Prof Stanley Fischer (1943-2025)

Renewed Economics Professor Stanley Fischer passed away on 31st May, 2025.

"Fischer was born on Oct. 15, 1943, in Mazabuka, a town in Zambia, the nation then known as Northern Rhodesia. His family was part of a close-knit community of Jews who had emigrated to southern Africa. His Latvian-born father, Philip, ran a general store. His mother, Ann, had been born in Cape Town, the daughter of Lithuanian immigrants, according to a Financial Times profile.

At 13, the family moved to Zimbabwe, then called Southern Rhodesia, where Stanley became active in the Habonim, a Zionist youth group, along with Rhoda Keet, his future wife. In the early 1960s, he spent six months on a kibbutz on Israel’s Mediterranean coastal plain, where he combined learning Hebrew with picking and planting bananas.

He was introduced to economics through a course in his senior year in high school and moved to the UK to study at the London School of Economics, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1965 and a master’s in 1966.  

He chose MIT for his doctorate work so that he could study under future Nobel laureate economists Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow. He said he may have been drawn to macroeconomics “because I was interested in big questions.” 

“I had this image of the world as we knew it having nearly collapsed in the 1930s, and that these guys” — the macroeconomists — “had saved it,” he said in a 2005 interview with Blanchard."

The following are some of the finest pieces on Prof Sten's life and works across the world:

Remembering Stanley Fischer: An economist for all

Stanley Fischer, who shaped global macroeconomic policy, dies at 81

Stanley Fischer, economic and central banking titan, dies at 81

OBITUARY Stanley Fischer, former Fed vice chair and Bank of Israel chief, dies at 81

A Conversation With Stanley Fischer

Influential economist Stanley Fischer dies

RIP: Prof Ulaganathan Sankar (1930-2025)

The great professor of economics Dr Ulaganathan Sankaranarayanan (1935-2025) passed away on March 30, 2025 at the age of 90.

I met him last year in March 13th in Chennai in his house, what a simple teacher whose environmental economics we were taught as fine teachings of powerful tools.

He was eminent Environmental Economist. His book title Environmental Economics is still followed for training students.

Professor U. Sankar, was Founder Director of Madras School of Economics. He was Founder of Department of Econometrics at University of Madras.

His latest article was published in the EPW Journal few weeks before his passing away.

Options for Value Realisation of Ecosystem Services in Developing Countries

The following are some of his published works:

An Interview With Professor U Sankar

Profile at Madras School of Economics

Ideas

The World Trade is in Turmoil

World Trade Economics are yet again at cross road historically. Students of economics have exciting learning curve at this juncture.

Also, the world trade and globalization are changing its operations models.

The New President of USA, Donald Trump’s policies especially the trade policies are causing greater impacts on most countries which do exports and import of goods and services.

Eminent Trade Economist Dr Arvind Panagariya has expressed his views, though his views give basic ideas how the USA intend to play given their economy vis.a.vis other economy like China, India, etc.

Below are links to Prof Arvind Panagariya interviews:

Arvind Panagariya: US deal will be a big positive for India

With Trump’s new tariff order, Arvind Panagariya highlights key trade risks for India

Arvind Panagariya on Trump and International Trade

Famous Behavioural Economist Daniel Kahneman Passed Away (1934-2024)

 “everything I’ve done has been collaborative.”

The famous behavioural economics Prof Daniel Kahneman passed away few days ago. He was aged 90. His many great insightful and pathbreaking works has paved many new dimensions in economic analysis.

He was awrded with the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002 for his works - “for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty”

Different thoughts of people on his life and works:

He wrote in his popular 2011 book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow.”

Dr. Kahneman presented his ideas to a general audience in “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” which distinguished between two modes of thought: System 1, in which the mind, acting quickly, relies on intuition, immediate impressions and emotional reactions; and System 2, in which the mind, slowing down, functions more rationally and analytically and is able to correct errors made by System 1.

