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Thursday April 18, 2024
Shahid Mehmood

  • November 25, 2020

    Why does Pakistan need large firms?

    One of the striking features of the industrialized nations is the number of large firms that dot their economic landscape. Data released by the US...

  • November 11, 2020

    The recovery debate

    The writer is a freelance contributor.The gloom cast upon the global economy by Covid-19 did not spare Pakistan. Already on the downward trajectory...

  • July 27, 2020

    The economy under the PTI

    When it comes to the PTI’s economic performance, discussions tend to be one sided . In a recent article in these pages, Mohammed Zubair , ignored...

  • July 16, 2020

    Is economic planning viable?

    Planning, both short- and long-term, is an essential part of modern economic management.In order to delve into the arguments concerning their...

  • March 05, 2020

    Tackling intellectual and physical poverty

    Poverty is news again. As inflation reached new highs, number crunchers got busy trying to estimate how many people have fallen below the poverty...

  • January 14, 2018

    When taxes rob people

    There are legal ways of robbing people. This form of robbery takes place on a daily basis across the globe and in our country – especially through...

  • January 02, 2018

    Public policy and the pharma industry

    In a land where uncertainty abounds, one event that can be predicted with hundred percent accuracy is the shortage of medicines – a spectacle that...

  • December 09, 2017

    The state in the economy

    The PML-N’s intended policy of privatising a number of state-owned enterprises has generated a lively debate among the proponents and opponents of...

  • November 22, 2017

    Inequality’s many dangers

    One of the realities of the present global economic setup is the historically high levels of income inequality. As research after research surfaces...

  • July 04, 2017

    The invisible wealth of the rich

    In 2007, an engineer managed to extract confidential documents from the system of a bank. The data contained eye-popping details of 30,000 wealthy...

  • June 07, 2017

    Greed and the ‘invisible hand’

    Appetitus divitiarum infinitus means ‘unlimited lust for gain’. And this lust for gain – as its adherents contend – is...

  • May 24, 2017

    Can we afford a useless exercise?

    The exercise of presenting annual statistics related to probable expenditures and income of a nation started in 18th century Britain. Derived from...

  • February 25, 2017

    Pakistan’s debt problem

    My last article, which was also about debt. I realised from the responses that there are a lot of misconceptions about debt, its dynamics in...

  • February 08, 2017

    Questions about debt

    Pakistan’s ever-rising debt is perhaps the most discussed topic as far as economics is concerned. The finance minister’s recent article...

  • January 08, 2017

    Welfare in the 21st century

    Welfare and welfare states have been constants in the socio-economic affairs of modern-day nation states, at least from the time of Otto Von...

  • December 26, 2016

    Credit and social capital

    One of my friends runs a small-scale business. His business is located in the older part of Rawalpindi – in a place popularly known as purana...

  • December 15, 2016

    Lesson from Sri Lanka

    Our acquaintance with Sri Lanka has more to do with cricket than its history or geography. But recently, two avenues of further commonality have...

  • December 06, 2016

    Financial inclusion

    ‘Financial inclusion’ is one of the buzzwords in the development circle that always finds mention. It is considered a critical component...

  • November 23, 2016

    Modi’s surgical strike on the Indian economy

    On November 8, India’s policymakers carried out another major ‘surgical strike’. But this time, the strike was carried out against...

  • November 14, 2016

    The economic fallout

    The world is still trying to catch its breath since hearing the news that Donald Trump managed to snatch the most powerful seat from a relatively...

  • November 09, 2016

    Will automation render labour useless?

    As the industrial revolution gradually took hold in England and other parts of Europe, machines increasingly came to replace manual labour. Not...

  • October 12, 2016

    The end of cash?

    The writer is a freelance contributor. Cash is the most sought after commodity in the world. It’s also the most liquid . In the world...

  • October 02, 2016

    Are we going the Irish way?

    ‘Celtic Tiger’ is the term used to refer to the Irish economy for its remarkable growth over the last three decades. One significant...

  • September 12, 2016

    Intellectual property

    I am sure that most of us are aware of laws regarding patents and copyrights. These are primarily aimed at preserving the rights of an individual or...

  • August 31, 2016

    The pricing fuss

    The recent spate of increase in the prices of medicine has, as expected, elicited a commotion both by the media and the public. And then, of course,...

