The world is in recession, the stock markets are not working, globalisation is in turmoil, the German economy is not growing, and the French economy is in stagnation. It does not matter. What happens to Italy, to Spain, to the US, to any country anywhere? Why did we go that route to stay happy? Will we never be able to handle the gyrations and the cleverness and the cheats that are in the international world?
What is significant is that our country should be governed well and governed in a manner that it is self-reliant and self-sufficient. The London riots and the manner of the media are indicative of how preachers have turned poachers. It was slow moral decay. Why the eyes were not open enough to do the necessary social justice? Pakistan is in worse throes at the moment. The residents that matter in Islamabad have to get out and see for themselves what this is all about. One kilometer on both side and you have a deluge of crimes and cheating because the people have nowhere to go for redress of their grievances.
Recently as was my way, I have been travelling in the rural areas trying to figure out where I went wrong. Not where others went wrong. Try as I might, and I have had a fair amount of time trying to work the agendas, for and against poverty, for and against organisational sensitivity and against indecent behaviour but I have got nowhere. Every time some goon in power has come along to tell me that I have got it all wrong and that I should join hands with him and make hay economically. Names I can give but these are vicious individuals and the end does not meet the means to get anywhere.
The then East Pakistan was bad enough economically but this place now is worse than East Pakistan. The poverty levels and the measure of man have gone completely haywire. Reason is lost. The MOF is steaming down the necks of the public by all kinds of increases in price not realising that what is required is that the Ministers and the ministries be reined in. Perhaps there is not the will in the bureaucracy any more to fight it out. The Supreme Court cannot do it alone. It is trying to sort the big cases but the small ones also deserve some care and the duty of care is not with the big ones but the ordinary citizen's right to live decently.
The bureaucracy is increasing while the economics is going from bad to worse. Who is responsible? Little acts indicate where improvements have to take place. The other day one consultant from the WB in Washington visited me and he was giving me the low-down on some of the sectors that were under consideration. The WB and the IMF will have it there way. Those in economic policy matters know no better. They think they know all about it and they speak the language of their western masters.
How does the budget affect my fiends, the people of NW and SW the areas where people have lost their lives thanks to the policy of the last government. Yet if you hear the macro-extrapolations of the people who served that regime, you would be aghast at their naivety, natives of Pakistan aping to know more on a limited scale. Did I not write sometime back that macro-figures do not matter what matters are the micro figures. They do not, for they hide more than what they give or show.
Inflation is now a non-entity and it is better not to talk about it for Pakistan was meant for the few mafias that we have around. How are prices structured? Well they are structured for the very few, those who gain from this mafia monopolies. The assumptions of economics does not take in to consideration the misdemeanours of the players and anyone who has come through a piggy back system just does not understand the price mechanism and what mean and rapacious policies can do for the rich and how they can drive a wedge in the social system.
Everything goes topsy turvey when the poor are left out of life's living equation. The roadside vendors have increased and I was shocked when I questioned some vegetable prices to be told that the shops at the back take a rental from the ones that are allowed to sell their wares in front of their shops. Funny. The rental for land that is roadside land should be used for entailing purposes. Even these options are running out.
Buhler's theorem is hogwash. It states that if the production function is linear then the marginal cost of all the costs is equal to the total costs but the condition is further pivoted by having a homogenous production function. Now tell me how in the hell will you have a homogenous production function that is linearly ordered. Will someone tell me what the cost of production is of the small farmers in Sindh, in Punjab, KPK and in Balochistan and whether the above conditions hold, for any farmer? Where is the market mechanism? Where do you have the land markets in the country? Urban systems or rural systems are bereft of the market mechanism with the result that the powerful are running wild and taking away everything by force.
What has happened in London may be child's play for Pakistan. We have already had a torturous history of delayed action and that has cost us severely in the past. The price mechanism is different. If the price mechanism does not work, then the government steps in to create harmony. Here the market mechanism is doing whatever it can to further mess up the markets. How many lives does the budget of Pakistan really touch? Everyone is on a spree internationally. What gains? The only one who brings back anything from the foreign touring visits is the President of Pakistan. He will be let down by the implementers. Take it from me. I am willing to put my last penny on this. Any takers.
Business Recorder 16.8.2011.
Will Pakistan bring the poor into the equation? It was possible some time back. Now the poor will bring themselves back into consideration [s]. It is only a question of time. There is no long term equilibrium nor is there any short term equilibrium but the only balance is the one in the hands of the powerful. What economics are we teaching our children when we do not even know the nature of our rural clientele. By the way do we know the nature of our urban slum dweller? Should economics matter then what kind should it be. Can economics be of different kinds? Check it out.