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

Post by thematrixturtle » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 9:16 AM UTC

lumost wrote: post #225

thematrixturtle wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The immediate problem is that the entire legal order of succession (PM, president, Speaker etc) are Rajapaksa cronies who are busily getting the hell out of Dodge^W Colombo, so it's not at all sure who is going to form or lead the next government. There are also a lot of unresolved tensions left over from the vicious civil war that devastated the island for decades, so it's sadly possible that things take a turn for…

Are there any neighboring countries which could reasonably assist in establishing a new government?

Post by nibbleshifter » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 9:22 AM UTC

roody15 wrote: post #116

rlt wrote: post #55

Perhaps a dumb question: why does every little country need its own currency? Are they all just addicted to printing money? Ignoring the volatility and environmental concerns, why shouldn’t all these small to medium-sized countries standardize on a cryptocurrency?

Sri Lanka doesn’t have a currency problem. There population doubled since 1960 and they never industrialized. They simply don’t make anything to sell that has value other than tourism and natural resources. Trade imbalance has been an issue for decades and they simply hid the problem by taking out loans. They have simply run out of credit. My two cents

Post by xenadu02 » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 9:24 AM UTC

FooBarWidget wrote: post #203

randomperson_24 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why did China ask for the Hambantota port[1]. It is a clear strategic and economic policy. Not to deny other countries haven't done that in the past; but it is a clear way of gaining control - especially the taking control over infrastructure part. Same is the case with Africa, and many projects of which do not benefit the citizens of those countries in any way too. [2] [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/wo…

The Hambantota case is described in detail in The Atlantic's articl, which explains why it's not a debt trap. For one, the feasibility study for Hambantota was first made by Canada — the Chinese only came in later, competing with western countries for its construction. Second, see this excerpt: > Our research shows that Chinese banks are willing to restructure the terms of existing loans and have never actually seize…

Post by worik » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 9:26 AM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #53

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…

I've been reading a lot of Soviet history lately and it provides a source of a huge number of similar agricultural disasters. Both Russian and Chinese attitudes towards agricultural peasants has been that they are dispensable humans, and it shows in how these countries have had disasters: * collectivitzation leading to the Holodomor in Ukraine, mass famine in Kazakhstan, and hunger throughout the USSR, killing millio…

Post by worik » Wed, Jul 13, 2022, 9:35 AM UTC

andrewmutz wrote: post #59

ktaylora wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a premium that can be exacted from switching to organic agriculture that isn't be discussed in this article. Sri Lanka has a limited land mass available for food production and they mostly export commodities to other countries. We're talking ~25,000 sq-mi. For context, the US state of Kansas is ~82,000 sq-mi. If you cannot physically expand the footprint of agriculture in Sri Lanka to boost revenues, the thin…

If you are short on land, organic is not a good approach. It takes 40% more land compared to traditional farming.