Featured are summary views, solicited by The Tribune, on the government’s demonetisation move from nine economists of impeccable credentials, differing ages, a spectrum of ideological persuasions, and a variety of locations. We encounter amidst this diversity of backgrounds a profound sameness of opinion, as reflected in unanimous denunciation of the government’s action in sentiments and assessments such as: “essentially political move,…insensitive,…,gratuitous,..,appalling”; “firing cannonballs to kill mosquitoes”; “arrogance and insensitivity”; “an exercise in Manichean economics”; “authoritarian quackery”; “heavy cost to the economy”; “frightening abandonment of reason”; “throwing the baby out while retaining the bathwater”; and “a cavalier or even cynical political calculation”Here’s a cross-section of scholarly opinion.Essentially political move
Venkatesh Athreya
Huge collateral damage
Maitreesh Ghatak
Breathtaking insensitivity
Jayati Ghosh
Save economy from slump
Parikshit Ghosh
Authoritarian quackery
Arjun Jayadev
Will impose cost on economyArun Kumar
Abandonment of reason
Prabhat Patnaik
Neither necessary nor sufficient
M. Govinda Rao
Avoidable human cost
Sanjay G Reddy