PRAGOTI

Paul Krugman on the inadequacies of mainstream economics theory and its inability to reconcile with the global financial crisis.

After the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, the President of the UN General Assembly constituted an expert commission on finance to suggest ways of getting out of the present crisis and avoiding such crises in the future. This commission was chaired by Prof. Joseph Stiglitz. The Commission has submitted its preliminary recommendations.

Curbs on speculatory finance and an aggressive expansionary fiscal policy are the answers to what has gone wrong in the world today,writes Sunanda Sen.

A lot has been and is being written about the current economic crisis which is staring world capitalism in its face. As the figures for estimated losses and number of unemployed are rising, the realization that this is a crises at par with if not bigger than the great depression of the 1930s is slowly setting in. What needs to be done to pull the world economy out of this downturn has become the most important question at the current conjuncture. It is in this regard that an understanding of what are the roots of this crisis is an extremely important issue. This is so because, without a correct diagnosis of the factors which are responsible, appropriate measures for ensuring a recovery from this downturn would remain elusive,writes Roshan Kishore, Ph D scholar, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU.