Views of a Nepali Economist

......there are (at least) four problems with capitalism, which the current crisis has revealed rather than caused:

1. The rise of low-wage competition from Asia, the slowdown in the rate of innovation, and the difficulty of monetizing some innovations has lead to a long-standing dearth of profitable investment opportunities and thus to slow real growth. One effect of this has been that money has flowed into malinvestments instead, creating a tendency towards speculative bubbles and slumps.

2. Top-down control of companies is inefficient, both for Hayekian reasons (bosses haven’t the knowledge or rationality to control big organizations) and because of perverse incentives and selection effects.

3. Capitalism concentrates ownership of (some) risky assets into a few hands, and thus creates greater fragility and vulnerability to crises than is technically necessary.

4. There’s a division between ownership and control. The problem of collective action, allied to the fact that the key asset in many firms is human rather than physical capital, means that shareholders are unwilling and unable to control firms. The result is that they become mechanisms whereby bosses and key workers can tunnel assets away from formal owners to those with real power.

As 2012 begins, however, investors are wondering if emerging markets may be due for a correction, triggered by a new wave of “risk off” behavior........few believe that the rapid economic growth and high trade deficits that Turkey has experienced in recent years can be sustained. Likewise, high GDP growth rates in Brazil and Argentina over the same period could soon reverse, particularly if global commodity prices fall – not a remote prospect if the Chinese economy begins to falter or global real interest rates rise this year. China, in turn, could land hard as its real-estate bubble deflates and the country’s banks are forced to work off the bad loans.

.....The empirical argument is simply historically based numerology: emerging-market crises seem to come in a 15-year cycle. The international debt crisis that erupted in mid-1982 began in Mexico, and then spread to the rest of Latin America and beyond. The East Asian crisis came 15 years later, hitting Thailand in mid-1997, and spreading from there to the rest of the region and beyond. We are now another 15 years down the road. So is 2012 the year for another emerging-markets crisis?

• Broaden the base and lower the rates
• Tax consumption, and not income
• Tax bads and not goods
• Keep it simple

Labels: brazil, capitalism, china, emerging markets, iPhone, taxation, thailand, turkey, US

# posted by Mukesh Khanal @ 3:58 PM 0 Comments

The 57-year-old, who will be heading a 34-member entourage including his wife Hisila Yami and six ministers, said though there is no fixed agenda for the visit, the Nepal side is keen to have free and frank discussions on a wide gamut of issues which will focus on economic development, greater investment in Nepal, infrastructure, improved border management and review of past bilateral agreements between the two countries.

The assistance will come mainly on 15 major areas, including roads and power transmission and development projects, education, micro-finances, poverty reduction, agricultural sector and climate change and disaster mitigation, among others.

Kutumba is a six-person ensemble that marries indigenous Nepali music with more contemporary sounds. The group was founded after its members recognized the impacts of the caste system on traditional music in Nepal. Each caste primarily focuses on a single instrument, but the traditional folk music that had been passed down from generation to generation was slowly being replaced by modern music. Kutumba wanted to find a way to preserve traditional Nepali folk music, but also attract a younger generation by integrating modern influences.

Researchers say they have used GPS signalling and the latest DNA sequencing techniques to plot the course of the disease -- and have discovered the source of outbreaks is usually communal water spouts....Health workers visited typhoid patients' homes and used GPS technology to capture the exact location, which was then plotted onto Google Earth, which maps the Earth by superimposing images from satellites and aerial photography....They took blood samples from hospitalised patients to isolate the organism -- which mutates as it spreads -- and allow analysis of its genetic make-up to identify where the disease had started....The researchers found that people living near communal water spouts and those living at a lower elevation were at by far the greatest risk of contracting the disease.

From the end of a bloody armed conflict, to major political reform that turned the country into one of the world's youngest republics, to a massive social movement that formally recognized lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights, the country of 26 million has moved ahead of many of its South Asian and Western counterparts.

The US officials said that they are keen to see Nepal develop a close partnership with the US in economic development, and specifically pointed out that Nepal and US can cooperate in hydropower and civil aviation sectors.

Nepal is preparing to launch a website allowing users to make a virtual tour of the country's popular tourist spots, including the world's highest mountain, officials said Wednesday. The site will contain computer-generated graphics of monuments and places of interest, allowing the web visitor to guide the viewpoint through a virtual tour, the Nepal Tourism Board said.

Labels: Everest, India, Kutumba, LGBT, Madison, typhoid, US, world bank

# posted by Mukesh Khanal @ 4:58 PM 0 Comments