Articles by Avinash Persaud

Enthusiasts for cryptocurrency say with revolutionary zeal that this is the future of money. We have seen private money or money tied to a rigid formula in the 19th century that was marked with frequent financial instability and pedestrian growth. The gold standard was adopted to bring stability but was abandoned 50 years later when it deepened and spread the Great Depression. Someone needs to speak up for the benefits of regulated fiat money, which, in the last 50 years, has been associated with more growth and stability than over the gold standard era.

For the vast majority of human existence, international trade was fuelled by renewable energy. Trade winds were used to cruelly bring enslaved labour from Africa to grow cane, limes, bananas, and cocoa in the Caribbean and powered the windmills that turned the cane into molasses and sugar.

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The new economy needs a development model that is people-centric, not production-driven. Emphasis, therefore, must be on the development of human capital. But, public education and health are not enough to break out of the middle-economy track. The world’s most pressing problems, from climate change to the future of work are all manifestations of inequality. The role of government is to not only be a more effective provider of learning and health, but also to be an agent for greater access to opportunity and changing patterns of ownership at all levels.

In the climate change debate, a number of industrialised governments and multilateral development organisations push for greater use of risk finance products and financial innovation in general. But, insurance is no solution to climate change because it is no solution to risks that are rising in time and correlation. It is merely a way of getting the victims of climate change to pay for it themselves and not the contributors.