Syed Bakhtiyar Kazmi

“What need is there for merchants to have any style, or to risk their goods overseas, for the children to learn a trade, for the peasants to sow and to work so hard on the soil, for the skipper to sail on the terrible and dangerous seas, for the solider to risk his life for […]

Marvel comic fans should have immediately connected the above title with the moniker of their famous superhero “The Amazing Spiderman”. Although, after watching the latter’s adventures on the silver screen, the amazing Spidermoron seems, perhaps, a more suitable handle. Anyway, before going any further, it is deemed necessary to clarify that the term “Man” used […]

Neo here is not the fictional character from Matrix who can stop bullets with a wave of his hand, although perhaps that is exactly what we need; here it means new or young as in ancient Greek. For the record, we did not invent the neo economy; rather it was thrust upon Pakistan by those […]

To a history buff, it is crystal clear that wars have always been and will always be a turning point for nations, and that only time decides who actually won; unfortunately, the problem is that, “justice time” can reserve such judgements for decades or even centuries. Which is perhaps the reason that in the ancient […]

I have always had a natural aversion to modern day predictions, which is also perhaps the reason for scepticism over the efficient market hypothesis and asset pricing models that arguably were dreamt up to provide some sort of credibility to dealings in the stock market. If nobody knows what may or may not happen the […]

Perceptions matter and who better than Oscar Wilde to put perceptions into perspective: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” However, a gentleman by the name of Arthur Rimbaud perhaps does a better job of showcasing the importance of perceptions: “I believe I am in Hell, therefore […]

“We expect the SBP to maintain interest rates at current levels of 6.0 percent (policy rate) and 6.5 percent (discount rate) in its January 16 Monetary Policy Statement (MPS). To note, recent surprise in December 15 CPI at 3.19 percent (street consensus: 3.6 percent-3.8 percent) coupled with fresh downtrend in oil prices (down between 17 […]

Perhaps a better title might have been ‘Paradise lost’ but, unfortunately, that one was taken way back in the 17th century and that too ironically for poetry. And while some might suggest dystopia as another title for today’s article, which is a rather frightening state, realistically neither is befitting since the objective is not to […]

It would not be farfetched to assert that these are the worst times that the world has seen in living memory. Frankly, the original title for today’s article was ‘Divided nations’ as a derisive to the United Nations, which for all intents and purposes is anything but what its moniker implies. A bunch of kids […]

It is all about the economy. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) recently issued a white paper on the state of Pakistan’s economy in 2014-2015. White because that was the colour of the paper it was printed on although all attempts were made to look for a blue paper to avoid this controversy. Publishing the […]