Your Excellency,
I am pleased to introduce myself as an ardent admirer of your good self, and am based out of New Delhi. This letter of mine has been prompted by your appeal to the American lawmakers to end their bickering and come to an agreement over raising the country’s debt ceiling so that the US government can pay its bills.
As of this moment, the world economy waits with a baited breath, over the outcome of your efforts, to avert an impending economic catastrophe for the United States spilling over to the rest of the World, and we sincerely hope that saner counsels would prevail among the American lawmakers to work out a practical solution to the current challenge confronting the United States.
It would be extremely disastrous to ignore that, even if you are able to raise the debt ceiling beyond the currently mandated $14.3 trillion, would you be laying the foundations for yet another catastrophe for the US Economy a few years down the line, when it would might grappling with spiraling inflationary pressures, jobless growth, and a significant erosion in the value of US Dollar?
While there could be no two ways about the need to raise the US Debt ceiling today, to effectively meet the challenge on hand on a timely basis, yet it would be dangerous to lose the sight of prudence which ensures that for one, you are not repeating the past mistakes of unbridled consumption fuelled by easy money, and secondly for every dollar that is being released into the system today, at least half of it is being spent to improve the productive capacity of the economy with sufficient linkages to create sufficient jobs, and arrest the ever bloating fiscal deficits.
Unfortunately, I am constrained by my limited knowledge to give a detailed account on the specifics of such linkages. However, at a very elementary level, may I suggest that such linkages could be:
* reducing oil consumption by encouraging Research and Development of alternate fuels, which are both renewable and environment friendly,
* focusing on creating better infrastructure to facilitate the private sector to expand output and employment in the most cost effective manner, and
*most importantly, sponsoring the development of various environment friendly technologies which could have their own spin-off effects in the future.
In this context your $150 billion new energy agenda which aims to reduce the greenhouse gases by 80% by the year 2050, besides of course creating five million new jobs, is certainly in the right direction which would give the US a leadership position on facilitating the desired climate change in the world.
Apart from the technologies which could help tackling the challenge of global warming and reducing oil consumption etc, technologies to efficiently and effectively harness the rainwater could be an excellent investment for the future.
Today it is oil, and tomorrow it could be potable water, which could become a major source of foreign exchange earning for any country.
The second manifestation of the challenge before us is to revisit the old school of thought, which necessitated sufficient checks and balances in any economy, with stringent punishments to deter any financial institution daring to throw all caution to the winds, and then causing unmitigated disaster, as was witnessed few years ago. A highly regulated capitalist society need not be an oxymoron, and today few would have the wisdom to contest this fact.
However, given the roots behind the problems today, which is chiefly the fact that living beyond one’s means and lending beyond one’s means, had become a way of life encompassing not only an average US citizen, but also those iconic corporations which were once a cherished destination of many bright students of some of the leading business schools of the world.
This has to change, not only in the US, but perhaps across the economies in the world which are today engaged in a similar fire fighting exercise.
Your Excellency, just a few hours back, you have put it aptly by cautioning the lawmakers that “America risked its AAA rating not because we couldn’t pay our bills but because we did not have a triple A political system.”
While your intention was to push the lawmakers to agree raise the country’s debt ceiling, so that the US government could pay government salaries and pensions, reimburse medical care for seniors etc, yet the ‘not so intended’ message behind this statement of yours is:
“Its now time for all of us regardless of our political affiliations, to work together, to get the United States of America out of this mess. We need to take tough measures to contain the ever burgeoning debt which has now crossed the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. This is not the time for each patriotic American irrespective of his or her political affiliations, to score political points at the cost of our Nation which today is being hailed as the sole superpower of the World, but to sink our differences and evolve a consensus to pave the way for an era when the US Dollar would be most preferred currency across the world, and the US economy would a model to behold for every emerging and/or troubled economy of the World.”
And in this hour of reckoning, your message to the people of the United States of America should be:
“We owe it not only to ourselves, owe to our future generations as well, not to repeat the mistakes which brought us to this stage in the history of our nation. We will change our mindsets; we will be an epitome of a nation worthy of being emulated across the globe. Not simply because of the fact that we are the most powerful, not simply because of our influence across the globe and beyond the globe in the universe, but simply because of the fact that we the people of the United States of America, know how to manage our lives and our economy better. The path is likely to be difficult, testing, and full of frustrations. But we will endure the same, for we know that a dream destination awaits all of us, at the end of this path. We will reach there.”
Your Excellency, let history judge you as the first President of the United States, who not only broke the barriers of race, but who successfully forged a collaborative approach with the opposition party as well, to pave the way for an economically vibrant US Economy, and sacrificing politically favorable practices and attitudes, which otherwise could have wrecked havoc not only for the US Economy, but also for the millions of Americans, who had reposed their trust on you in 2008.
I would also pray the current challenge regarding the debt ceiling ends with the right decision within the deadline, and would be really delighted at witnessing your re-election next year.
Most Respectfully,
Navneet Dhawan
New Delhi
