?)
Some quotes from Milton Friedman:
"Governments never learn. Only people learn."
"Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government programme."

LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

Thirty seven year old Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has been asked by the Republican Leadership to deliver the party's response to Barack Obama's maiden State of The Union Address to Congress on 24th February.

Republican party leaders have declared that their party must not be simply the party of "Opposition", but the party of "Better Solutions".

Jindal has been selected not just because he is young.He has reformed government and brought many innovative ideas to make it work for the people.Jindal who is the son of first generation immigrants has made ethics and governance his central theme of
campaign like Obama.
Now the million dollar question being asked again and again by Indians-whether we will ever have an Obama.....
As an Indian, Iam too frustrated with the class of politicians we have inherited.The dance of 'mobocracy' we witnessed in UP, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa recently and mute response from political leaders across India have been too disgusting.They don't deserve our votes. By keeping quiet they have shown their poor leadership abilities.How can any such person bocome a true leader like Obama or even Jindal?
I love Obama for his honesty . He has the courage to admit his mistakes and never loses his cool.Look at the leader who invited John McCain for dinner and consultations immediately after a landslide victory.Obama has some of the best qualities of Mahatma Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King(Jr) .

He has the unmatched ability to capture the hearts and minds of the people, especially the youth.Do the so called leaders in India have any of his qualities?Obama has the hallmarks of a great leader.

According to Newell, author of 'The Soul of a Leader,Character and Ten Lessons in Political Greatness',a political leader has to have two or three things they want to get done,and so have the ability to focus on them from the outset,and to know ahead of time what they are.

"Great Leaders don't make up any agendas as they go along and don't just respond to the pressures of daily events", Newell.
Starting a website and Blog or sleeping in a village with an 'English tourist' is just not enough to become a mass leader!

Teacher Tube: Video Sharing for Teachers

It is a wonderful day and the weatheris cool.In my search for new ideas for teaching and learning ,I came across a wonderful site " TeacherTube.com".Though it is very similar to YouTube,it has many advantages to the teaching community as compared to YouTube which is very general .In YouTube one has to really search and find a video on education. In TeacherTube everything is for teachers. Is n't it really cool!!
I really congratulate the great teachers behind this innovation.



Teacher Tube: Video Sharing for Teachers

Waiting for the Inauguration

On the eve of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States,people around the world are excited like never before.The only other President who ignited whole world during the recent times was John F Kennedy.People all over accepted Kennedy's words,"My fellow citizens of the world,ask not what America will do for you but what,together we can do for the freedom of man"
His oratory evoked hope for the whole world especially for the youth for whom he was an icon.It was a sort of assurance to the world that America will stand for justice and freedom.
However,the American dream died gradually for many around the world as successive presidents pursued the interests of only the rich and the powerful.Things became worse during last couple of years when Washington tried to destabilise nations allegedly to help big American oil companies.
Finally, the world was pushed in to a severe economic crisis since Great Depression by the Wall Street corporations and greedy financial institutions aided by the inactive regulators of capital market.
What is so special about this election in America?This time the whole world voted for the future president of States much before the American voters made up their mind.Right from Buenos Aires to Birlin to Mumbai it was only Obama Obama.
Once again our hopes and aspirations are raised by the man from Hawai who enterd politics with a "genuine sense of mission to make life better for most people in the middle class."
Ronald Regan declared in 1981 that "government is not the solution to our problem,government is the problem"
Obama believes that" a pro-active leadership with honesty and integrity can provide solutions for the people"
We are all waiting for OBAMA to lead us to a progressive and peaceful world out of this severe recession.

A Victory for Democracy!

The industrialists assembled in for the 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit' took an extra-ordinary step forward and declared "Narendrabhai, the leader of the western state is the most suitable person to become the leader of the nation". There is no disagreement on the spirit of the declaration made by the group including the highly respected Ratan Tata at Ahmedabad. Large number of Indians agree that we need a strong leader with a vision for the country. This belief has been strengthened further as a result of the vulnerability of the country to multiple terror attacks.
Except for the familiar reaction of a lone spokesman of the ruling party at the centre, even the most secular among the secular press also seem to be supporting this view. Such a thing was unimaginable in India earlier. So liberalisation is taking strong roots in the country!
During the 60's and 70's the Congress Party used poverty as a weapon to garner votes while blaming the Tatas, Birlas and the Mafatlals for all the problems faced by the country (Reliance was too small those days). The political leaders collected funds from businessmen by selling licences to a selected few while creating an "Inspector Raj" across the country.
The businessmen in India never dared to praise an opposition leader like Modi before. It is surely a sign that the industry is gradually getting out of government control. All credit should go to Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.
Let us call it a victory for democracy when people speak out without any fear!

Creating a Librarian's Blog

Blogging@Your Library

I am presently working on a very intersting presentation for the Refresher Course for University and College Librarians. Library is the "Heart of a Learning Institution" and a librarian meets more students than the teachers or the head of an educational institution. Many studies conducted in American Universities have tried to establish the positive relationship beween good libraries and student progression.
When we talk to students about their reading habits in Mumbai, they often complain about the difficulty in accessing books in the college libraries or unfriendly behavior of the staff. My plan is to create a Librarian's Blog which can give information to members on all new arrivals of books, periodicals and events organised in the library.
I will write more about it after the presentation on 15th January at the Academic Staff College, Mumbai University.