Political authority and economic power are now concentrated in the hands of ministers and bureaucracy. Democracy is bound to degenerate into dictatorship, wrote MA Master in August 1960.
‘A British economist has said that to try to stop prices by controls is like a lady going to a surgeon to remove her double chin—the thing comes out at the back of her neck in a bump,' wrote Minoo Masani in November 1966.
‘There is no such thing as free education. Money paid to teachers comes ultimately from people, as taxes if not as tuition fees,' wrote Professor Om Prakash Kahol on 1 January 1959.
The Italian term sprezzatura—a studied nonchalance that conceals intention—best captures the spirit of Trump’s foreign policy so far. The pattern is unpredictability, transactionalism, and disruption as diplomacy.
With 20.2 percent of its total loans in default by the end of last year, Bangladesh had the weakest banking system in Asia. Despite reforms, it will take time to recover.
This world is being restructured and redrawn by one man, and what’s his power? It’s not his formidable military. It’s trade. With China, it turned on him.
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