Saturday, June 7, 2014

Rethinking Money-II

What to do when governments don't safeguard the value of money? Why money in India is so inflation-prone and turbulent in terms of all decisions regarding interest, wages and investment? After all, the reason lies with the discretionary power that lies with our governing elites. Whether you call it central banking, institutional politics or inefficient lending, the crisis still persists with the hidden arbitrariness behind determining purchasing power of money. How can this be curtailed? There are mechanisms but all of them are in the domain of parliamentary legislation. So, how to bell the cat remains the problem. Why would anybody restrain one's own power? Is it not possible to replicate a world currency model within India? Why cannot we have multiple currencies the way any global trader can have? But if US can issue a currency, why cannot HDFC bank or ICICI bank or SBI bank issue the same? Why the governments alone should issue a currency? Naturally, all governments would object to that. Let there be certain commodity standard behind all the currencies issued by both governments and non-government agencies. A currency that safeguards the purchasing power should be preferred over the one that does not. Let there be equal competition between the government and non-government agencies to claim the trust of people. So, does it mean that we should have gold or silver-backed multiple currencies available in India? Was it not the way India lived for thousands of years without serious national long-term inflation and unemployment?

No comments: