Karachi, Pakistan. After denouncing terrorism and terrorist activities on foreign souls, Pakistan has taken an about turn and has confirmed that it did send terrorists across the border, mainly in India. While it came as a shocking development in the international circles, what was more surprising and intriguing was the contention put forward by Pakistan that terrorism was a Giffen Good.
In an official statement released, Pakistan has argued that demand for terrorism in a country increases due to various factors of domestic politics. This demand comes from some particular sections of the society who feel insecure and threatened due to various reasons. The statement further argues that demand for terrorism also comes from the state itself, as it helps the state put together its citizens or huddle the bewildered herd.
“We were not injecting terrorism anywhere in the world outside our borders. We were just supplying what was being demanded. There was a market opportunity and we were plain prudent to cash upon it.” Shaukat Tareen, the prime minister's adviser on finance told Faking News.
While the move by Pakistan confounded international relations experts and economists, Faking News Intelligence Group (FNIG) could see through the Pakistani strategy behind the move. FNIG believes that this move is aimed at avoiding threats bankruptcy that faces Pakistan.
Battling with serious crisis in Balance of Payments, Pakistan has been on a mission to get some international cash inflow mainly through unilateral transfers from abroad (such as foreign aid, grants, gifts, remittances from Pakistanis living abroad, etc), but sources say that Pakistan had been facing serious trouble as many countries or international agencies refused to extend further help and most of the Pakistanis abroad had got nothing to send back home due to recession.
In such a situation, Pakistan needed new source of international income, which could come through either export of goods or foreign investment. Since foreign investment was almost ruled out due to curse of terrorist activities, Pakistani officials thought of a way to convert this curse into kismet.
FNIG believes that by terming terrorism as Giffen Good and its support to terrorism as ‘supply’ of terrorism, Pakistan is preparing ground for sending bills/invoices to countries like India where it has supported terrorism in a considerable way. Furthermore, since terrorism has been on rise in recent times, Pakistan will define this phenomenon as a rise in ‘demand’ for terrorism. The masterstroke of Pakistan will come in shape of an argument that the actual reason for rise in demand was sharp raise in price of terrorism, determined by Pakistan itself, because terrorism was a Giffen Good. This will help Pakistan realize increased income from exports and ward off threats of bankruptcy due to Balance of Payments crisis.
It will be interesting to see how effectively this step helps Pakistan in these troubled times. It will be further interesting to see how terrorism is valued in terms of money. Faking News invites its readers to comment and suggest possible ways and parameters of valuation of terrorism.
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1 Comments:
fake economist! ;)
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