Economic pandemic -Helicopter money, pump priming and fiscal deficit

Helicopter money(link) is a concept first used by Milton Friedman to illustrate air dropping money to the people in need directly when interest rate is zero and the economy is in recession. In modern day it is like Govt. sending subsidy money to the beneficiaries through direct transfer to their bank accounts. But it is the quantum that determines whether it is "heli drop" or simply a lollipop. It is a method by which Govt or CEntral bank monetises the fiscal deficit.Some of my friends wanted to link it to Dhoni's helicopter shot which used to send the ball for a six.

When too much of money is sent thro Heli drop, the economy can go for a six through hyper inflation later on, and other attendant problems from fiscal deficit bulge, ratings downgrade, interest rate shooting up etc. can wreck a booming economy. Fiscal deficit denotes that we are borrowing money from our children and grandchildren to run our households today.

As the famous saying goes Nothing is free in Economics.So you borrow today and spend lavishly and your children curse you and pay for it through their nose. I am hearing murmurs that already we are paying for our grandfathers' profligacy and what is wrong in pushing this to our children and grandchildren. It is not simply pushing but adding to their burden by our spendthrift policies. One cannot spend through his misery without earnings to back it up. One can only borrow in multiples of yone's earnings which one can repay in his lifetime after including the time value of money i.e interest.

Same is the case of Pump priming the economy unless it is used for building infrastructure and assets.

So the primary principle in managing fiscal deficit  which one must always remember is "This country's resources have not been bequeathed to us by our forefathers ,but borrowed from our children and grandchildren".So it is incumbent upon us not to leave them in lurch by increasing their debt repayment burden.

Inorder to cater to the kisans of the country the govt has launched several initiatives like e-NAM( link)which is the biggest online marketing place for agri produce, under PM Kisan(link) programmes. The Govt should connect all farmers through PM Kisan app linking them with e-NAMs,Kisan crop insurance, banks or kisan credit cards and finally also linking them with a nearby Govt Agricultural Institute/University for knowledge upgradation and transfer.

Few State Govt/Private  initiatives that I came across are really laudable One is e-Thottam in Tamilnadu which supplies packed Veggies and Fruits linking the vendors and the customers through its App.(link)In Maharashtra this initiative is path breaking (link)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Passenger vehicles sales trend is encouraging for the Economy

  The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) released its vehicle retail data for March 2025 and the full fiscal year 2024-25 ...