Puja Mehra — Free market model has failed: Kaushik Basu

“World Bank too has changed its goal to fighting no longer for just eradication of poverty but also for shared prosperity”

There is now a consensus the world over that the free market economic model does not work, said World Bank chief economist and former Chief Economic Adviser to the government of India Kaushik Basu on Sunday.…

Just as complete state control fails, leaving all decisions to markets results in grave inequalities and so it doesn’t work even politically, argued Dr. Basu. “The things that were ideologically rooted on the extreme right and extreme left, those fringes have now fallen off.” 

Now, “sharing of the pie” with the bottom 40 per cent of people is gaining traction even with the International Monetary Fund and economists such as Thomas Piketty, Dr. Basu said.

Reflecting the new consensus, Dr. Basu said the World Bank formally changed its goal to fighting no longer for just eradication of poverty but also for shared prosperity.

Dr. Basu’s statement assumes significance as the Economic Survey states that the Narendra Modi government plans to bring in a “pure market economy” through legislations and new processes where the role of the state would be limited to intervening in case market forces fail.…

Them's fighting words (for neoliberals).

The Hindu
Free market model has failed: Kaushik Basu
Puja Mehra

Also important: Dr. Basu also said that the World Bank was planning to create an ‘Ease of Living Life’ rating of countries that would be on the lines of the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in which India ranks poorly. The rating being planned will rank countries on the costs incurred by ordinary people in interface with the bureaucracy.

See also

Forbes
Is Homo Economicus A Psychopath?

Peter Ubel

So far then, we have learned that the small percent of people who qualify as Homo economic [HE] – who kept all the money for themselves in all these games – are smarty-pants who, feeling appreciated, manipulate others to their own ends. That is already a scary prospect. But it gets worse. HEs and qHEs demonstrate psychopathic traits, caring little for the well-being of others…

To make matters even worse, as opposed to full on psychopaths, who tend to be a disorganized lot, HEs demonstrate above average self-discipline….

The researchers paint a powerful picture of Homo economicus: “We see a person who is intelligent, driven to excel and to dominate other people, and capable of impulse control and of working toward long-term goals. In other words, Homo economicus is the prototypical member of the social and economic elite.”