It is generally argued that politics has a strong influence on the economy in any society. There is another popular argument; according to which, economics is the basis of politics but the latter has a clear precedence over everything else. However, there are several economic approaches through which politics could be forced to fall from the centre stage. For example, there is a conception or a belief that "good economics is good politics" or "good economic policies can necessarily relax political constraints". However, this line of reasoning is effectively countered on the premise that any economic advice that seeks to ignore politics runs the grave risk of inviting trouble. Noted economist and a former governor, State Bank of Pakistan, Dr Ishrat Husain, for example, seems to have advanced-along similar lines-a strong argument in his contribution to the newspaper's golden jubilee publication. According to him, "[A] healthy and vibrant economy is what the country [Pakistan] needs. This is possible only when good governance is practiced. There is a lot of truth in the saying that "good governance is good politics"." His point of view, however, leads to two important questions: Does good economics make for good politics? The other question is whether or not good economics is considered good politics in the context of Pakistan. These arguments sound quite plausible in that these, at least, explain a profound relationship between politics and economics.
Insofar as Pakistan is concerned, the "politics has precedence over economics" logic appears quite convincing because ours is a country where economic imperatives are always held hostage by political exigencies. The same could also be true in the case of India. Answering a question raised by a journalist of an international publication, the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, famously said that she would prefer a non-technical but astute politician for the job of running a mega public- sector industrial complex over a technically sound expert even if the latter is endowed with experience of successfully running huge industrial units for over five decades and the former does not even possess the experience of running a small grocery shop. Her remarks showed--clearly and unambiguously-- strong appreciation of grim political realities. Dogged resistance to the sell-off of Pakistan Steel Mills and Pakistan International Airlines appears to be along similar lines.
It may, therefore, be objectively argued that growth phase lasts for only a few years while decline perpetuates indefinitely mainly because of our subsequent governments' flawed policies, political bickering and rampant corruption. It is, however, interesting to note that in the case of Israel, for example, which is a technologically advanced economy, economic issues took precedence even over peace as Tel Aviv's recent general elections neared. But ours is an economy where economic considerations are not placed above political ones. The plausibility of this argument may not be restricted to the case of developing economies alone. According to a noted Western intellectual, "the US where politics had always taken precedence over economics throughout American political and social thought, neoliberal ideas represent the reversal of these [preferences]".
Another noted economist and a former governor of State Bank of Pakistan, Salim Raza, in his write-up that he has meticulously penned for the same publication seems to have highlighted the threats posed by the growing popularity of neoliberal ideas beyond the continent. According to him, "the current free market, or laissez faire economy, operates beyond the political and social control of the nation-state; its principal agents are giant transnational corporations, and its popular 'constituency' is its market - the global investor and consumer. In the 'liberalized' economy, the autonomy of individual countries, to put their own society's interests first, is compromised."
Then what should be the way forward? One may find one of the plausible answers to this challenge from global economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. In their Economics versus Politics: Pitfalls of Policy Advice (published by the Journal of Economic Perspectives: Volume 27, Number 2-Spring 2013-Pages 173-192, they have reasoned that "[an] economic analysis needs to identify, theoretically and empirically, conditions under which politics and economics run into conflict, and then evaluate policy proposals ...."
Here perhaps comes the role of newspapers that can help policymakers in evaluating proposals and articulating policy decisions by playing the role of reliable sources of information and convenient platforms for initiating informed debates. But a large number of economists, if not all, do not favorably look at what is generally produced by economic/financial newspapers. In his famous work Journalism and Economics: The Tangled Webs of Profession, Narrative, and Responsibility in a Modern Democracy, Richard Parker has argued: "Economists often find fault with the way in which economic information is reported. ... Journalists, for their part, find much of what economists do both incomprehensible and irrelevant."
