Viswanathan K's Thoughts

So much has been written about the tariff wars Trump has unleashed. A lot of it is just Trump-bashing. Others obsess over the impact on the “great” US alliance with Europe and Canada. Which is why I found Ben Thompson’s take so refreshing – it was mostly about the country that really matters in all this, China. And equally, why America cannot move manufacturing to itself.   First , the US/West thinks of manufacturing the way it used to be, i.e., before China changed manufacturing altogether. He explains what he means by that. The one-word answer? Scale. Aka quantities. The more one manufactures, the more the efficiencies of scale, which reduces costs, that then increases affordability and thus demand. The more money there is to be made, the more the factories invest to optimize things. China has been in this virtuous cycle mode for decades. To imagine that the US (or West) can come to that level of manufacturing efficiency and skills any time soon is just impossible. “This...

Years back, I remember my dad asking why there are so many different tax rates and so many different exemption categories. (Yup, he was calculating his tax returns at that time; hence the frustration). I had gone into the standard reasons about why it is often a good thing to have those exemptions: after all, such exemptions often encourage investment in activities like infrastructure development. He had countered that it is equally often because of corporate pressure to provide loopholes to reduce their taxation. Which, of course, is true. But corporate driven tax reductions is not always a bad thing, as Ireland can tell you. Ireland’s corporate tax rate is lower than anywhere else in Europe. No wonder than that Google’s European headquarters is in Ireland! And it’s not just Google that Ireland attracted: plenty of other MNC’s go to Ireland for the same reason. That in turn translates to more investments in Ireland. And more jobs. That’s what Ireland calls a win-win. Then t...