Tag Archives: Economy

Professional Beggars at their best … but .. Beggars are not choosers!

Vice President Joe Biden is the latest high level U.S dignitary to visit Pakistan. As the series of such high profile visits continues, one wonders what actually transpires in such meetings and what kind of assurances are given from both sides to each other. In this episode of Reporter, Arshad Sharif tries to find out what PM Gilani meant when he said that he has given assurances to Joe Biden that practical steps will be taken to resolve all the difficult problems.

Courtesy: Dawn News (program Reporter with Arshad Sharif)

Source- You Tube Link

New opportunity and old challenges — Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

The threats to the Pakistani state include socio-cultural intolerance, religious extremism and the use of violence to pursue self-articulated narrow ideological agendas. If these negative trends are coupled with a faltering economy, there is little hope for a stable, democratic Pakistan. …

Read more : Daily Times

US launches $15mn project to help small farmers in Sindh – Thank you USA, appreciated.

 

… province in Pakistan’s south cultivate sunflowers by providing seed, fertiliser and technical assistance, a statement issued here said. “This project will jumpstart the local economy by creating direct and indirect employment and increasing farmers’ incomes,” said USAID Economic Growth.

 

Let’s germinate like Germany did

– Muhammad Shoaib Akif

President Asif Ali Zardari will continue to face a difficult, and at times war-like, situation through such media debates which rather look like trials. The participants in the debates usually are the beneficiary of the system that speaks volumes about an ever-untold truth that is about human relationships that are determined by economy and security. President Zardari is in a struggle to change the system. Since he means economy and security for all, and not for only a few hundred thousand elitist Pakistanis, he would continue to face resistance. What does security and economy here in Pakistan for everyone mean? Moreover, what if these two entities are not achieved justifiably with the reasons quite understandable even to an illiterate and what is not happening here for more than 63 years? Last but not the least, who will help us achieve these utmost requirements and how? Let’s have one of the pertinent examples say of Germany to find the answer. Germany acted rationally after experiencing almost total devastation caused by its expansionist policies during Second World War 63 years ago. Germans did not raise another army; it raised its economic structure through social democracy. And that enabled Germany make its citizens secure both socially and economically. To Germans security and economy of an individual is security of state itself. The people out there do not need thousands of judges and generals because a responsible bureaucracy, which is much smaller than ours, does its job amicably under the guidance of political government. Germens do not have to pay almost 10 billion US$ to keep only their not-awfully over-sized army and administration happy every year as we do here. Although their differences between expenditures and income may be in hundreds of US$ billion yet the differences are not mere due to their spending on their army and administration but on employed and unemployed citizens living therein. Germany makes her citizens secure both socially and economically and in turn the citizens show a paramount patriotism and protect the state also simply because the state does best possible justice with them. None can refute a recent example when world economic recession had just started off to effect Germany; it were the elites of Germany who asked their state publicly to tax them more than what their common citizens paid. In fact, almost all the citizens work, produce and pay taxes willingly and thus increase the income of the state to be spent back on them in various ways later in shape of social and economic security. To them and rightly so: security and economy of an individual is the security of state itself. …

Read more : The Frontier Post

New corruption scandal deals blow to India’s image

By Paul de Bendern and Jui Chakravorty

NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s reputation as a place to do business took another hit after the scandal-tainted government charged top public sector bankers with accepting bribes initially estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.

The scandal is one of the biggest to taint India, potentially harming the image of Asia’s third-largest economy as destination for foreign investors, especially as it comes a few days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has had to defend his government in another graft scandal involving telecoms licences sold at rock-bottom prices. …

Read more : Reuters

Afghanistan: NATO’s mission impossible – by Shiraz Paracha

…. But in 1991, all that ended abruptly with the smooth and peaceful split of the Soviet Union. The West painted the Soviet demise as its victory. But in fact, it was the biggest shock for the huge Western military and propaganda machine.

The Cold War mindset was not ready to accept the new change. The mysterious attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 and the subsequent ‘war on terror’ filled the enemy vacuum for the Cold War warriors, but it did not help an organization like NATO that was created on the concept of traditional warfare.

In the post-1945 era, despite their technological superiority and military and economic power, Western countries did not fight directly against powerful states. Proxy wars were the West’s preferred method throughout the Cold War period.

Nevertheless, in the 1990s, the West opted for military interventions and regime changes. Western countries acted as a pack of wolves and attacked small and weak states. The strategy provided an opportunity to lightweights such as Bush and Blair to imitate Churchill and Roosevelt and appear strong and victorious.

But the US defeat in Iraq and the NATO’s failed mission in Afghanistan have proven that military occupations and interventions are counterproductive and expose weaknesses of occupiers and aggressors.

Today, NATO is disillusioned and disoriented. It is demanding from its member states to allocate at least two percent of their GDPs to defense budgets. In a desperate effort to keep its large and bureaucratic structures and huge budget, NATO has been adding vague, unrealistic and ambiguous aims and objectives to its mission. It has committed blunders like Afghanistan but its commanders did not seem to have learned any lessons.