“His central message could not be more important,” the Harvard psychologist and author Steven Pinker told The Guardian in 2014, “namely, that human reason left to its own devices is apt to engage in a number of fallacies and systematic errors, so if we want to make better decisions in our personal lives and as a society, we ought to be aware of these biases and seek workarounds. That’s a powerful and important discovery.” More here.

Princeton University obituary 

His major works at Econlib.

Nobel Committee report on his works.

"Economics is a notoriously imperialist discipline: economists are more prone to colonising other scholarly fields than to be colonised by them. The single biggest exception was Daniel Kahneman, the social psychologist who was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial prize in economic science for how he revolutionised the field." more here.

Rama, Modi vs India, Bharat

"Lord Ram’s credos emphasised the sixteen noble qualities of life—unconditional, righteous, assertive, grateful, truthful, steadfast, charismatic, emancipative, thoughtful, capable, presentable, spiritual, dreaded, radiant, admirable and calm, All of this together made him the ideal Maryada Purushottam. These Shodasha Kalyana Gunas, as they are known in Sanskrit, define the human way of living that transcends boundaries making it globally relevant. The Ram temple movement had its own sixteen dimensions due to its religious, social, cultural, spiritual, anthropological, philosophical, judicial, liberal, historical, local, regional, national, global, geographical, mercurial and political contours". More here.

It wasn’t until Sonia took over the Congress that such cooperation became impossible. The current political polarisation started with her. But paradoxically that has worked in favour of the BJP! More here.

An Ode to the doctor’s scribble

"Hindu Resurgence in India That Is Changing"

Robert Solow Died at 99

Recently, the Nobel Prize winning economist Rober Solow died aged 99. Below are few articles on his life and works, of which some are very relevant to Indian economy:

Solow's lessions for Indian economy 

Solow changed the way we think about economic phenomena. He made seminal contributions to growth theory

His elegant work established that the main determinant of economic growth was technology, not growing capital and labor.

He left school in 1942 to join the Army and served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy until World War II ended in 1945. Back at Harvard, he delved into economics and became research assistant to Wassily Leontief, the Russian economist who would win the Nobel in 1973

Solow’s interest in the topic dates back to the 1940s: his doctoral thesis at Harvard focused on income inequality, though his perspective then was markedly different.

He was also known for highlighting the role of technological innovation — and economies’ capacity to adapt to it — as the ultimate force behind sustained economic prosperity.

Robert Solow: An Affectionate Portrait

“Everything reminds me of sex, but I try to keep it out of my papers.”

Robert Solow's interview

Economic History and Economics by Rober Solow

idea that everybody is everywhere and always maximizing profits turned out to be not quite right.

Classical economist B R Shenoy warned Sri Lanka in the 1960s

Classical economist B R Shenoy warned Sri Lanka in the 1960s when the country started its first IMF program after printing money (mostly for rural credit re-finance), not to engage in revenue based fiscal consolidation, which he called a ‘statistical alternative of balancing the budget’.

“This alternative is beset with pitfalls,” Shenoy warned in a report commissioned by ex-President J R Jayewardena.

“Past experience in Ceylon, which is in line with experience in virtually all parts of the world, is that in a democratic set up political and other pressures are heavily on the side of more and more spending by the government.

“When Revenues increase, under the weight of these pressures, expenditures too increase to meet, or even exceed, Revenue collections. In Ceylon during the past seven years Revenues rose by 45 per cent and Expenditures charged to Revenues by 48 per cent.”

From December 2014 to November 2019 tax revenues went up 65 percent to 1,612 billion rupees and recurrent spending went up 55 percent to 2,053 billion rupees, before taxes were cut in December to target ‘potential output’.

Revenue based fiscal consolidation, which is in line with a ‘heedless spending’ ideology that emerged among English speaking academics (US ‘progressives’ or post-Keynesians) combined with nationalized central banks, led to a spike in spending to GDP as salaries and subsidies were hiked with no restraint from 2015.

More here.