There is too much conflict of interest with Raghuram Rajan.
Raghuram Rajan is part of the secretive BDT Capital. This was exposed in 2013 even before Modi came to power and so no one can claim it is a politically motivated charge against R3. Besides, it is well known that the author is independent minded and is not part of any political grouping.
Raghuram Rajan is part of the secretive BDT Capital. This was exposed in 2013 even before Modi came to power and so no one can claim it is a politically motivated charge against R3. Besides, it is well known that the author is independent minded and is not part of any political grouping.
The same author has now exposed the fact that University of Chicago works with the US State Department and the university is merely a front for advocating the US government positions. This article also accurately predicted the fact that the IMF/World Bank groupies would call for negative interest rates as a means to control every single bank account in the world and the prediction came true within 48 hours of publication of this article!
Published: May 27, 2016 15:13 IST | Updated: May 27, 2016 15:14 IST Washington, May 27, 2016
Rajan’s reappointment should not be of media’s interest: Modi
The Hindu
A file photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, at a function in Mumbai. Photo: Vivek BendrePrime Minister Narendra Modi has said the issue of reappointment of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan was an administrative subject and it should not be an issue of interest of the media, in his first comments in the wake of continuing attack on the top economist in recent months.
“I don’t think this administrative subject should be an issue of interest to the media,” Mr. Modi said.
“Besides, it will come up only in September,” he told The Wall Street Journal, referring to the three-year term of Mr. Rajan which ends in September.
“Do you support the reappointment of Mr. Rajan, the central bank governor?” the Prime Minister was asked.
As an outspoken RBI Governor, Mr. Rajan has expressed his views on host of issues, including intolerance and has even described India as ‘one-eyed king’ in the land of blind in reference to the country’s high economic growth.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has levelled allegations against Mr. Rajan including of sending confidential and sensitive financial information around the world and asked the Prime Minister to sack him immediately.
The BJP leader also accused Mr. Rajan of publicly disparaging the Modi government and alleged that he is a member of “a U.S. dominated group” that was set up to defend America’s dominant position in the global economy.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said RBI and the government are in continuous dialogue and that relationship will continue.
Mr. Jaitley also said that he does not approve of “personal comments” against anyone including the RBI Governor.
Printable version | May 28, 2016 9:52:48 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/raghuram-rajans-reappointment-should-not-be-of-medias-interest-narendra-modi/article8655096.ece
Amid Swamy offensive, Raghuram Rajan meets PM Modi, FM Jaitley
Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Before meeting the PM, the governor had also met finance minister Arun Jaitley, reports fe Bureau in New Delhi.
Official sources told FE that much should not be read in Rajan’s meeting with the PM as he routinely meets him and the finance minister. “The RBI governor meets the PM and FM every two months before the monetary policy is due as a courtesy meeting,” officials aware of the meeting said.
The monetary policy is due on June 7.
There’s widespread speculation in official and industry circles whether Rajan, whose term as the RBI governor ends in September, will be given an extension or not.
When asked, Jaitley on Wednesday had declined to comment. Rajan has recently been attacked by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who has accused him of wilfully wrecking the economy and alleging that he is “not fully Indian” since he has been renewing his US green card. Swamy has also written to the PM urging that he be sacked.
However, the BJP has officially distanced itself from Swamy’s comments.
In fact, Jaitley on Thursday told NDTV in an interview that he does not approve of “personal” attacks. “I don’t approve of personal comments against anyone, let alone the RBI governor,” he said when asked about the continuing attack on Rajan in the past few months and whether there was an effort on part of the government to ring-fence the governor.
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/raghuram-rajan-meets-pm-narendra-modi-arun-jaitley-as-subramanian-swamy-fires-fresh-salvo/266971/
Subramanian Swamy’s third strain of invective wards Raghuram Rajan, tells RBI governor’s policies are anti-farm
Mon, 11 Apr 2016-06:35am , Mumbai , dna
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan recently claimed that “our world is facing an increasingly dangerous situation” and “what we need are monetary rules that prevent a central bank’s domestic mandate from trumping a country’s international responsibility.” He then issued a call for “a new international agreement along the lines of Bretton Woods” to replace the existing system.
This is a startling demand as he calls for putting the interests of international powers above India’s interests. While he has argued in the past for RBI’s autonomy from the Indian government, he now wants to make it answerable to foreign governments.
His new concern for the global economy developed only after the existing system stopped benefiting those in power in Europe and America. For many decades, the World Bank and IMF worked in tandem as loan sharks and destroyed several economies around the world. While they gave loans to poor countries under stringent conditions, corporations and non-profit groups in Europe and America were awarded free money in the form of contracts and grants.
This arrangement was possible because the World Bank has always been led by an American while the IMF has always had a European as its head.
As long as the Western countries benefited, Rajan was not only fine with the IMF and the World Bank but even worked for the IMF as their Chief Economist. In recent years, with India and China gaining greater financial independence from the two Bretton Woods institutions, the revenues of those who depend on these institutions have come down and the Western banking system is on the brink of a collapse.
