I am an economist, currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics (School of Humanities and Social Sciences) at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. I am an alumnus of the Department of Economics, The New School for Social Research, where I completed my doctoral studies in May 2022. This website is (constantly) under reconstruction.
I have taught undergraduate students in Pakistan at Beaconhouse National University and in the United States at The New School. I also have experience of service and governance in higher education, having served on the Board of Trustees at The New School. In 2020-2021 I was a graduate fellow at the Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies at The New School.
Some of my latest blogposts are posted below. Through my blog (and Twitter), I share my thoughts on interests related to but also beyond my research agenda, including capitalism, democracy, Pakistan, economics, universities and academia. You can also find me on Mastodon.
In my downtime I enjoy following Formula 1 and roaming the world of Death Stranding.
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- The demonization of Ishaq DarThis article was first published in the Friday Times. A few months ago, I wrote an article trying to put praise for Miftah Ismail into perspective and context. The same crisis theater in which Miftah was christened Maximus now has a new figure at the center of a new act of the play, an act… Continue reading The demonization of Ishaq Dar
- What good is an economic charter?This article was first published in The Friday Times. There is something pointless â though not entirely pointless, as I hope to argue here â about an economic charter. As commentators like Mosharraf Zaidi and Uzair Younus have rightly pointed out, Pakistanâs constitution and parliament are already there as binding constraints to bring warring political… Continue reading What good is an economic charter?
- The government of Pakistan can’t issue the rupee at will. This is a problem.The State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Act, 2022 (Act No. VI of 2022) is a good case study to illustrate how the intersection of law, politics and institutions is of interest for anyone concerned about the governance of Pakistan. It illustrates how through legislation passed by elected political representatives of the people of Pakistan, the… Continue reading The government of Pakistan can’t issue the rupee at will. This is a problem.
- Sifting through Pandora’s Pakistani policy casketHere’s an excerpt from my new blogpost for the Monetary Policy Institute, which you can read here: The man-made political culture and institutional architecture of policy in Pakistan are fraught with difficulties. In this blogpost, I try to shed light on some of these difficulties. Earlier this year, the State Bank of Pakistan Act 1956… Continue reading Sifting through Pandora’s Pakistani policy casket
- A state of dreadHere’s an excerpt from today’s op-ed in The News: “Since the contest is taking place without ground rules, we should not be surprised or caught off guard if it brings the country to its knees. We are stuck in a crisis equilibrium since at least the start of the calendar year, if not longer. People… Continue reading A state of dread
- For Ryan Karazija (1982 – 2022)At some point in the summer this year, I stumbled upon Gene Park’s article on Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid. It brought his game Death Stranding to my attention, which I started playing soon after. What I thought would be another cool and entertaining game turned out to be something else entirely: an… Continue reading For Ryan Karazija (1982 – 2022)
- Making a heroHere’s an excerpt from my op-ed in The News on Miftah Ismail’s moment: “The admiration and praise should be tempered with the knowledge that he was without question an unelected minister of finance with no public mandate other than belonging to the PML-N â which doesnât say much. His party is only one part of… Continue reading Making a hero
- Notes in Circulation # 8: my mental health journeyThis year on World Mental Health Day (October 10), I was a day late tweeting that I’m renewing my commitment to my mental health, as I did last year. And I thought that I wanted to say a little bit more than just a few tweets. So I said that I was going to do… Continue reading Notes in Circulation # 8: my mental health journey
- The case for reparationsRead my op-ed for The News here.
- Reconsidering power in a crisisRead my op-ed in The News here.
- Absurd political economyRead my op-ed for The News here.
- How to talk about inflationRead my op-ed for The News here.
- Central banking needs a capitalist manifestoRead here on the Monetary Policy Institute blog.
- Notes in Circulation # 7: Comment on the proposal for an economic security councilThe Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), an Islamabad based think-tank, has âsuggested forming an economic council under NSC comprising the government, leaders of the opposition in the Parliament (National Assembly and Senate), all four chief ministers and the representatives from top military brass.â This may sound like a harmless proposal. After all, what Pakistani could… Continue reading Notes in Circulation # 7: Comment on the proposal for an economic security council
- Notes in Circulation # 6: The exile of political economy from PakistanPolitics in Pakistan has achieved something truly special. While economics and its practitioners have been taking a continuous beating the world over since the the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-08, Pakistani politics and its most prominent public faces have dragged themselves through so much mud that nobody wants anything to do with them. Politics is… Continue reading Notes in Circulation # 6: The exile of political economy from Pakistan
- Notes in Circulation # 5Conflicting claims: the relationship between political instability and the economy Many people are worried about how political instability is creating an inconducive environment for the Pakistani economy. Khaleeq Kiani writes in Dawn that “The prime minister has not been able to hold a meeting of the federal cabinet for almost a month against the normal… Continue reading Notes in Circulation # 5
- Notes in Circulation # 4Mearsheimer and the character of Pakistan’s political economy Political scientist John Mearsheimer has been getting a lot of attention following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While his realist view (in the social scientific sense rather than the literal sense) has been picked apart by Smolenski and Dutkiewicz, it is understandable why it might be popular… Continue reading Notes in Circulation # 4
- Imran Khan’s obsession with winning has disfigured him as a politician (2018)I had written the following letter to the Financial Times in the summer of 2018 prior to the general elections in Pakistan. The FT didn’t publish it. I’m posting it here now. I think I got at least some things right. Some of my observations are still relevant today in light of recent developments, such… Continue reading Imran Khan’s obsession with winning has disfigured him as a politician (2018)
- Notes in Circulation # 3Inflation data as rhetoric In his February 28, 2022 speech, Prime Minister Imran Khan presented a curious table with inflation data which got me thinking. While the table looked crude and poorly put together, there might in fact have been some method to the seemingly haphazard way the information was presented. The key, I think,… Continue reading Notes in Circulation # 3
- Notes in Circulation # 2Between a capitalist rock and a democratic hard place Capitalism and democracy, for all their beauty, are also brutal systems, subject to the volatility and absurdities of human decision making. Guided by the profit motive and the exclusionary power of capital, capitalism is a powerful but difficult beast to tame and put to work for… Continue reading Notes in Circulation # 2
- Notes in Circulation # 1This is the first entry in a series of experimental posts which could evolve into a brief newsletter. These posts, and perhaps the newsletter, will be called ‘Notes in Circulation’ – i.e. my notes on what I’m seeing, hearing, reading and on whatever is in circulation. It is also a reference to the circulation of… Continue reading Notes in Circulation # 1
- Pakistanâs National Security Policy document is more about power than securityI had penned the following on Saturday, January 22, 2022. The day after, the prime minister began a surreal broadcast by complaining about not being able to speak in parliament. The recently published National Security Policy of Pakistan (along with its summary) pretends to be technical and apolitical in claiming to put economic resources and their re-distribution at… Continue reading Pakistanâs National Security Policy document is more about power than security
- Governments must now make the case for capitalismCapitalism is on trial — again. Critics of capitalism have at least in part been vindicated. Governments have their work cut out for them at this time of crisis. How governments and policy makers frame their work will be of crucial importance. They will now have to make the case for capitalism even as the… Continue reading Governments must now make the case for capitalism
- Brexit’s Keynesian Lesson: Fundamental Uncertainty RevisitedRead here at the Developing Economics blog.
- Central bankers play a wider political gameLetter in FT: read here.
- Promises are at the mercy of reality in PakistanLetter in FT: read here.
- Capitalist economies are not machinesI recently read this article in the Financial Times on central bankers, and wrote this letter to the editor as a response.
Daniyal Khan, PhD 