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One Small Step.....

One Small Step….. GangaPrasad Rao gangaprasadmeal@gmail.com Paris is behind us, and all is well with the world!....... But seriously, and unless a global technology cartel, possessing a zero-emissions, near zero- marginal cost, closed-cycle nuclear technology is blackmailing the peoples of various nations (Wish the bourses could bet on such bizarre possibilities !), our global Commons, our lives, and those of future generations, are at significant risk - 150 heads of state notwithstanding. Carbon permits are the academically-recommended instrument to inventory, contain and shrink CO2 emissions back to climate sustainability. But in the decades since it was first suggested, buying permits has been entirely the onus of the industry that consumes energy to produce private household goods, intermediate goods, as well as public goods and services. The fact that it is demand from end users - households, businesses, and the Government - that drives the demand for energy, is elementary, but of...

Damage-Collateral-Compensation Bonds

Damage-Collateral-Compensation Bonds GangaPrasad Rao gangaprasad.rao@gmail.com gprasadrao@hotmail.com The Nominal per-capita economic paradigm that many societies have adopted to raise their standard of living is not without its pitfalls. Nominal societies hasten a desired future by accommodating some ’real redux-nominal ZS’, and permitting some ‘hastening risk’ upon members of society. The damages and compensation claims resulting from such risks translating into real events in an inequitable nominal economy are shared by Insurance firms who insure Privates, and implicitly by the society/Government that covers or comes to the aid of the uninsured Public at large. Thus, if Privates enjoyed the benefits of anticipatory insurance post-fact the occurrence of the Risk event, the Public settles for as much EO-compensation as the Government deems expedient. This nominal dichotomy permits consumption-externalities by the Rich, and transfers them to the Poor who are victimized at the receiving...

Really Nominal !

Really Nominal! GangaPrasad Rao For some time now, the schizophrenic me has been debating the implications of nominal laissez-faire and real designs in the economic policy sphere (stoked by ‘Faith in an Unregulated Free Market? Don’t Fall for It’: New York Times). We learn at school the virtues of Schumpeterian innovation within a laissez faire economic paradigm - a paradigm in which entrepreneurs stake their technologies, goods, services and strategies against each other, and let the market-comprised of consumers, intermediate producers and investors- decide the winner. Seemed a very logical, and even a just resolution. Why rein the innovative zeal of entrepreneurs when creativity flows from unbridled competition engendered by the laissez faire under the Nominal paradigm? Remove barriers to entry, lower corporate taxes, permit free flow of capital, and what you have is a nominal utopia that serves the masses and elevates their immediate state of happiness. But has the reality of laiss...

Nominal Dichotomy?

Decades back, I remember my uncle, in his wheelchair, reminded me, almost scolding, that merely repeating something doesn't turn it true. Perhaps what I related to him was indeed incredulous..... But those were, and these are, nominal times! Some things repeat .... Like politics, like nominal coalition pressures, like inflation, and ......the sliding FX! And they are, Nominally True - de facto! Back in 70s, inflation was in the double digits in the aftermath of the oil crisis, our population half what it is today, and the Dollar exchanged for 8 Rupees, perhaps less. So what went wrong and who got away.... and how? It turns out Democracy is blind to the nature of economic system adopted under it - whether the trade-oriented, per-capita Nominal paradigm, or the infrastructure-focused Real paradigm. The many governments that we elected found the 'desi'-hybrid version of the per-capita oriented, nominal paradigm - based on inflation-managed capitalism, FX-massaged trade (and ex...

Majority-Minority Ire: A Lesson in Group Sociology

You know what they say? "You better not...... Else I take a key on you". Apparently, a very common threat in an over-populous society with rampant injustice that induces people to grimace at each other for merely being around, and sue if they rub shoulders. Almost, except that they sue for balancing damages - not a lump sum, but for all future time..... and not in Courts, but socially, leaning on their Status within a social hierarchy. Yeah, the same hierarchy that tells me in so many different ways that I fell short of royalty, albeit as a Minority - something I'd gladly accept but for what was ingrained into me by parents! But this is no biography. I seek to highlight the frictions from diversity within a competitive society. Excusing a modicum of vice and slavery that seems necessary to grasp the future of a large group, even control and '3D-print it' it (don't tell me it's a balancing resolution against the PV-Monetization of future profits in the Nomi...

Inflation Tolerances, Expectations and Socio-Political Strategies

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Inflation Tolerances, Expectations and Socio-Political Strategies Ganga Prasad Rao Energy, Environmental and Mineral Economist gangaprasad.rao@gmail.com gprasadrao@hotmail.com Disclaimer : The Author makes no claims to the factuality of the content, or the outcomes indicated in the designs proposed hereinunder. In the long run, inflation is my Dad,.......... even Mom! Introduction Inflation is in the news.... yet again! This time, it is the right-leaning BJP-led government making a compact with the RBI to manage inflation within a broad-band. Sounds quite fair and uncomplicated. After all, it is the Government's business to make decisions that concern the fisc, and the Central bank's mandate to manage monetary policy, including inflation, in a manner consistent with the Government's short- and intermediate-term macroeconomic plans. But look deeper......and ask what if the RBI does not get it right? It is universally known among Monetary economists that inflation, ...