Monthly Archives: September 2013

India pushes ‘shock and awe’ currency plan to save BRICS

"India is pushing for joint 'shock-and-awe' intervention by key developing states to halt capital flight and shore up currencies, in a move that risks backfiring and triggering a vicious spiral. 'It is going to happen in a matter of days rather than weeks, Brazil and India can start the move,' said Dipak Dasgupta, a top Indian official. Mr Dasgputa told Reuters that China, Brazil, India, Turkey, Russia and South Africa have all been squeezed as the US Federal Reserve prepares to tighten monetary policy. Joint action would give emerging markets greater firepower, allowing them to deploy their combined $8.7 trillion (£5.6 trillion) of reserves and crush 'speculators', rather than being picked off one by one." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia pushes ‘shock and awe’ currency plan to save BRICS

India pushes ‘shock and awe’ currency plan to save BRICS

"India is pushing for joint 'shock-and-awe' intervention by key developing states to halt capital flight and shore up currencies, in a move that risks backfiring and triggering a vicious spiral. 'It is going to happen in a matter of days rather than weeks, Brazil and India can start the move,' said Dipak Dasgupta, a top Indian official. Mr Dasgputa told Reuters that China, Brazil, India, Turkey, Russia and South Africa have all been squeezed as the US Federal Reserve prepares to tighten monetary policy. Joint action would give emerging markets greater firepower, allowing them to deploy their combined $8.7 trillion (£5.6 trillion) of reserves and crush 'speculators', rather than being picked off one by one." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia pushes ‘shock and awe’ currency plan to save BRICS

India pushes ‘shock and awe’ currency plan to save BRICS

"India is pushing for joint 'shock-and-awe' intervention by key developing states to halt capital flight and shore up currencies, in a move that risks backfiring and triggering a vicious spiral. 'It is going to happen in a matter of days rather than weeks, Brazil and India can start the move,' said Dipak Dasgupta, a top Indian official. Mr Dasgputa told Reuters that China, Brazil, India, Turkey, Russia and South Africa have all been squeezed as the US Federal Reserve prepares to tighten monetary policy. Joint action would give emerging markets greater firepower, allowing them to deploy their combined $8.7 trillion (£5.6 trillion) of reserves and crush 'speculators', rather than being picked off one by one." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia pushes ‘shock and awe’ currency plan to save BRICS

India’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

"When it comes to family planning, women are on the front lines in India, which has carried out about 37 percent of the world’s female sterilizations. Government-imposed quotas and financial incentives for doctors mean 4.6 million women were sterilized last year, many for cash payments and many in the unsanitary and rudimentary conditions that greeted Devi. In neighboring China, the government has since 1979 used the threat of fines and the loss of social services to enforce rules that bar many urban couples from having more than one child. It now is beginning to ease the policy as the population ages and coastal regions face labor shortages." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

India’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

"When it comes to family planning, women are on the front lines in India, which has carried out about 37 percent of the world’s female sterilizations. Government-imposed quotas and financial incentives for doctors mean 4.6 million women were sterilized last year, many for cash payments and many in the unsanitary and rudimentary conditions that greeted Devi. In neighboring China, the government has since 1979 used the threat of fines and the loss of social services to enforce rules that bar many urban couples from having more than one child. It now is beginning to ease the policy as the population ages and coastal regions face labor shortages." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

India’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

"When it comes to family planning, women are on the front lines in India, which has carried out about 37 percent of the world’s female sterilizations. Government-imposed quotas and financial incentives for doctors mean 4.6 million women were sterilized last year, many for cash payments and many in the unsanitary and rudimentary conditions that greeted Devi. In neighboring China, the government has since 1979 used the threat of fines and the loss of social services to enforce rules that bar many urban couples from having more than one child. It now is beginning to ease the policy as the population ages and coastal regions face labor shortages." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

India’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

"When it comes to family planning, women are on the front lines in India, which has carried out about 37 percent of the world’s female sterilizations. Government-imposed quotas and financial incentives for doctors mean 4.6 million women were sterilized last year, many for cash payments and many in the unsanitary and rudimentary conditions that greeted Devi. In neighboring China, the government has since 1979 used the threat of fines and the loss of social services to enforce rules that bar many urban couples from having more than one child. It now is beginning to ease the policy as the population ages and coastal regions face labor shortages." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia’s Poorest Women Coerced Into Sterilization

Competing currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

"'At first covertly, then in openness, and finally with the consent of the government,' Mr. Noko writes, 'foreign currencies – the rand, the euro, the pound, the U.S. dollar, the [Zambian]kwacha – replaced Zimbabwe’s dollar.' Precisely as Mr. Hayek had imagined, Zimbabwe’s inflationary spiral ended. Within weeks, the country’s economy showed dramatic improvement. Businesses began to open. Banks began to function. Unemployment began to fall. GDP began to rise. Private credit began to increase. Foreign investment began to return. The human exodus ended. Thiers’ Law, the opposite principle of Gresham’s Law, does work: Good money, freely circulated, drives out bad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCompeting currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

Competing currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

"'At first covertly, then in openness, and finally with the consent of the government,' Mr. Noko writes, 'foreign currencies – the rand, the euro, the pound, the U.S. dollar, the [Zambian]kwacha – replaced Zimbabwe’s dollar.' Precisely as Mr. Hayek had imagined, Zimbabwe’s inflationary spiral ended. Within weeks, the country’s economy showed dramatic improvement. Businesses began to open. Banks began to function. Unemployment began to fall. GDP began to rise. Private credit began to increase. Foreign investment began to return. The human exodus ended. Thiers’ Law, the opposite principle of Gresham’s Law, does work: Good money, freely circulated, drives out bad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCompeting currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

Competing currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

"'At first covertly, then in openness, and finally with the consent of the government,' Mr. Noko writes, 'foreign currencies – the rand, the euro, the pound, the U.S. dollar, the [Zambian]kwacha – replaced Zimbabwe’s dollar.' Precisely as Mr. Hayek had imagined, Zimbabwe’s inflationary spiral ended. Within weeks, the country’s economy showed dramatic improvement. Businesses began to open. Banks began to function. Unemployment began to fall. GDP began to rise. Private credit began to increase. Foreign investment began to return. The human exodus ended. Thiers’ Law, the opposite principle of Gresham’s Law, does work: Good money, freely circulated, drives out bad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCompeting currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse