Jayant Bhandari

In this July 2006 Liberty Magazine contribution, I recommend two books that shaped my thinking about freedom, human development, culture, and poverty.

In this May 2006 Liberty Magazine article, I look behind India’s economic-growth narrative and examine the poverty, bureaucracy, and statism obscured by the optimism.

In 2006, I documented my dealings with the City of Vancouver concerning its licensing and regulatory requirements. The complete original archive is preserved here.

Writing after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, I examine how state intervention, militarisation, corruption, and institutional failure turn natural hazards into human catastrophes.

Writing during the 2005 Vancouver truckers’ strike, I examine how collective action can impose uncompensated costs on businesses and people outside the dispute.

I examine how India’s state-owned power plants, coal companies, railways, and industries create environmental damage while transferring their costs throughout the economy.

I examine how India’s contradictory and selectively enforced regulations reward corruption, marginalize conscientious entrepreneurs, and obstruct economic development.

Using the experience of an importer dealing with Indian customs, I examine how greater state control creates more opportunities for obstruction, extortion, and corruption.

I contrast overt racial prejudice with the subtler condescension of those who deny cultural problems and assume minorities cannot succeed without special treatment.

I examine the Council of Canadians’ campaigns against trade and corporate power, questioning their evidence, moral assumptions, and claim to represent civil society.