Gita Gopinath Quotes
The idea that RBI will be able to make a big transfer to the government was misplaced. It was a very good signalling device that the government was very serious about cracking down on corruption and black money. But I do not think it was very effective in curbing it.
Gopinath, Gita. Interview. Business Standard, 23 Dec. 2016.
Keynes was suggesting a small transfer tax on securities and other financial instruments. For investors, such a tax would not be a significant burden, but it would discourage pure speculation. Generally every one likes that idea except the speculators. They in turn, play off one nation or jurisdiction against the others by threatening to take their stock and bond markets to other nations which do not have such a tax. That has worked for almost a century in avoiding such a tax in the United States which is the center for both world investment and speculation.
At the time, the economy was virtually controlled by the banks and others in the finance, as opposed to businesses that produced things or provided non-financial services to consumers and business which was that had prevailed ever since the Great Depression, when New Deal legislation controlled the banks, stock markets, and other facets of the financial industry.
Gita Gopinath is an Indian American economist who has been the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund since 2019. In that role she is the Director of IMF's Research Department and the Economic Counsellor of the Fund.
