Finance is the lifeblood of every economy. India's financial system has taken decades to evolve to where it is today -- and we still have a long way to go. What has this journey been like? What can we learn?

Welcome to Episode 71 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma & Ajay Shah.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 02:56 Chapter 1: Banking 39:33 Chapter 2: Equity Markets 51:33 Chapter 3: Other Financial Firms 57:31 Chapter 4: Currency Controls 1:07:58 Chapter 5: Bankruptcy 1:18:40 Chapter 6: Monetary Policy 1:22:52 Chapter 7: Household Finance 1:27:32 Chapter 8: Financial Surveillance 1:29:26 Chapter 9: Systemic Risk 1:41:40 Chapter 10: The Problems of State Power 1:46:43 Chapter 11: The Policy Process 1:48:21 Chapter 12: DPI 1:51:02 Chapter 13: Still Central Planning 1:55:13 Chapter 14: Recos

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India's system of competitive entrance exams is broken. There is too much pressure on kids and their families -- and we don't even get the best outcomes.

Welcome to Episode 70 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit and Ajay discuss what's broken about the system. What can we do to make the current system work better? What can we do to attack the root cause and build a better world for the generations to come? Listen in!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging 00:13 Intro: A Multiple Choice Question! 01:03 Chapter 1: The Problem With Competitive Exams 03:56 Chapter 2: The Meritocracy Lie 11:39 Chapter 3: Coaching Classes are Not the Problem 15:47 Chapter 4: Ajay’s Three-Part Solution 26:36 Chapter 5: Free the Colleges! 34:02 Chapter 6: The Lottery Proposal 43:24 Chapter 7: The Root Cause 49:00 Chapter 8: Ajay’s advice For Parents and Students 50:38 Chapter 9: Recommendations

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The specialisation of our species is storytelling -- and yet, some people say, we are really just telling the same stories again and again.

Welcome to Episode 69 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit discusses the classic book by Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots. Booker asserts that there are just seven storylines we recycle again and again -- and all of literature & Hollywood & Bollywood & Tollywood & Lollywood draw on these. What are they? Can there be more? Why should we never feel constrained as storytellers? What do Jaws, Sholay and the Russia-Ukraine war have in common?

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging 00:13 Intro: What Is That Orange Ball in the Sky? 03:31 Prologue: Finding the Tropes 11:22 Chapter 1: Overcoming the Monster 14:41 Chapter 2: Rags to Riches 18:40 Chapter 3: The Quest 24:05 Chapter 4: Voyage and Return 27:55 Chapter 5: Comedy 34:56 Chapter 6: Tragedy 40:38 Chapter 7: Rebirth 43:25 Chapter 8: A Tragic Ending to the Episode

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Inflation is a tax on the poor. High and variable inflation can shatter the fine interplay of incentives and information within an economy. And, as Milton Friedman famously said, inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

The state is responsible -- and the central bank's one job should be to keep inflation in check.

Thankfully, we got that right with inflation targeting.

Welcome to Episode 68 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Ajay talks about why inflation can be such a problem, and Inflation Targeting is an elegant way to keep it under control. Ajay was in the policy community in India that made it happen. Here's the inside story!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging 00:13 Intro: Ajay Loves Bumper Stickers! 00:55 Chapter 1: A Basic Guide to Inflation 05:40 Chapter 2: What Do You Measure? 13:25 Chapter 3: Why Inflation Matters 30:02 Chapter 4: Introducing Inflation Targeting 36:45 Chapter 5: Inside the Boiler Room 42:05 Chapter 6: The India Story 1:01:23 Chapter 7: Recommendations

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In the last episode, Amit and Ajay spoke about how the state should never mess with the price system. Well, the exchange rate is the most important price -- and the state shouldn't try to control that either!

Welcome to Episode 67 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Ajay sheds light on one of his pet peeves -- people's obsession with the exchange rate. It doesn't matter if the rupee is 'strong' or 'weak', he argues -- these terms mean nothing. All mature economies have learnt to leave the exchange rate to the market -- and so should we. A freely fluctuating exchange rate guarantees macroeconomic stability.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging 00:13 Intro: Ajay Loves Bumper Stickers! 05:47 Chapter 1: The Exchange Rate is the Most Important Price 21:48 Chapter 2: The Evolution of Exchange Rates 27:46 Chapter 3: The Three Rooms in the House 33:52 Chapter 4: Fluctuating Exchange Rates are Great! 42:57 Chapter 5: The India Story 1:08:47 Chapter 6: Recommendations 1:11:04 Chapter 7: Life Lessons

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How do people in society fulfil each other's needs while being self-interested? No human person or committee could coordinate all this -- but the miraculous, decentralised system of prices do exactly this.

And when you mess with prices, you harm society. Always.

Welcome to Episode 66 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit and Ajay describe how all interventions in the price system end badly & harm the poor -- from price caps to rent control to the minimum wage to MSPs to import tariffs. Don't mess with the price system!

By the way, Amit and Ajay have launched their online course LIFE LESSONS. Click here to sign up: https://lifelessons.co.in/

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging 00:13 Intro: The Gravity of Gravity 02:10 Chapter 1: The Miracle of Prices 11:53 Chapter 2: Price Caps 32:18 Chapter 3: Rent Control 39:20 Chapter 4: Minimum Wage 53:06 Chapter 5: Minimum Support Prices 57:54 Chapter 6: Import Tariffs 1:01:55 Chapter 7: Why Don't We Learn? 1:11:46 Chapter 8: Recommendations 1:13:21 Life Lessons!

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There was a time when India's pensions system grew to become a threat to the country. Then we fixed it -- kinda. And now it's going to hell again.

Welcome to Episode 65 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Ajay takes us through the history and evolution of pensions, why the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) was such a catastrophe, how there was a bipartisan consensus on the New Pension Scheme (NPS), and how this field is on fire again. And of course, why it matters -- because it does!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging 00:13 Intro: Who Will Stop the Bleeding? 02:45 Chapter 1: Why We Are Doing This Episode 05:46 Chapter 2: The Origin of Pensions 18:21 Chapter 3: The Evolution of Pensions 31:37 Chapter 4: The Old Pension Scheme 40:19 Chapter 5: The New Pension Scheme 55:38 Chapter 6: The Political Process 1:09:16 Chapter 7: What Went Wrong? 1:28:27 Chapter 8: What About the Unified Pension Scheme? 1:34:29 Chapter 9: Structural Reforms vs Parametric Reforms 1:41:25 Chapter 10: Recommendations

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The world is at war -- and not all of it is in the obvious ways. There is a war around technology, and using technology, and the US and China are at the heart of it.

Welcome to Episode 64 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Ajay and Amit discuss the contours of the global tech wars playing out on the geopolitical stage. It is fundamental, it is fierce and it affects us all.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging 00:13 Intro: But a Distant Memory? 04:37 Chapter 1: What is This Great Drama? 07:19 Chapter 2: How This War is Playing Out 13:00 Chapter 3: It All Goes to Hell. Why? 38:31 Chapter 4: What Can Happen Next? 54:14 Chapter 5: Recommendations

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