Manan Vyas

The Marginal Utility of Media

mananvyas — Sat, 19 May 2012 03:58:09 +0000

The concept of marginal utility is a very powerful one. As a student of economics, the aim is to attain maximum efficiency in the economy. The primary condition for general equilibrium is that the marginal utility of all consumers, producers and the product mix must be equal. In this article I focus on how the [...]

The Price of Self Respect

mananvyas — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:53:14 +0000

Every morning and afternoon, on my way to and from the metro station to my college, I observe an old man sitting patiently with a weighing scale. For the princely sum of Rs 2, you can judge the effectiveness of your present exercise routine and generously deduct upwards of a kilo accounting for your shoes [...]

Marginal Utility of Money – Economics in Real Life

mananvyas — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:05:06 +0000

Economics is a powerful subject. It has fascinated students for decades now. Yet the real beauty of economics is visible when we apply its concepts to our daily life. Among the applications of economics, today I refer specially to the marginal utility of money. Theoretically the marginal utility of money is defined as the change [...]

The European Sovereign Debt Crisis

mananvyas — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:33:37 +0000

My analysis of the European Debt crisis revolves around the following points: (1) There is an essential difference between solvent but illiquid nations and insolvent nations. (2) This is a crisis of creditor confidence. To regain creditor confidence, you need to listen to what the creditor is saying. (3) The European Debt Crisis is a crisis at whose heart lies a risk of contagion from hopeless economies such Greece to major global economies such as Italy and Spain. Were it not for the credit market fear of contagion, the crisis would be much smaller and localised in scale. How do we mitigate this risk? Read on.

Greece vs Italy – The Sovereign Debt Crisis

mananvyas — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:07:35 +0000

The European Sovereign Debt Crisis has centered around 5 nations – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain giving this grouping of economies an unfortunate but somewhat deserving acronym – PIIGS. Greece and Italy are the two economies from this group that have attracted the largest amount of international attention in the past year. Greece because [...]

The Sahyadris in the Rain

mananvyas — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 12:59:03 +0000

We met at Victoria Terminus, (I shall persist in using the British name, they built it after all) Ankit, Praveen and I. We were to catch the 7:10 p.m. Vidharba Express from platform 18. The train actually turned out to be rather royal despite the name having connotations of farmer suicides. We walked past more [...]

IMF Top Post – Why Christine Lagarde is the Best Choice and why India must support her

mananvyas — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:12:48 +0000

IMF’s Director – India must support Christine Lagarde After Dominique Strauss Kahn’s ignominious exit from the top post at IMF, analysts and policy makers across the globe have debated and speculated on the successor to the top post. Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister has emerged as the most prominent contender for the post and [...]

The Origin of the Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis

mananvyas — Thu, 12 May 2011 09:15:50 +0000

Manan Vyas explains in lay-man’s language the factors that led Greece to accumulate a government debt burden that surpasses the GDP of more than 170 nations ($467 billion) while deconstructing the political, economic, regulatory and enforcement failures of the government of Greece and the European Union. Until 2009 Greece was just another beautiful Mediterranean country that evoked images [...]

The Western Intervention in Libya – Analysis

mananvyas — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:14:36 +0000

The military intervention by the Western nations in Libya has raised several important questions. Here I seek to give my opinion on the issues being raised. The Jasmine revolution originating in the nation of Tunisia was followed with great interest by the international community. It was the first of the Arab countries to rise against [...]

Memoirs of an Himalayan Expedition: Part 5 – Aftermath

mananvyas — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:19:31 +0000

After the thoroughly exhausting marathon Ankit and I collapsed on the bed and had a rather largish nap. We still had 3 days of free time before we caught a train from Kathgodam to Delhi and we were not about to spend 3 days in a small trekking village. We considered various hill stations in [...]