Larsson läser
Janerik Larsson
Janerik Larsson
USAs utrikesminister John Kerry besökte härom dagen Indien. Det var ett led i förberedelserna för president Obamas kommande besök i landet.
Indiens centralbankschef Raghuram Rajan, tidigare bl a chefsekonom på IMF, och den indiska regeringens ekonomiske rådgivare Arvind Subramanian hör båda till världens mest prominenta ekonomer.
Idag hittade jag på nätet en WSJ-artikel som på ett intressant sätt belyser spänningen mellan Indien och USA när det gäller ekonomisk politik.
Den amerikanska fokuseringen på inkomstklyftor har ökat misstron mot frihandel och globalisering.
The chief economic adviser to India’s government said he fears America’s longstanding commitment to globalization and the free movement of goods and people is in doubt, and that the shift in attitudes menaces the growth and development of poor countries including India.
Arvind Subramanian, who spent much of his career in the U.S. before taking his current post in New Delhi, raised his concerns Saturday during a panel discussion in the Indian capital. He said the most worrisome aspect of this “intellectual climate change” is that it is taking place not only among “insular protectionists,” but among “heavyweight,” “cosmopolitan” economists as well.
One such thinker, Mr. Subramanian said: his fellow panelist Paul Krugman. The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist, who has suggested that globalization has exacerbated income inequality in the U.S., was seated nearby.
The potential harm to India is vast, he said. Tougher U.S. immigration policy would jeopardize the estimated $45 billion that skilled Indian immigrants in the U.S. earn each year, as well as the $3 billion that these people pay into the social-security system and never collect because they don’t stay in the country long enough to become eligible.
U.S.-India trade, though it has grown considerably, still remains well below potential, Mr. Subramanian said, especially compared to U.S.-China trade. “At least in the postwar period, very few economic transformations have happened—i.e., gangbusters growth of 7%, 8%, 9%—without rapid export growth,” he said. “You cannot grow at 8% sustainably based on the domestic market.”
And yet, for a variety of reasons, America’s leading economic lights are expressing doubts about the merits of globalization, Mr. Subramanian said. He gave a partial list: former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Princeton University’s Alan Blinder, Columbia University’s Joseph Stiglitz and New York University’s Michael Spence.