Do it yourself

In a December 2025  commentary , economist Kenneth Rogoff argues that the rising tide of anti-immigration sentiment in many wealthy countries isn’t just a political squabble: it’s an economic self-inflicted wound. Rogoff notes that many advanced economies are confronting aging populations, shrinking workforces, and chronic labour-shortages. Yet political pressure is pushing in exactly the opposite direction: tougher restrictions on migration. He warns that by “shutting the door on immigrants,” nations undermine their ability to adapt to rapid technological change, maintain innovation, and sustain long-term growth. In effect, restricting immigration at this moment equates to taxing the future — a decision that may feel popular, but that carries serious costs in competitiveness, productivity, and payoffs from technological adoption. Recently  Elon Musk also echoed similar sentiments . At its core, his message: demographics aren’t optional — if labour supply and talent mobility d...

  Trump: Hey Susie, you’re looking absolutely fantastic, nobody does it better! How’s the morning going? Did my posts on Truth Social and that failing platform “X” – terrible name, by the way – absolutely ROCK the world last night? Total game-changers! Susie Wiles: Sir, you’re the greatest President in history, nobody even comes close! The entire planet is glued to your accounts. Your posts are sending shockwaves across the universe – markets trembling, governments in a frenzy. We’re doing phenomenal, the best any administration has EVER done! Trump: Fantastic, just fantastic. I knew it! Show me the posts we’re dropping today – we’re gonna dominate! Susie Wiles: Right here, Sir, the absolute best ammo for today’s battle! Trump: Susie, you’re a genius, just brilliant. I love you, you’re tremendous. Fire off a post every 10 minutes, keep ‘em shook! Oh, and send Little Marco in, pronto. Marco Rubio: Good morning, President. How’s the greatest leader in the world doing today?...

Continuing from my previous post ( View from the Mars ) “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), campaign of President Trump has been one of the most successful political campaigns of recent times. The campaign won Mr. Trump and his Republican Party (GoP), a clear control of the white house, the Senate and the Congress. From the campaign material available publicly, it is not clear what is the reference point for President Trump’s MAGA pledge. The campaign did not seem to have specified when did the greatness of the US begin to diminish and how much of the global stature, it supposedly enjoyed at some point in history, has been lost. For the lack of adequate information, it is safe to assume that the campaign of Mr. Trump, referred to the term of his predecessor, Joe Biden (2021-2025), as period of decline of America, and intends to revert to the status quo ante as on 19 th January 2021, when he vacated the White house after a four-year stay, and carry forward the unfinished agenda fro...

“There are events in the womb of time, which shall be delivered in time”.   (Othello, William Shakespeare) Beginning of the current year, I commented that “the trend seen in the past few months is indicating that the conditions might change materially in the next 12-24 months. The macro trends may become ambivalent and unpredictable. Investors may need to make choices; and the return they would earn on their investment portfolios would largely depend on the choices they would make. Making right choices, in my view, would be the central investment challenge for the year 2025.” Barely one month into the year and it appears that earth already witnessed many seasons. The conditions are becoming more uncertain with each passing day. The 47 th  President of the United States (P47), appears in a tremendous hurry to deliver on his promise to Make America Great Again (MAGA). He is using all his negotiating skills to secure good deals for his country. How much success will he achieve wi...

Mr. Donald Trump has chosen to take some time before speaking with his Indian counterpart Mr. Narendra Modi. Trump has chosen to call the Chinese premier Xi Jinping, even before his inauguration. Prime Minister Modi has apparently sent a written congratulatory message to Trump, instead of calling him. This small pause in the top-level communication has triggered a debate about the shape of Indo-US relations in the near future. In my view, before drawing any conclusion from Trump’s pause, and writing obituaries of the Indo-US strategic partnership, we must study the evolution of Indo-US relationships. This relationship has evolved over the past 75 years. It is primarily based on mutual need and shared democratic values, and goes much beyond the personal equation of individual leaders. Prologue The foundation of Indo-US was laid during the 1949 visit of Prime Minister Nehru’s visit to the US and meeting with President Henry Truman. Nehru was welcomed by everyone he met during his multi w...

In the past couple of months, since the completion of the US presidential elections, most of the global analysis (financial, geopolitical, economic, international relations, etc.) has been revolving around the likely policy stance of the Trump 2.0 administration. Various scenarios have been built based on extrapolating his election speeches and other utterances made during Trump’s election campaign. Most of these analyses could be speculative, since (i) these is not based on the policy actions pursued during the first presidential term of Trump, assuming this time it is entirely different; (ii) these assume a significant delivery on the election promises, with no substantive evidence to support such assumptions; and (iii) these not only ignore the relatively recent experiences of India (Achee Din-2014), the UK (New Deal – Brexit), but also overlook the notable failed promises of the past US presidents. To name a few, Woodrow Wilson (1916) - “He kept us out of war”; Jimmy Carter (1977...

The 45 th   President of the United States of America (POTUS), Mr. Donald John Trump (Trump) has assumed office with an onerous promise to “Make America Great Again” (MAGA). In the past two months, POTUS and some of his team members have expressed their intention to implement radical policy changes in a variety of spheres. A close study of the entire election campaign of Trump, his actions during his previous presidential tenure (2016-2020), his selection of team members for his latest presidential term, and his various utterances since the election results in November 2024, would reveal that as of this morning MAGA is mostly an aspirational slogan lacking a credible conceptual framework. For example— ·           Trump has spoken about strict border controls, tougher immigration rules, and restrictions on the skilled worker visa (H1B) program. Presently, many US corporations which would play a pivotal role in MAGA, have first generation ...