Every newspaper that is known for its astute economic outlook is always required to give equal if not more attention to political news, analyses and comments, although economic news shapes the political agenda. There are quite a few economic/financial newspapers in Europe in particular that vigorously seek to compete with general or mainstream dailies even in the arena of coverage and display of political news and comments. The way the Financial Times of the UK does it for its readers is a strong case in point. Germany's Handelsblatt could be cited as another major example in this regard. In the context of Asia, every major economy is armed by at least one economic-finance newspaper known for its wide acceptance as a principal source of information in the realms of economics and finance. For example, Japan's Nihon Keizai and India's The Economic Times and many others-dailies, weeklies and monthlies-- belong to this category. The Economist, though a weekly publication, is widely described as the best source of news, analyses and comments in the realms of economics and finance. Insofar as Pakistan is concerned, Business Recorder-a broadsheet daily that has been celebrating its golden jubilee this year-is arguably the principal source of information in relation to economics, business and finance. Prior to the launch of this newspaper in the mid 60s, mainstream newspapers carried not many stories; none of them had devoted even one single page to business/financial news. At present, there is no doubt about the fact that more and more consumers want to read financial press and almost all mainstream dailies have beefed up the coverage of trade and industry in particular. Business Recorder carries a variety of sections containing news, analyses and comments in its every issue with a view to meeting the growing expectations of its readers. Of course, political news and comments have a strong presence in this newspaper too. Its sections contain news on national and international politics, global corporate world, daily updates on local and international commodities, currencies and stocks. It is only this newspaper through which a reader can find comprehensive coverage of issues that may appear trivial or less relevant to other newspapers such as how the EU would charge Russia's Gazprom with market abuse and why Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, has diversified its sources of imports of this commodity. One would also find in-depth coverage of global stocks-the FTSE, the Wall Street, Gulf markets, European bourses, SA and SE Asia Stocks, etc. There are many other examples through which newspaper readers can easily discern the approach of Business Recorder that is vastly different from others'. For example, the current leftist Greek government's response to the economic crisis may be treated by many publications as a Europe-specific development stemming from EU's economic woes, but here at Business Recorder emphasis is laid on obtaining a bigger picture of the situation through comprehensive coverage of not only US-Europe economies but also of all economies-developed, developing and emerging-- as focus is not restricted to Pakistan's trading partners alone. In the case of trading partners, efforts are made to remind country's policymakers that they must not lose sight of the country's short-, medium and long-term economic, political and strategic interests. Seen from that very prism, one could objectively deduce that it has been Business Recorder's policy to help subsequent governments shape up their agendas. One major example in this regard is Pakistan's relationship with its "all-weather friend" China. In this case, the newspaper underscores the need for striking a delicate balance: Sino-Pak relationship may dominate country's foreign policymaking to the extent that it does not lead to antagonizing the West, particularly, the US, towards Pakistan. The current Ukraine crisis may be the result of Kiev's growing closeness with the West and Russia's desperation to maintain its hegemony over one of former Soviet Union's states but Business Recorder seeks to examine this crisis essentially from an economic and historic perspective with a lot of focus on Russia's gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine and the outcome of transition of the then Soviet states from command or authoritarian to free market economies. That is why Boris Yeltsin's "Shock Therapy" that he introduced to overcome a debilitating economic shock following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and words "perestroika" and "glasnost" that are attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev's rule as the last Soviet head of state still carry a lot of significance in Business Recorder's editorials. Though the ongoing Yemen crisis essentially represents a picture of massive political unrest in the Middle East, Business Recorder seeks to examine this conflict from a distinct perspective through which its readers could be informed, among other things, about economic imperatives of oil and gas supplies and the status of remittances that the country generates through a huge presence of Pakistani workforce in the Arab states in an effective and meaningful manner. Its readers will vouchsafe for the fact that international economic news is never confined to inside pages; the front page of this newspaper always carries one or more global news on economics and finance on a daily basis with a view to informing our exporters, importers and policymakers about the global happenings that may be of interest to them.
Unfortunately, however, Pakistan's economic diplomacy has not even led to promotion of investment. The woeful foreign investment numbers are a strong case in point. As recently pointed out by Dr Hafiz A. Pasha in a Business Recorder op-ed, "the fixed investment rate plummeted to 12.4 percent of the GDP in 2013-14, perhaps the lowest ever. Private investment has declined to below 9 percent of the GDP." Former SBP governor Dr Muhammad Yaqub and other economists have been arguing that a rate of investment of about 20-25 percent of the GDP is needed to generate an annual growth rate of around 7-8 percent. One of Dr Yaqub's successors at SBP, Shahid Kardar, however, is of the view that "there are no examples in the world of accelerated economic growth based largely on foreign capital". Disagreement is good and we at Business Recorder always treasure dissent and welcome diverse viewpoints. The principal job of any financial newspaper is to make the complexity of economics-finance discourses intelligible to its readers. Business Recorder has been making an effort, however modest, in that direction without losing the sight of profundity of politics and its preponderance among all areas of human activity.
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