"There is much in common between Trump and The Khan."
"Indeed, married thrice, and when younger their status as lady killers..."
"I am not sure Trump had that status ever, he was very wealthy and had access..."
"Don't go there; anyway the two men have little knowledge of history..."
"Or geography, if you recall The Khan..."
"Yes I recall and another commonality is their devoted support base, I mean the two men can do no wrong in the eyes of their support base!"
"Agreed but in Pakistan even Nawaz Sharif has a dedicated support base so not too outlandish a factor with respect to Pakistani leaders."
"I concede that, but there is another thing in common between the two men: they don't want interest rates to be high as that raises the cost of doing business..."
"Ha ha, did you hear what the Governor of the State Bank said about the rates?"
"What so funny, he said that rates are 13.25 percent and the rate of inflation as projected by the Fund is 13 percent so the real rate is 0.25 percent which is reasonable..."
"Could someone tell the guy that unlike the economies of the West consumer or household borrowing in this country is between 4 to 5 percent of the entire credit extended by the banks? So essentially the people who are affected by a high rate are those operating in the private productive sectors who borrow perhaps to use as working capital (given their refunds the government is reluctant to release to show healthy though inaccurate revenue figures), and then the banks buy government paper so any raise in rates means higher debt servicing and then..."
"Hey the fault lies with the officials of the State Bank. Why haven't they briefed the guy?"
"Hang on I am not finished, I want to inform the Governor that he is unique in the history of governors of central banks around the world and in our country in particular as he is the first man who has quoted the Fund's inflation rate projection..."
"Hey Hafeez Sheikh also cited the same projection in the budget documents."
"Hooray for their presenting a joint stance to the Fund...anyway I return to what I always say: Please, please Khan sahib be different from your predecessors - read the documents signed by your Naya Economic Team and...and...wait if you do not understand economics then call up your pre-28 July 2018 economic team and just ask them to interpret what is happening..."
"I am not sure they will not accept The Khan's call I mean unlike the members of his cabinet and the Naya Economic Team......"
"I would agree."