India’s shameful record on wealth inequality

WEALTH data are quite unreliable; and wealth distribution data even more so.

Inheritance and Bourgeois Ideology

IF a head-load worker were to ask a bourgeois economist “Why does Ambani have so much wealth but I do not?”, that economist’s answer would be that Ambani has certain “special qualities” which the headload worker lacks. Bourgeois economists however are not all agreed on what exactly these “special qualities” are that are supposed to explain wealth inequalities.These “special qualities” that supposedly explain a person’s being wealthy must be independent of the fact of that person’s being wealthy, if this explanation is to have logical soundness.

Demand-Constrained Versus Supply-Constrained Systems

THE idea is an old one, but the Hungarian economist Janos Kornai clearly conceptualised it, by drawing a distinction between a “demand-constrained system” and a “resource-constrained system”. A demand-constrained system is one where employment and output in the system are what they are because of the level of aggregate demand is what it is; if the level of demand increases then output and employment in the economy will increase, with very little increase in the price-level.

Demonetisation and the Question of Bank Credit

THE demonetisation of currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination in November 2016 suddenly brought a large amount of cash to the coffers of the banks. Since the banks had to pay interest on the deposits that the public was forced to make with them, they also had to use this cash in a manner that would earn them some income; otherwise its lying idle in their tills would erode their profitability.

The Rise in Inflation Rate

EVEN as the growth rate of the Indian economy is slowing down, and the index of industrial production actually showing negative growth for three consecutive months, August to October (over the corresponding months a year ago), the inflation rate in the economy has started accelerating. Significantly, the acceleration in inflation has been the sharpest precisely during these very months when the contraction in industrial output has been the most pronounced.India’s retail price inflation for the month of November 2019 (over November 2018) was 5.54 per cent.

The Perversity of the Neo-Liberal Fiscal Regime-II

THE second way, apart from defrauding the states of their legitimate share of resources, in which the centre is attempting to cope with the fiscal squeeze, which it has become subject to under the neoliberal regime, is by privatising a whole range of public sector enterprises.Not a day passes without the government announcing some measure of privatisation.

The Perversity of the Neo-Liberal Fiscal Regime-I

WHEN income growth slows down in an economy, so does the growth of tax revenue within the given tax regime. Since the government has certain expenditure obligations, to meet these obligations it has to either impose additional taxes or expand its fiscal deficit.

Fiscal Fallacies

“MAINSTREAM” economics does not appear to understand the functioning of the bourgeois economic order; and nowhere is this more evident than in matters relating to fiscal policy. It holds to this day that a fiscal deficit “crowds” out private investment by reducing private borrowing.

Pathetic State of the Economy: Modi Government Hides Data

THE National Statistical Office (NSO) has decided not to release the quinquennial survey data on consumer expenditure for 2017-18. This is because these data, leaked by The Business Standard (November15) show a drop of 3.7 per cent in real per capita consumer expenditure between 2011-12 and 2017-18, from Rs 1,501 per month to Rs 1,446 per month (at 2009-10 prices).An actual drop in per capita consumer expenditure is an extremely serious matter.

The Argument about Competitiveness

WITH the government being forced to withdraw from the RCEP agreement, an argument has arisen: if India is not competitive with other countries in producing a whole range of goods, which is why the producers of such goods within the country objected to the agreement in the first place, then why should it go on producing them?

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