This is what Rajan describes as a dangerous situation for the world even though it is dangerous only for European and American bankers. Such conflation of the interests of the bankers with the interests of the world is consistent with the language used by economists from the West whose theories are tailored to benefit a few influential people. When these economists claim that the economy is about to collapse or that the world needs to be saved, what they really mean is that some bankers are in trouble and they should be bailed out using taxpayer’s money.
Rajan now wants to “start building a system” by using “background papers from eminent academics” but every economic crisis in the world can be traced to recommendations made by “eminent academics” and India should not be made to pay for cleaning up a mess it did not create. If the academics really want a stable system, they should advocate gold as the currency without any controls instead of demanding controls in the form of cashless currency, negative interest rates and another global institution that will dictate rules to the world.
Despite heading the RBI, Rajan has retained his job at the University of Chicago which exerts undue influence over global economic policies. The fact that RBI’s governor has one foot planted in a foreign university is problematic, more so as the university’s latest effort has been described as a “halfway house” between the US State Department and pure academics by the head of the Council on Foreign Relations which sets the US foreign policy. This means the university’s faculty members lack independence and publish only those ideas approved by the US government.
Rajan’s support for a new system to funnel Indian money to the West while he is all set to return to the American government’s halfway house is clearly a conflict of interest.
The author is an expert on technology and economic issues. Views expressed are personal
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-why-should-india-pay-for-the-mess-it-didn-t-create-2200246
Those who control the economy describe gold as a “dead investment”, oppose its import, and talk of putting the “gold to work”.
When China invaded India in 1962, the Indian government used the opportunity to issue gold bonds with the aim of making the people part with their gold. In a remarkable display of its naiveté, the government promised to repay the bond holders in rupees despite the fact that people held gold to insulate themselves from the ill-effects of a depreciating rupee.
Unsurprisingly, not many people took the unwise step of purchasing these bonds with their gold. Soon, the government used direct methods to coerce people into surrendering their gold and imposed various controls, including a ban on possessing gold bars and coins.
In a move eerily reminiscent of these events, the government once again plans to grab the gold in the country. Those who control the economy describe gold as a “dead investment”, oppose its import, and talk of putting the “gold to work”. They have already imposed new penalties in the form of taxes and duties and have considered issuing new gold bonds. Although bonds issued in the near future may claim to be redeemable in gold, the government is sure to use some future event to whip up a frenzy of patriotic sacrifice and justify substituting the gold repayments by paper currency.
Among the chorus opposing the ownership of gold are the voices of finance minister P Chidambaram and those of economic advisers C Rangarajan and Raghuram Rajan. They do not admit that gold is real money but call it an “unproductive investment”. If they believe their own claims, they should not swap the government’s hoard of rupees and paper instruments for gold but must use their paper to work wonders with the economy. They should also thank the people for sacrificing their valuable rupees and pumping it into the economy in exchange for mere gold.
Clearly, the aim of the rulers is to take the gold in the country and enrich themselves. Traditionally, the rulers have enriched themselves by printing money and giving themselves a share of this newly printed money. Printing money depletes the value of any savings held in rupees while simultaneously increasing the total money in the government’s possession. It thus transfers a portion of the total savings to those in power without the homes of ordinary people being physically raided. This process fails when people hold their savings as gold, which is why gold has become a target of government takeover.
As the global economy teeters on the verge of a massive collapse, the only method to protect one’s wealth is to convert it to real assets like land and gold. Poor people who cannot afford to buy real estate can only buy small amounts of gold. By taking their gold, the rulers rob them of the fruits of their labor and expose them to economic devastation.
India is the single largest storehouse of gold with most of the gold owned by women. If the advocates of the government takeover of gold truly believe that their suggestions are not immoral, they should not outsource their actions to the government. Instead, they must go into villages unaccompanied by security guards and compel poor women to exchange their gold for worthless pieces of paper and face the reaction of the villagers.
Significantly, the proposals of Raghuram Rajan, the government’s chief economic adviser, favor foreign bankers who seek to hoard gold to protect themselves from a major economic collapse. Raghuram Rajan was formerly with the International Monetary Fund and is currently affiliated with the secretive BDT Capital based in Chicago. He also works for the University of Chicago whose endowment fund operates like a hedge fund with a portion of its investments tied to gold. Yet, Raghuram Rajan opposes the ownership of gold by Indians who want to protect themselves from the impending economic downturn.
The opposition to the import of gold means that the government will send the gold that is taken over from Indians to foreign bankers in exchange for paper currency. This move would be as insidious as the British act of shipping several tonnes of gold out of India to Britain’s bankers in the 1930s. At that time, the British faced opposition from Indian freedom fighters. Now the Western powers no longer plunder India by ruling over the country, but their Indian proxies efficiently perform the job for them without any opposition.
Unlike government currencies which depreciate due to the incompetence of government economists, gold provides economic stability and any plan involving the surrender of gold to the government must be actively resisted.
The author can be reached at arvind@classical-liberal.net