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Showing posts with the label US elections

Decision Making as Output and Bounded Rationality

  The classical economics theories proceed on the assumption of rational agents. Rationality implies the economic agents undertake actions or exercise choices based on the cost-benefit analysis they undertake. The assumption further posits that there exists no information asymmetry and thus the agent is aware of all the costs and benefits associated with the choice he or she has exercised. The behavioral school contested the decision stating the decisions in practice are often irrational. Implied there is a continuous departure from rationality. Rationality in the views of the behavioral school is more an exception to the norm rather a rule. The past posts have discussed the limitations of this view by the behavioral school. Economics has often posited rationality in the context in which the choices are exercised rather than theoretical abstract view of rational action. Rational action in theory seems to be grounded in zero restraint situation yet in practice, there are numerous restra

US Election Wobbles- Lessons to and from India

  The twists and turns in the US Presidential election counting seem to surprise but should not surprise. The manner in which the votes are being counted leave much to be desired. It apparently seems the Democratic Party machinery leveraged the absentee ballots well to bring down Trump. Apparently, they had to bring down Trump irrespective of what it takes to do him. The pollsters had predicted a heavy swing towards Biden yet it did not materialise. They too have their reputations to keep. Therefore they too have a vested interest in calling more states for Biden so as to come true in terms of their electoral college landslide prediction. If they had predicted a Georgia flip, it must happen irrespective of the means it takes. Trump too is unlikely to go down without a fight. As things stand now, it looks the elections will be challenged and the Republicans hope that the conservative majority in the Supreme Court might hand them the victory.   There is no doubt prima facie, that the

Elections- US and India- Two Takes

  The US elections of 2020 seem to add a new chapter in their history. The way they seem to conduct elections is hardly an advertisement for the world’s most powerful democracy. Over the last nearly two hundred and fifty years, they have been conducting elections, yet the complaints of manipulation, fraud, extension of voting times, counting delays, and contested ballots do not seem to have gone away. It might be anyone’s game at the time of this writing but what the elections are manifesting is not per se democratic exercise but an outcome driven by the machinery of the state in question. Stealing an election of course in the US is not something unusual but each occasion, it traverse new distances. The memories of the 2000 battle fought in Supreme Court over Florida is still fresh in the mind. The 1960 victory of John F. Kennedy too is attributed to the manipulation that happened in Chicago.   The US elections of 2020 was not just an ordinary battle. It was essentially a battle be