A devaluation of the currency is a decision to allow a currency, in a fixed or semi-fixed exchange rate, to decrease in value. Devaluing the currency means that the economies’ exports will become more competitive, imports should be more expensive. This should lead to greater demand for exports and an improvement in the current account. […]
What is the value of your vote?
The right of the people to vote and elect their representatives, without any discrimination of caste, class, colour, education, race, economic condition, religion or sex but only with a minimum age, is called adult franchise or universal suffrage or one person, one vote system. Weighted voting, on the other hand, is an electoral system in […]
Unsustainable debts of Pakistan II
Public debts are a very useful tool by which governments can balance their budget in case their expenditure is more than their revenue. However, ideally this tool should be used only to borrow for development expenses, which creates infrastructure, ultimately generating resources to pay back the liability. These development projects, in addition to generating employment, […]
Unsustainable debts of Pakistan I
Up to four years after the creation of Pakistan, we were debt-free. Then came the World Bank that convinced our then rulers to borrow from the bank, promising it would jump-start the economy. Whether the economy jumpstarted or not, it is now clear that the unfortunate foundation of reckless borrowing was laid. That also gave […]
The IS threat s
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s flying visit to Islamabad on his way back from Indonesia gave him and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif an opportunity to exchange views on a number of subjects, but the most significant may turn out to be their agreement to cooperate in the fight against Islamic State (IS). Turkey has lately upped […]
The end of life I
Some time back in June, reading an article in The New Yorker titled, ‘The treatment of death’ by Rachel Aviv, I was blown away like nothing else I had read in a long time. Although I disliked the editor’s treatment of Seymour Hersh in his refusal to publish his last piece on Osama, I have […]