POLICY FOR GROWTH: PRO-BUSINESS OR PROMARKET?
Should governments actively support businesses to grow or should they merely act as handsoff facilitators? The two approaches are quite different and may be...
LANKANS TRUST VACCINES ALONGSIDE SUPERNATURAL HEALING
On 9 July 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Sri Lanka has eliminated measles, interrupting transmission of the indigenous virus that causes...
GOOD, BAD AND UGLY GOVERNANCE
Close to midnight. 07 January 2015. You might remember this date. It was the day before the Presidential Election 2015. I was surfing the...
The Price Signal PRESIDENTIAL MONKEY WRENCH ON CENTRAL BANK REFORMS AS MONETARY INSTABILITY ENDS
Sri Lanka’s monetary instability has now ended, and the soft-peg with the US dollar is stable, under upward pressure with cash withdrawn by the...
Emulating East Asia – is dictatorship the answer?
The “Lee thesis,” named after Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, is a school of thought that democracy is not conducive to growth. According to its...
Countering the threats to Sri Lanka’s democracy
Democracy is an unusual form of government. Throughout much of history, humanity has been ruled by monarchs or warlords who reigned through the power...
COLOMBO: TIME TO TREAT THE OLD GIRL LIKE A REAL CITY!
Robert Knox perhaps made a historical error. He thought Colombo was named after a mango tree that bore no fruits; hence, Kola+Amba=Kolamba. Maybe it...
REALITY CHECKS ON DIGITAL HYPE AND ITS DIVIDENDS
By 2019, Sri Lanka has had mobile phone services for 30 years (since June 1989) and commercial internet connectivity for nearly a quarter century...
IS THERE A NICK LEESON AT CPC, OR WAS IT MORAL SUASION THAT LED TO A COLOSSAL LOSS?
Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera introduced a fuel price formula in May 2018 just as global oil prices started to spike. Despite of this, the...
ECONOMIC RESOURCES AND CONFLICT
The recent wave of anti-Muslim violence follows a pattern that we have witnessed before, in 2013-14 and 2018. Does it bear a similarity to...