Regardless of the Lisbon rhetoric, not all NATO member states can afford ever increasing military budgets to counter open-ended threats and fight unspecified enemies. Weakening European economies need trade and investment rather than wars. They rely on energy but the energy sources are out of Europe. Skilled labor and markets are beyond the geographical sphere of the most NATO states. And most NATO countries certainly do not have the will and capacity for missions impossible, like the one in Afghanistan.

To read full article : Criticalppp

Bharat Mahan : The Most Corrupt nation on this planet, say Jay Hind

$1.5 Trillion of India’s stolen money: Swiss Banking Association
Transparency International and the Freedom Foundation ignore the blatant and egregious theft of money from official coffers of the Government of India. The Most Corrupt nation on this planet Bharat (aka India).

Swiss Banking Association report, details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:

Top five: India—- $1,456 billion (Public loot since 1947), Russia —$ 470 billion, UK ——-$390 billion, Ukraine – $100 billion, China —–$ 96 billion

According to Global Financial Integrity Indian politicians, IAS, IRS, IPS and people from entertainment and sports industry have deposited $ 325 billion in last five years in Swiss accounts (say Jay Hind).

This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international destinations? There are presumably more than 70 Tax havens in the world. Indian wealth could be more in Switzerland and various British /US islands. At least forty countries market themselves aggressively as tax havens.

After Bharat mahan the second best Russia has 4 times lesser deposit in Swiss accounts. US is not even there in the counting in top five !! India has more money in swiss banks than all the other countries combined.

Interestingly Swiss government agreed to disclose the names of the account holders only if the respective governments formally asked for it but Indian govt. is not asking for the details. Annually more than 100,000 Indians travel to Switzerland, of whom 35,000 travel very frequently.

A few corrupt Indians have 1.5 trillion dollars of black money on other hand daily 3000-4000 children die from malnutrition in India and 1000 pregnant women die every day in India (say Jay Hind). More than 70% of population is anemic (In simple maths after 50 years there will be no Indian in India.) India got the gold medal in black money but they are competing with Angola and Congo in GHI (global hunger Index).

Chennai, The Switzerland government has not received any request from the Indian government for sharing the names of tax evaders who have stashed away their illicit money in Swiss banks, the Swiss Ambassador to India Philippe Weiti said Wednesday. …

Read more : Wichaar

More details : BBC urdu

US graduates heading to India for jobs

Breaking tradition, top American graduates are heading to India to find jobs and opportunity. Many believe that having experience in India is an important addition to their resume in this increasingly globalized world. Some say that its easier to find a good job in India than in the United States, as India’s economy is growing while the US economy is predicted to shrink within the next year.

via GlobeistanYouTube Link

Pakistan – No sign of a rainbow

Banyan

No sign of a rainbow

Badly governed and short of the foreign help it needs, Pakistan’s people deserve a new covenant

….. Even the optimistic case for Pakistan’s survival is downbeat. It has long been “the most dangerous place on earth”, on the brink of some apocalypse. Yet it is more resilient than it looks. “This is Pakistan’s fifth last chance,” quips a government minister. Or, in the words of Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to America: “We’ll muddle through again.” Even if he is right, as Banyan hopes and believes, it is not just a question of limping through the next few weeks until the monsoon ends. The floods have washed away food and cash crops in the country’s agricultural heartland of southern Punjab. Livestock in the tens of thousands has been lost. Irrigation canals, roads, bridges and electricity networks have been damaged. The economic hardship will help provide recruits for terrorist outfits. Even if it survives without a political or social upheaval, Pakistan is going to worry its neighbours and the outside world for another generation.

To read full article >> The Economist

Pakistan economy on the verge of collapse?

Economy: on the verge of collapse?

Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh’s warning to officials of the state, delivered in a sombre meeting late last month, could not be clearer: the government, federal and provincial, is on the verge of financial collapse. So dire is the state of affairs that the government may not have money to pay salaries in a few months. Lest this be dismissed as hyperbole, Mr Sheikh’s comments have been echoed privately by many economists and experts familiar with state finances in recent weeks. In fact, if anything the finance minister’s comments are on the more optimistic side of dire.

The basic problem is clear: the Pakistani state, all tiers of government, spends twice as much as revenue generated, while neither is expenditure being curtailed nor are revenues being meaningfully increased. At the level of the citizenry, the immediate impact is felt in the form of rising inflation (sustained budget deficits of the kind Pakistan has had over the last few years are highly inflationary in nature) while in the long term it will be felt in terms of debt servicing crowding out investments in development and infrastructure.

The blame must be shared by everyone. …

Read more >> Dawn Editorial

AJP Held Budget & Economy Seminar in Hyderabad.

A Seminar on Budget & Economy of Sindh entitled “Addressing Developmental Needs of Sindh” was held at Hyderabad Press club on Monday, May 31st by Awami Jamhoori Party (AJP). Keeping in view great dearth of economic thinking, discourse among civil society and political forces of issues of development and under-development, it proved to be a good start.

