The ethics of economics

As we look ourselves, I understand the weaknesses that we have individually and collectively. Does Pakistan suffer from resource constraints? I have no reason to believe that it does. Does it suffer from mental aberrations and I have no reason not to believe. We do suffer from mental aberrations.
Do we understand history and the role of ideology? Are you trying to state that the country and its population is thinking one? Are we oxy-morons educated and yet moronic in action? Are economic issues debated and the decisions at the institutional level discussed? Are these decisions then taken to a logical consideration?
A host of questions come to mind to inquire how we make choices that are national and that have an international bearing or those that have a joint and an interface with another country. Pakistans economics is riddled with mafias. It was John Ruskin, who very early stated that the merchant class does not know how to live and those, that do not know how to live how can they learn to die. Not an economist, but a professor of fine arts, his four lectures Unto this last [based on the last sermon on the Mount by Jesus Christ] stand out as four classic lectures that would put modern day Nobel laureate to rest with the kind of logic that these lectures suggest in economics.
So how do we make choices; those choices that make or break a nation. A leaders role is one of doing well by the nation and its people in general. It does not depend on self-glorification nor does it depend on personal asset collection. It is the giving hand that matters. Just examine how the budgets have been ordered around by the IMF and the WB and in the process they have encouraged the fossilisation of the minds of the country. Whenever, the West wants to change the focus, it merely sends its slaves in these two and such like organisations to shift focus of the country at hand.
Historical facts and doings are lost sight off and the loss of historical perspective only means that the ideology is a transient one and that transient ideology is presented as something that will inevitably come to pass. In Pakistan, how often does one see opinions flouted as facts and how often does one see the clout of the powerful rather than that of a reasoned and a logical mind.
If money is the main resource in economics, then the behaviour of the economy will always be dependent on the greed of the individuals comprising the class that has the authority and the power. What are those classes that have over the years taken from this country without putting anything in it? Is there arising trend in these groups? Are there new mafias emerging in the country? Will this have a further deleterious affect on the economics of this country and will this further take the ethics to the pits of the world? It would require massive effort to remove these mafias once they have been established.
The question also is what does that do to welfare economics? Does ethics reduce and in course of time eliminate welfare economics? It certainly seems so. Just imagine as to who are the beneficiaries of the new assets that have been created? A coterie of people that belonged to a class and I can name them and some of the earlier writers have had the courage to do so at great cost to themselves.
Is economics predictable or should we keep on describing the economy? If welfare economics has suffered as a result of the mafias what steps can the state take to reduce and in course of time eliminate the mafias that have overtaken the country. The assets are in the context of real estate and acquired through a mere paper transaction that has no trading or marketing link but simply the power of the powerful. They have yet to understand the power of the powerless. Once that power lets loose, then there is no stopping them. Lessons of history are forgotten and that makes life comfortable for a few and very uncomfortable to the many.
The impact of these kinds of activities has a bearing on the inflation that a country has. At the moment it is like trying to get a handle on the basis of what is happening. Practically every food item is suffering from massive inflationary tendencies. The reason was the lack of understanding of the demands of the primary sector. If social justice cannot be provided then the majority of the population will one day be aggrieved and the consequences of that we have seen in the emergence of Bangladesh. The gap between the poor and the poorest has also emerged as a major factor in the difficulty that arrived with the creation of that state and the mental anguish of the righteous population of Pakistan.
The banking sector needs to be evaluated for their misdeeds and the manner of their wasting resources? The reforms that were put in place made sure that the silver of the country was given to others at peanut prices. Habib Bank, UBL and other reforms in the banking sector were again carried out at the behest of the IMF, WB and the players taking actions to support these reforms were none other than those who had been brainwashed for a life time serving these institutions, and when they had been played out, they sent here for the last ditch effort at stabbing the country of their origin.
Worse was still to come with the arrival of the micro finance banking that was to supercede the co-operatives. The co-operatives were seen as obscene played out institutions without realising that what they were because of governments not having anything to do with rural welfare. Leadership positions were never adequately filled and instead a new-institutional arrangement where jobs could be given to favourites was organised. Co-operatives were sent in to liquidation. The central and the provincial banks faced the consequences of this and overnight a new white elephant had been created.
In a seminar at the Planning Commission on the 7th of March, the farmers of Bahawalpur came here to state what had actually taken place at their end. Their tale of woe brought the house to order. The micro credit given to them was with a cost of capital that was 36.5% and when they were given a loan of 10,000 rupees, they actually received Rs 7,500 and then the tale of woe started, they were passed to another micro bank for rescheduling and increasing the debt. The original Rs 7,500 rupees were increased now to a debt of Rs 60,000 per household. The roll on affect reminded what Justice Chotu Ram did just before partition when he written-off the debt of the Muslim farmers, they owed from Hindu banias. It was as if another branch of the banias had been created in Pakistan.
Taking cognisance of the issue, the SBP governor asked the micro banks to sort out the issue in favour of the farmers and to see that malpractices did not take place. Instead, they had used the profits from the farmers to launch a PR exercise in the newspapers and I have the cutting from the three banks that were placed in leading newspapers. What a coincidence that instead of resolving the issues as suggested, they have taken the other route.
The poor farmer kept on stating that these people were living in Noor Mahal, without realising that the Noor Mahal was her equivalent of the Ivory Tower in where offices of the micro credit banks are located. Noor Mahal; was the palace of the former Nawab of Bahawalpur taken over by the army and made in to a very rich response restaurant and living place. Its stench goes far and wide for it is very ostentatious and I believe much more than when it was with the Nawab of Bahawalpur. Such are the rules by which the authority lives. The very administrative expenses are so humungous that these guys seek executive privilege in order to keep it secret.
These are mouth-watering organisations, filthy in their work and filthier in their exploitative activities. I remember when the first institution had been initiated and the representative of the WB was showing off the glossy coloured document heralding the poverty reduction institutions. The venue was the finance ministry and I stated Well this will look after the poverty of one man. That it has done. The WB representative and myself parted ways that day only to meet eight years later when he requested his agricultural person to call me to a seminar on dairy industry.
He started what is now a major subsidy provider to MNCs involved in milk industry. We again had a run in and parted company. Subsequently, one of my colleagues exposed that he was in cohorts with the social welfare ministry and providing consultancy to his common law wife! Imran may well say Howzatt. Hows that it is. The governor should take note of how these banks have been regulated. Your SBP have failed for they do not take care of the processes. Another mafia of the sage Shaukat Azizs time has been identified. Another one? Were there more?