Sunday, July 31, 2016

Up and Comming Economic Hit Woman Gets Kerala, India Assignment



On July 21 of this year, Kerala, India Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan appointed Harvard economist Gita Gopinath as his economic advisor.

Not good for Kerla.

She is an advocate of what is known as “fiscal devaluation,”  that is she favors payroll tax cuts but is in favor of an increase in the VAT as part of the overall “fiscal devaluation”  plan. A "tax swap" she calls it.

What we have here is an economic mechanic sent in to create an environment that squeezes the masses for the benefit of the banksters.

Some in Kerala get this--to a limited degree. The columnist G Pramod Kumar writes:
[S]he herself has clarified, her role is “confined” to advising the chief minster and connecting various departments to knowledge leaders. This is classic international development speak that donor agencies and multi-laterals indulge in.
The premise is that the country that they advise, on whatever issues, are inadequate in their knowledge and capacity and it’s incumbent upon the internationalists to help them. For donor agencies, it’s an ideal route to influence national policies because they also give financial aid, while for multi-laterals such as the UN, it’s an opportunity to both help the countries, say in times of disasters and constitutional crises, as well as make them compliant to a certain rights-sensitive and social-democratic world order. 
If you want details on how the squeeze works, see Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.

Kerala is quite the place for Gopinath to be operating in. There is a significant number of Marxists in the government, including the prime minister. Kumar reports:
Interestingly, the attack on Gita, or rather Vijayan, comes from two quarters: one, the opposition and the CPM-critics who find the decision - a Marxist-Leninist party appointing a “neo-liberal” economist as its advisor - the epitome of CPM’s double standards; and two, the hardliners within the CPM, who find her economic philosophy highly objectionable.
Despite their criticism, the Congress doesn’t have a problem with her because it’s during their rule that Gita made her first public appearance in the state - at a global investment meet - but doesn't want to lose the opportunity to ridicule the Marxists for their alleged duplicity.
Thus, Gopinath may actually advocate some moves toward free markets. Banksters don't like Marxism. They prefer limited free markets that will produce income that they can grab.

Gopinath (44) first came on my radar about 6 years ago, when she was still in her 30s. At the time she was profiled by The Harvard Gazette, by WSJ and Bloomberg. That much focus doesn't happen by accident. She has serious sponsorship. In 2015, she spoke at the Jackson Hole, Wyoming annual central bankers' symposium. Bernanke has spoken at the event, so hasGreenspan. Yellen will be speaking there at this year's conference. It's obvious. the key backroom players trust Gopinath. Now, they have given her a geographic region for her to play with. It won't be her last.

Gopinath holds a B.A. from Lady Shriram College, University of Delhi (1992), an M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics (1994). She completed her M.A. from the University of Washington (1996). In 2001, she completed her Ph.D from Princeton University, under former Fed chair Ben Bernanke

She is a professor of economics at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

   -RW

More on Gopinath here.

1 comment:

  1. Nice way to package a snake. Mischief can lurk behind the prettiest of faces.

    ReplyDelete