The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of Change in the Post-Crisis World

by Ruchir Sharma

Commenting on the Indian statistical bureau’s frequent revisions of official economic data, former central bank governor Y. V. Reddy once cracked to me that while the future is always uncertain, in India even the past is uncertain.

This is a classic case of Goodhart’s Law, which says that once a measure

becomes a target, it ceases to be useful, partly because so many people have an incentive to doctor numbers to meet it.

Instead, he is mired in controversy. In the end, said Ralph Waldo Emerson, every hero becomes a bore.

“Bad times make for good policy, and good times make for bad policy.”

crises “take a much longer time coming than you think, but happen much faster than you would have thought.”