Pump-priming for car-dealers: Keynes groans in his grave
(If evidence was needed of the intellectual dishonesty of New Delhi’s new macroeconomic policy, here it is)
by
Subroto Roy
I have said the Government of India’s new macroeconomic policy announced on Sunday by Dr Manmohan Singh’s main economic policy aide has no economic models or data to support it, and may as likely worsen rather than dampen any business-cycle India might be on for the simple reason that no one has a clue where we are in the cycle, or indeed even if such a cycle exists. (See https://independentindian.com/2008/12/07/will-the-government-of-indias-economic-policy-dampen-or-worsen-the-business-cycle-if-such-a-cycle-exists-at-all-no-one-knows-%E2%80%9Cwhere-ignorance-is-bliss-%E2%80%98tis-folly-to-be-wise/)
The policy appears to be the result of the usual intense lobbying by organised capital and organised labour with the Government’s Ministries in New Delhi.
If evidence was needed of this root intellectual dishonesty, one need look only as far as “Highlights of India’s fiscal stimulus package” (Daily News and Analysis, December 7 2008) and note the item:
” Norms for government departments to replace vehicles relaxed”.
Dr Singh’s aide, after announcing the policy, openly spoke of how private automobile manufacturers had accumulated a lot of unintended inventory due to falling sales, and how they needed, in his opinion, to lower prices. Evidently, the Government has also decided to itself buy a lot of that unintended inventory too, using the very scarce public resources of India’s ordinary people. Pump-priming for car-dealers — JM Keynes groans in his grave! Watch out for those fancy fast new cars carrying India’s bureaucrats, politicians and their friends and family!
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