Continue reading AJP Held Budget & Economy Seminar in Hyderabad.

A Conversation with Ayesha Siddiqa in Toronto

World Sindhi Institute Presents A Conversation With AYESHA SIDDIQA Author of Military Inc., Inside Pakistan ’s Military Economy Monday April 19th, 2010, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, University of Toronto , Woodsworth College Residence, Room 20, “Today, the military’s hegemony in Pakistan is a reality…the military has penetrated the society, politics and the economy.” -Military Inc.

Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa is currently a Senior Visiting Professor at the Johns Hopkins University ’s School of Advanced International Studies . She is the author of two books on defence decision-making and political economy of the military – Military Inc, Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy and Pakistan’s Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99: In Search of a Policy. She did her doctorate from King’s College, London in 1996 and has worked on issues varying from military technology, defence decision-making, nuclear deterrence, arms procurement, arms production to civil-military relations in South Asia . She has also written commissioned papers on small arms and light weapons proliferation and problems of governance.

RSVP: humaira.rahman@worldsindhi.org

Unlikely Scenario?

By B. R. Gowani

Courtesy: Globeistan.com

10% is the official unemployment rate

Nor is the unofficial rate too great:

The Economy is on a downward slide

And by now, people’s hopes have died

So all of the employed make a plan

To join the jobless; to form a clan

They declare a total general strike

To break the rulers’ disparity-dyke

Most dependent is the capitalist class

That forms a part of the exploiting brass

To maintain the greatest democracy façade

They appealed calmly while hiding the rod

Patriotism, nationalism, enemy, and flag

The usual bull shit were used to gag

But the people have really united this time

And are in no mood to join the elite’s chime

Continue reading Unlikely Scenario?

Can we make the difference

By Ali Nawaz

1) Can one man/woman make the difference? YES. HOWEVER, A LARGE, WELL ORGANIZED, ENERGETIC AND DEDICATED GROUP HAS A BETTER CHANCE OF SUCCESS. 2) If we were to take just one severe issue and try to improve which one it will/should be?

i) education ii) health iii) economy iv) bring up the moral values again v) or any other

ALL ARE IMPORTANT. I AM PERSONALLY GIVING HIGHER PRIORITY TO EDUCATION BECAUSE IT CAN TAKE INDIVIDUALS TO EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTIVE LIVES. IN TURN, THEY CAN HELP THEIR FAMILIES AND THE COMMUNITY.

3) Can we make a real difference from here or any place in the world or we ought to be on the real ground to get better and more effective results?

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE FROM ANYWHERE. HOWEVER, PEOPLE ON THE SCENE HAVE TO PLAY THEIR PART.

Higher tax on rich

Obama’s bold budget dicards Bush ideology in bid to lift economy

U.S. President Barack Obama blamed current economic woes on “an era of profound irresponsiblity.”
– ANDREW TAYLOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON- U.S. President Barack Obama charted a dramatic course for the United States with a bold but contenttious budge proposing higher taxes for the wealthy and the first steps toward guaranted health care for all Americans.
The budget was accompained by an astonishing $1.75 trillion federal deficit that would be nearly four times the highest in history. In a veiled jibe at George W. Bush’s eight- year presidency, Obama attributed the current economic maelstrom to “an era of profound irresponsibilty that engulfed both private and public institutions from some of our largest companies’ executive suites to the seats of power in Washington, D.C.”

Denouncing what he called the “dishonest accounting” of recent federal budgets, Obama unveiled his own $ 36 trillion blueprint for next year, a proposal tha would transfer walth from rich taxpayers to the middle class and the poor….

Those who dumped all the money into the war have been defeated

by Ayaz Latif Palijo Advocate, Hyderabad, Sindh
The writer can be reached at: ayazlatif@gmail.com
Obama won and those who were ruining the US economy and the economy and peace of the world, those who dumped all the money into the war have been defeated. Where are the WMD? The war that Bush and company started? I think the very least we can expect from Mr Obama is that he will not waste American and third world lives for a publicity stunt. The best way to run the presidency is to think “what would Bush do in a situation like this” and then do the exact opposite.

Continue reading Those who dumped all the money into the war have been defeated

WAR ECONOMY

By Dr Ali Akbar Dhakan, Karachi

Non-economists do not know that there is no any recipe for econmic development in the presence of war.They must know that there are two kinds of economies i.e, (i)Peace economy in which the non-development expenditure is at lowest ebb but the development expenditure is at the highest height when every rupee is spent for productive purpose which means more and more goods are produced increasing the supply side of economy bringing prosperity due to low prices on account of the law of demand and supply meaning thereby that when supply is at higher side and demand is at lower side, the price will also be at lower side raising the purchasing power of the common man and vice versa and (ii) the war economy for which every rupee is spent for destruction and consumption purpose bringing no more production and creating shortage of goods or low supply which will cause high prices or price hike or inflation and causing low purchasing power of the common people just as at present,

Continue reading WAR ECONOMY