Sanjeev Sabhlok's Blog, page 116

Was Jane Jacobs a force for the good or for evil?

I showed here how John Ruskin exercised a baneful influence on liberty in the 19th century – particularly on urban landscapes. Jane Jacobs was a similarly influential figure in the 20th century. “For contemporary architects, civic planners and city dwellers, Jacobs’ book is a foundational text of humane urban planning. Her ideas, considered radical when the […]

Who owns these primarily online news portals in India?

I’m trying to figure out who owns what – so I’m more aware of where I get any articles published in the future. Here’s an initial list: scroll.in:  US-based digital publishing company Scroll Media Inc founded in 2012 by Samir Patil (CEO), an alumnus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. – details. Indian alexa rank 150 […]

Chronology of the slippery slope – or the descent of the West into socialism

The West has been led by progressives for over a hundred years now, and it is very hard to distinguish between various political parties – all of them being far to the left of the classical liberal position. Here are some key milestones in the descent of the West into a socialist quagmire. Note that […]

Civil Service Reforms – by Dr G. Sundaram.

I thank Dr G Sundaram IAS (retd.) 1962 batch for sending me his article on civil service reforms (PDF here, Word version here). I’ll review and comment on it separately. Civil Service Reforms – by Dr G. Sundaram (Gujarat – 1962) At the outset, I must say that Civil Service Reforms is difficult subject and […]

Optimal taxation, levies, fees and charges

I started this a couple of days ago to comment on the Opportunity Card, but I will make personal notes on general principles of optimal taxation on this placeholder post. Need to distinguish between taxes and levies. What are the principles applicable to taxes? What principles apply to levies? Why should cost recovery be limited […]

Moving governments towards price discriminatory taxation and fees – using an Opportunity Card

In 2009 I published two articles in Freedom First outlining a theory of public finance underpinned by a perfectly price discriminating model. These articles are available here: first, second. The real issue with price discrimination remains the cost of assessing the individual willingness to pay and hence the potential consumer surplus (or loss – if […]

A response to objections to Modi’s reforms of the bureaucracy

I’ve been asked my views on this article: Subservience over Efficiency: The Prime Minister & Civil Service ‘Reforms’ – JAWHAR SIRCAR This matter has been also discussed in other recent articles, so I’ll provide a consolidated view including on matters raised also in the following articles: Lateral Entry into Senior Bureaucracy: A Flawed Approach – K. ASHOK VARDHAN […]

What SBP needs at this stage – and urgently

I’m reverting back to SBP issues after a month’s break. Will continue to focus mainly on writing, but have shared a few thoughts with SBP leadership. My suggestion has been that the four main leaders in urban areas work together to build a movement against the BJP government. It needs to have an economic focus – something […]

The case of AT Exports and why the Wasans need to look at the bigger picture

Came across In their shoes – a documentary on Netflix. I’ve uploaded a small section of the documentary here: My tweets: @sabharwalatul Excellent leather documentary that I just saw on Netflix. Not sure whether you are interested, but India’s overall story is a huge thing to be documented. India is a colossal failure of public […]

Where Milton Friedman fell short in his assessment of “The Role of Government in Education” (1955)

In this 1955 article, which informs Freedom and Capitalism (which was published in 1962), Friedman comes close – even alludes to tangentially in a few places – to the solution I’ve been talking about for two decades, and wrote about in my 2008 book, BFN. But he does allow a range of convoluted and indefensible […]