India: The Lunatics Have Taken Over

In this article for Acting Man, I examine the chaos caused by India’s new Goods and Services Tax and what it reveals about the country’s deeper institutional, cultural, and economic problems.

I discuss the disruption to businesses, the burden placed on traders and manufacturers, the impossibility of reducing corruption through more bureaucracy, and why India’s economy cannot be understood through official statistics or optimistic headlines.

Read the archived article at Acting Man via the Wayback Machine