The Infernal Diurnal Journal

 Japan’s Bubble Proves Markets Needs Rules- Singapore did it Right As I dabble in matters of economics, purportedly to get a deeper perspective of happenings in the world, I have just come across the sovereign nation of Japan- and the baffling situation it finds itself in today- and actually has been in for several decades.  As is well-understood, the 70s and 80s were the salad years for this nation. Manufacturing, particularly automotive and electronics, were dominating the world and it was a powerhouse economy that the world was dying to engage with. Anecdotally for me, I was struck by how every rock band of every fringe genre always played at the Budokan in Tokyo or in other venues in Osaka. Deep Purple came up with a seminal piece of work called "Made in Japan", which had the punchy arena tune  "Woman from Tokyo" on it. Similarly, in the early 80s the American band Styx wrote an enigmatic and somewhat dystopian tune based on the proliferation of Japanese technol...

 I have been reading up a bit on Uzbekistan and thus thought I will pen down some of the notions that are coming into my mind as I consider this ex-Soviet republic. After all, it is not a bad day to consider a republic, given it is my own nation's Republic Day today. One can certainly ask why I am inclined not to consider my own republic and instead to divert my gaze nominally from New Delhi to Tashkent.  One reason is that we are a1.4B strong nation- there will be many who will no doubt spare no effort to interrogate my country on multifarious fronts - with intellectual probity and without.  My efforts here are bound to be superfluous. Another reason is that like India, the CIS countries in general have been clocking a reasonably high GDP growth rate over the last decade. And amongst the CIS countries, Kazhakstan is already a moderately high income economy. In fact, it may well be the highest income economy with the highest GDP growth rate- well on its way to become a hi...

Why We Don’t Fight (Too Much): A Thought on Central Banks and Peace I have sometimes wondered how this world actually functions day to day—what kind of rule-based order, beyond everyday whims, keeps it running. Because something must be holding us back from destroying everything. Human history, after all, does not read very well when it comes to peaceful coexistence. One often hears the argument that people today are more peaceful because standards of living have improved relative to times past. This strikes me as a shallow explanation. All one needs to do is look around: unless you live in some exceptional corner of the world, you will find extraordinarily wealthy people striving relentlessly for more. Contentment, as has been shown empirically and anecdotally, is asymptotic. It approaches infinity without ever quite arriving. So that’s not it. I suspect that what relative peace we do enjoy has far more to do with certain institutions that keep money flowing in ways that do not d...