Speculators Make Merry

IF a critical evaluation were to be made of the performance of the country's share markets in the recent period, applying the yardstick of socio-economic costs and benefits, there is no doubt that the final judgment will be that they operate like sophisticated casinos, to borrow the expression of one perceptive observer. Every aspect of government policy today tends to encourage stock market brokers and other operators. It is hardly surprising, then, that at a recent meeting the finance minister should have derived much satisfaction from the galloping share prices and stressed the importance of the capital market which was facing a vigorous phase of expansion, confiding candidly that the government's fiscal policy was increasingly getting dependent on market players. Depending on the speculative capital market and financial deals to generate the spread effects of economic development is far removed even from the strategy of a free market system to stimulate production and investment by domestic and foreign entrepreneurs.