An Awkward Corner

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"It is impossible to understand the economic system in which we are living if we try to interpret it as a rational scheme. It has to be understood as an awkward phase in a continuing process of historical development." Joan Robinson

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An Awkward Corner has moved

Posted by sadmin at

Thursday, October 01, 2009 2:41 PM

An Awkward Corner, along with all of Livemint's blogs has moved to a new Wordpress platform. Visit http://blog.livemint.com/an-awkward-corner/ for more on economics or simply click here . Also don't forget to update your RSS feed readers and tell all your friends! Share this post: email it! | del.icio.us! | digg it! | newsVine!

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An Idea For Lalit Modi: Dynamic Pricing

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Thursday, May 21, 2009 7:16 PM

I remember that many years ago one of the major soft drinks multinationals was test marketing a new dispensing machine that would charge according to the weather --- more for a can on a hot day and less on a cold day. This machine reportedly had an inbuilt system to measure the outside temperature. In theory, prices could fluctuate every minute and...

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Bharat and India: A Lesson From Economic History

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Monday, May 18, 2009 6:46 PM

As the new UPA government prepares to start work, we can expect a fresh round of debates on urban versus rural growth. This paragraph from a recent essay by Robert C Allen, professor of economic history at Oxford University, provides food for thought. He is writing about the Industrial Revolution in Europe. "... the growth of cities and the high...

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The attributes of the next PM

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Thursday, May 14, 2009 1:40 PM

Who will lead India? Two days before the actual results of the Lok Sabha elections are made public, it is clear that the race is going to be a very close one. The numbers will decide who will be the next PM. But who should be the next PM? That is an entirely different question and depends on what each Indian seeks in his new national leader. One way...

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Green shoots and differential calculus (Warning: more maths than horticulture involved)

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 8:48 PM

What exactly did Europe's top central banker mean when he said this? "We are, as far as growth is concerned, around the inflection point in the cycle," European Central Bank president Jean Clause Trichet told journalists on Monday after a meeting of central bankers in Basel. The world's top two financial newspapers have interpreted...

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Dating, Marrying, Spending

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 1:14 PM

A colleague walked up to me yesterday and asked: "What is the secret of a successful marriage?" This was not the begining of some existential discussion on the battle of the sexes but rather some very primary research for something she was working on. I gave a typically facetious answer: "The secret to a successful marriage is a patient...

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Satyam And Public Policy

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 2:33 PM

The government agencies and the interim board that managed to sell Satyam Computer Services to Tech Mahindra deserve credit for a job well done. Read Mint's editorials on this here and here . But what do these last three months tell us about the nature of Indian public policy? The question popped into my mind when I read this piece by Ashoak Upadhyaya...

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Ayn Rand Versus Karl Marx: An Interesting Factoid

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Monday, April 13, 2009 5:36 PM

"Only in the US and India do searches on Rand beat searches on Marx." That's Eric Crampton on whether people around the world are searching the Internet more frequently for Ayn Rand or Karl Marx --- and what this means. His message to libertarians: "So, Randians, be a bit careful about calling this a Randian moment. Economic crisis...

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Why And How Do We Cheat?

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Monday, April 06, 2009 3:18 PM

1. Should nurses treating a burn patient rip out bandages assuming he prefers intense pain over a short period time? Or should they take off the bandages slowly assuming that the patient prefers low-intensity pain over a long period of time? 2. Is a person less likely to cheat when he is reminded of an honour code or a religious text? 3. Is there any...

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Burn, Baby Burn --- And Save The World Economy

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Wednesday, April 01, 2009 3:03 PM

The latest fashionable idea that has grabbed the attention of desperate policy makers is cash for clunkers --- or the proposal that governments in recession-hit countries should pay consumers to trade it their old vehicles and buy new, fuel-efficient cars. The underlying belief is that demand for new cars will rise and give recession-stricken economies...

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Time To Dump Rajan And Mistry Reports?

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Thursday, March 26, 2009 12:33 PM

I recently had lunch with a few British civil servants and asked them whether they have given up on the possibility that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will further open up the Indian banking sector this April, as promised in its famous road map. They claimed to be mildly optimistic that financial sector reform is not a dead cause in India. TCA Srinivasa...

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Remembering Vajpayee: Where Have The Great Political Orators Gone?

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Thursday, March 19, 2009 5:51 PM

The tenant of this Awkward Corner is taking a break from economics and straying into an area he knows even less about --- politics. Let me start with a story, as far as I can remember it. An acquaintance who now heads a private sector bank, and was a journalist and economist in previous lives, had recounted this to me a few years ago. He was then employed...

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Introspection Time For Economists

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Monday, March 16, 2009 4:23 PM

It is by now widely accepted that the economic crisis has blown away the comfortable consensus that ruled academic and policy economics for maybe at least two decades. It is now introspection time. Willem Buiter posted a typically sharp and caustic attack on contemporary monetary economics , which he has called "useless". "Most mainstream...

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Question: What Variable Should The Fiscal Stimulus Target?

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Sunday, March 01, 2009 10:34 AM

Government around the world have been running up higher fiscal deficits in a bid to support their economies. But should there be an explicit variable that they should target? Christina Romer, a fine macroeconomist and chief of Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, says her president is keen that the stimulus should protect jobs. "The...

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Foxes, Hedgehogs, Forecasters

Posted by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha at

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:20 PM

How much do stock market analysts and economists really know about the future? Not as much as some of them claim --- or claimed till recently. A professor of organizational behaviour offers us some simple rules to understand which economic and stock market forecasters to trust and distrust. Philip Tetlock borrows a concept made popular by the philosopher...

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