  • August 20, 2016

    Redistribution and unequal societies

    This is the year of the Olympics, and Brazil is the proud host of this event. It won this right in 2009 and Luiz Inacio Silva de Lula,...

  • August 10, 2016

    Project Euro

    The writer is a freelance contributor. It was supposed to be a grandiose project of economic and political integration on a scale that the world...

  • August 02, 2016

    Energy and its problems

    The writer is a freelance contributor. Energy drives the world we live in. We use its different forms to power our vehicles, homes, computers....

  • July 24, 2016

    Cash, crime and large denominations

    The European Central Bank , like most central banks around the world, has its hands full when it comes to executing monetary policy to propel...

  • June 18, 2016

    The new gold rush

    Gold has a history that goes back thousands of years. Nobody knows when it was first discovered or how, but what we do know is that the human race...

  • May 25, 2016

    The wrong kind of fix

    The price fixing season is upon us again; one of the most go-to tools that rulers use to further their popularity. And it sells well with the...

  • April 09, 2016

    What’s wrong with offshore companies?

    The writer is a freelance contributor. I must confess that my beloved country is a happening place. Hardly a day passes by when the teeming...

  • March 24, 2016

    Ready for take-off… without engines

    This article, dear readers, is not about the Pakistan International Airlines, as some of you may have been misled into believing after glancing at...

  • March 14, 2016

    The paradox of work

    When it comes to making the wrong predictions, the science and art of economics has its fair share of such instances, just like any other academic...

  • February 25, 2016

    The role of the price tag

    Our daily lives as consumers are tied to the reality of buying various goods. Sometimes consumers negotiate prices and sometimes a price tag conveys...

  • February 10, 2016

    Iran’s grand re-entry

    The 1979 revolution turned Iran into a pariah state. Virtually cut off from the entire world and left to fend for itself, the country went through...

  • December 14, 2015

    The budget… again

    And so it happened – again. November 30 saw another mini-budget, another ridiculous claim that it would not have any effect upon the ‘common...

  • November 22, 2015

    Universal mysteries

    KIC 8462852 is the name of a newly discovered planet that has set the scientific world abuzz. It lies 1500 light years from Earth. Since its...

  • November 02, 2015

    The importance of a signature

    Whenever we have to withdraw money through a cheque, or buy something with our credit or debit cards, we have to sign a paper. Putting your...

  • October 06, 2015

    Does culture affect the economy?

    Economic outcomes are the results of peoples’ activity in terms of earning bread and butter. They could be good or bad, and ultimately economic...

  • September 08, 2015

    China and the stock market

    The writer is a freelance contributor. Jim Chanos is a famous figure in American financial circles. He had rightly predicted the fall in the energy...

  • August 19, 2015

    Our misdiagnosed healthcare system

    Doctors are supposed to be saviours. And they are also supposed to be up to date about the practice methodologies, medicine and research in their...

  • July 28, 2015

    Why don’t we pay our taxes?

    The official number of taxpayers in Pakistan is one of the most depressing economic statistics to read. It is a heavily cited number in writings on...

  • July 08, 2015

    The ‘record’ reserves

    In the midst of the terrible death toll due to the heatwave in Karachi, a piece of ‘breaking news’ flashed in front of my eyes. It said that the...

  • June 25, 2015

    The Rs10,000 stamp

    This is a story that will resonate with almost everybody. This is a story that is a reflection of the endemic nature of corruption in our...

  • June 04, 2015

    The annual budget: an exercise in futility

    Budget season is here. People can’t stop talking about it. The media is abuzz and experts are in full demand to spill their pearls of wisdom...

  • May 09, 2015

    Will early market closure help?

    Here we go again. As expected, with the arrival of summer, problems related to the provision of electricity have raised their ugly head again. The...

  • April 10, 2015

    New drug policy

    The recently approved drug policy has been hailed as a positive step towards fixing the shortcomings of the earlier policy. However, the chances of...

  • March 10, 2015

    A home of one’s own

    Having a shelter of one’s own is considered a basic right. There are numerous international resolutions that recognise this. For example, the...

  • February 23, 2015

    Our resource curse

    Resources are normally a boon for a country. They can be critical inputs to the process of economic growth, plus they give the country option in...