What specific failings, if any, of the current regulatory structure have led to the proposed creation of the Financial Stability and Development Council is a question that needs to be answered by...
Columns
The old idea about the "use" of foreign exchange reserves is now being expressed in a new form. It is suggested that a part of the reserves could be drawn on to set up a sovereign wealth fund to...
The notion that in reforming the financial system we should concentrate our efforts on making sure that banks are not "too big to fail" is based on an illusion. What we are looking for is regulation...
There have been a number of commissions and committees on the financial crisis over the past year, which have largely covered the same ground in their analysis and recommendations for reform of the...
Rising sovereign or sovereignguaranteed debt followed on occasion by sovereign default was until recently a problem faced by developing countries. Now the pattern has turned upside down. It is the...
The right to vote has been a leading factor in an otherwise desultory history of post-colonial state-building in Pakistan. This insight, however, comes with twist-in-the-tail implications for the...
The nature and extent of political involvement and influence of the Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates governments in Pakistan seem far more direct and intrusive than ever before. There is no...
The draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 is under review in the Ministry of Home Affairs. This review must call for a drastic amendment of Section 4 which confers extreme powers on...
The US has followed a cautious approach in tackling the current crisis in banking. It has refused to tackle the crisis head on, it has instead followed an "endure and wait" approach. What of...
In a ruling hailed as historic by his supporters, the restored chief justice of Pakistan struck down as unconstitutional some of the actions taken by former President Pervez Musharraf. A reading of...
As the Awami League-led government in Bangladesh completes its first six months in office, domestic politics is calm on the surface. The current quiet could be due to the disarray among the...
Pakistan's wars on both its western and eastern borders as well as the war with itself, have been created by the very same institution - the intelligence agencies within the security establishment...
The road to greater legitimacy for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank does not lie merely through greater "democracy". Both the creditors and debtors of these international financial...
The Pakistani military finally appears to have embraced the war against jihadi militancy as its own. If so, an important shift in perception and policy has taken place. Past experience, however,...
The Awami League-led government in Bangladesh, which completed 100 days in office, has received public approval, as expressed in opinion polls, for its management of the economy and for how it...
