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Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

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Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#151

Post by hunglee2 »

nostromo wrote: post #40
kumarvvr wrote: post #15

The drastic move to organic farming is puzzling. Any level headed person , forget a politician , would want to experiment first, see the results, gauge and then expand selectively. That is common sense . I guess when you are a dictator ish government and you rule the country with an iron first, the institutions of the state stop being anything and simply become rubber stamps. This also underlines the importance of se…

This is a common feature of dictatorships: a boneheaded decision from a central government wreaks havoc on the people in the field that would know better. It reminds me of Mao ordering all sparrows be killed because they eat agriculture seeds. This of course caused a much bigger crisis with insects destroying crops - because everyone knows sparrows also eat lots of insects.

'bad government must be authoritarian' meme is interesting to observe, as if it is impossible for bad governance to occur in democratic systems.

Sri Lanka clearly is a democracy, albeit a degenerate one

Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#152

Post by umeshunni »

davmar wrote: post #4

Here's a Sri Lankan giving an in-depth analysis about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpZ5oiUGqW4 . I like this guy, think he's got good opinions.

I’m surprised he didn’t mention tourism in the video while mentioning foreign remittances as a source of forex.

Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#154

Post by imtringued »

bergenty wrote: post #17
duxup wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would hope that someone wanting to switch to organic agriculture would encourage it … rather than just flip a switch…

Organic agriculture is where it belong. Mom and pop farms sold in stores where it costs 3x as much for no particular increase in nutritional value. Fertilizers are tangentially bad for the environment but not directly, only in that it causes algal blooms in water bodies. Pesticides are bad yes but the research should concentrate on finding pesticides that work well with the environment. We got close with glyphosate b…

>The nutrients in soil are a non-renewable resource.

I'm sorry but they actually are. Every time you do tillage you start from scratch. Hence you run out of nutrients much faster than if you used no till. Most of the fertilizer in tillage operations just gets washed away during rain which results in an over application of fertilizer and the runoff results in algae blooms.

Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#155

Post by imtringued »

UkrainianJew wrote: post #79
ip26 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s when it goes bad, but borrowing against the future to kickstart today is also the principal behind innumerable success stories.

May I humbly ask for an example? In my personal experience, trying to rush a short-term solution while ignoring the long-term implications always makes situation worse. Like eating planting stock to address immediate hunger would cause a devastating famine next season.

You don't borrow and eat the planting stock, you borrow the left over products that nobody else bought.

Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#156

Post by imtringued »

themitigating wrote: post #11
afterburner wrote: post #7

> But the most boneheaded, bizarre mistake that the Sri Lankan government made was a disastrous plan to shift the entire country to organic agriculture. In April of 2021 the government banned the import and use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. This devastated Sri Lankan agriculture, since, as it turns out, fertilizer is really really important. Production of tea — Sri Lanka’s main cash crop — fell by 18% in a…

The US is very lucky as a significant amount of people have been taught that government aid/handouts are wrong, as in generally. I'm even impressed Trump spent a few trillion and still didn't get blasted for it by most people. The only two serious politicians who spoke up about it was Ben Sasse who in a conference call with constituents said "he spends like a drunken sailor" and Ted Cruise who at the end with the las…

Ok, but how do expect money to keep circulating? Negative interest rates?

Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#157

Post by paganel »

kumarvvr wrote: post #15

The drastic move to organic farming is puzzling. Any level headed person , forget a politician , would want to experiment first, see the results, gauge and then expand selectively. That is common sense . I guess when you are a dictator ish government and you rule the country with an iron first, the institutions of the state stop being anything and simply become rubber stamps. This also underlines the importance of se…

> Any level headed person, forget a politician, would want to experiment first,

We are also not doing that here in the West when it comes to pushing almost of our energy inputs into renewables. Also, see the recent Dutch farmers' revolt and the reasons behind them, seems like not that much thought was given there, either.

Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#158

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

socialdemocrat wrote: post #68
asciiresort wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s my point about Japan. Rice, unlike tea, is a defensive measure for times of crisis. Even as Japan imports food, the point is whether the country can quickly mobilize and ramp up to essential food crops. The point is having options and a hedge, which allows you leverage during economic negotiations for other things. The percentage of imports you can have should be bounded by the runway and time horizon you have…

Same deal in Norway where I live. We maintain an agricultural sector in a rocky subarctic climate at exorbitant prices which probably makes Japanese agriculture look like a bargain. We have had enough bad experiences in the past however to give up having some level of self-sufficiency. If you ever wondered why nearly every European country is in the EU, except Norway well there you got part of it he reason.

Sorry, from your comment I did not understand why Norway is not part of the EU. Would you mind clarifying?

Are you saying EU membership could affect Norway's agriculture?

Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#159

Post by sofixa »

cm2187 wrote: post #81
vkou wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, the number one thing that makes driving harder is other drivers, not the government. Drivers full roads to over-capacity and then I sit in gridlock.

In Paris it is a deliberate attempt to create traffic jam to force people to stop driving. They only succeeded on the first part.

But Paris already has amazing public transit that is only getting expanded more (line E to Mantes through La Défense, Grand Paris Express, line 14, a bunch of trams, etc.). And the point of the road closures was to make walking and mostly cycling more enjoyable. You can see that it worked, because places like Rivoli, quais de Seine, bd Sébastopol are full with bikes. Making driving more of a pain thus inciting more use of public transit or bikes is just a bonus.

Re: Sri Lanka is having a textbook currency crisis, triggered by policy mistakes

#160

Post by spaceman_2020 »

Surreal how quickly it can all collapse.

I was there in December 2021. There were some extra long queues at petrol stations, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

Incredibly beautiful country and very generous, friendly people. Hope they see better times.

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