EP 173: Biden’s 6T budget, DK, DMK attacking Brahmins, Swamy writes to TN Governor & more!

Sree Iyer: Namaskar. Today is the 28th of May 2021 and welcome to Daily Global Insight with Sri and Sree. Let’s jump straight to the United States news. And welcome to the Sridharji and we are going to start with the news item of Mitch McConnell urging Senate Republicans to vote against the Jan 6th commission, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Good morning to everybody. Welcome to this wonderful Friday morning on the eve of the Memorial Day weekend. We look forward to an exciting event again, today there’s plenty of news to cover.

Yes, McConnell and the vast majority of the Republicans believe that the January 6th commission is just a political ploy set up by the Democrats, even in the House had very modest support. There are only three Republicans within the Senate who seem to have any intonation. It has to pass the filibuster and basically, it’s an eyewash, which is set up just to make sure that it has a political scoring point against the Republican. So they’re going to outrightly reject this.

Sree Iyer: Senate GOP proposes 928 billion infrastructure packages as White House stock sore. Sir, on the one side, the Democrats are sitting at two trillion or is it more than that? And on the other side GOP’S, sitting at 928 billion. What are your thoughts, Sir?

Sridhar Chityala: So the 928 billion is in response. So we need to delineate the numbers. 928 billion in relation to the 2.2 trillion dollars budget that was part of the infrastructure plan, vast components, of that as everybody had kind of understood from the numbers only 548 are given 600 billion dollars, if you are with a little bit of generosity, you can look at that as part of the infrastructure which is around Roads, Tunnel, Airports, Broadband, Bridges all those kinds of things that you that constitutes what you call as infrastructure. Then, the Republicans increased it to 700. Then they increased it You 928 to see whether you still can be tied over the important component of this 928 billion, as to how you’re going to fund it. There is a back-end reversal of the taxes, both for individuals and businesses that actually constitute the construct of this 2.25 trillion plan and the Republicans have opposed the reversal of the taxes.

So now, what’s happened, is that Biden has rejected this 928 billion. He says he is effectively telling them that during the Republicans don’t kind of try to threaten and stall my plan. And I am going to have a 6 trillion dollars plan. 6 trillion dollars includes 2.2 trillion dollars of his old infrastructure plan, expanded 1.8 trillion dollars of the what the call is the child and relief plan or the America child plan which is the tax credits and extended home care and paid leave etc. Then, he is going to have another 2 trillion dollars to be embedded into the 2022 budget, which is coming up shortly. So, he says that six trillion dollars are required because the community needs it, the society needs it, you know, blah blah blah. They see this as nothing more than a political ploy.

An independent poll conducted with both Democrats and Republican in the polling panel by Fox News says that 33% of the people only accept this big, big spending plan and they site the 2009 jobs act which resulted in humongous failure, which a vast number of people, not receiving the benefit. So, therefore, you’re going to see this being rammed through without any support from Republicans.

Sree Iyer: And also, President Biden is planning retroactive tax hikes.

Sridhar Chityala: Yes. So in other words, we discussed at length the tax components. So he said that, by the way, bad luck from April 1st 2021, the tax is now rolling on this is the estate tax. This is the incremental business tax. This is the incremental short term medium-term capital gains, you know, all these taxes there are increases so he says that this is all coming in retroactive from April 1st. One of the days, not today, we will break out as we did before President Trump’s expanded plan, we will give you the expanded numbers. These numbers are still settling down. So we’ll give the 2022 budget as we gave the 2021 plus, what these components of these numbers are.

Sree Iyer:  Yellen Pitches for 13 billion IRS hike to take on tax cheats. Senate Democrats, try to ramp through Bill to strip tax credits for Oil and Natural Gas Companies. So, on the one side, they want to promote climate change green energy and on the other side, they’re also trying to strip tax credits for ONGC sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Yes. They are, you know Russian gas prom is essential for EU. It impacts the lives of the EU. Whereas in the United States, you apply ban, and you take away the tax credits. So, in the process that the United States, people can suffer the consequences as it happened during the colonial pipeline shut down, this is the dichotomy of Biden’s policy and the Democrats policy.

Sree Iyer:  The Department of Homeland Security orders pipeline operators to comply with new cybersecurity measures. What are these adjust to fortify that they don’t get hacked again and then pay Ransom in Bitcoins?

Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think that that is the plan is still not officially published but communicated which is for people to enhance more security parameters and more encryption. And also to have cyber experts within their team, to make sure that these things are stress-tested without holding the country to Ransom without holding the companies to Ransom. So, these are the new cybersecurity measures that are contemplated as part of the DHS program. But, once again, as these clear details are spelt out, we will share them with all our viewers.

Sree Iyer:  White farmers and ranchers opposed the 120% of outstanding balances loan as a race-based Loan program. So we have touched upon this in a previous episode. What are your thoughts are? Where do you think this is heading?

Sridhar Chityala: So, what’s happened is these Programs were introduced and in the process when in the red states, where the farmers applied for the loan to a point that they found themselves being denied. So there was no formal response from the white farmers and ranchers. Now I think what you’re going to see is more just as very similar to the agitational approach that has been taken by other movements within the United States as part of, you know, various theories that are floating around which we have covered. So these people are saying these policies are discriminatory. So what you may find is the red States, taking a stand that this specific policy will not be implemented and they will deny the loans and grants given by the federal to the state because the only the state can dispense this and you’re going to find them these programs are going to be outright rejected. So again, setting up confrontation in about 30 States or so.

Sree Iyer: In Indian news, We begin with a letter that Rajya Sabha member Dr Subramanian Swamy has written to Tamil Nadu Governor, saying that there have been riots all over Tamil Nadu state where the minority community of Bramins is being targeted. Viewers, you may have watched our episode with #AskKarthik on Thursday where we talked about the Scandal that happening in a leading School in Chennai called Padma Sheshadri Bal Bhavan and that should have been at that level, but as always, DMK, DK, it’s also some lump and elements of LTTE have been indulging in trying to bash. What is essentially along the lines of what Hitler did to in its initial Nazi State? And I also heard that the governor of Tamil Nadu has given a statement, but it is all this emboldened of the state and its, you know, so-called members is because of the perception that the centre primarily Prime Minister Modi will not do anything because they are getting encouraged by looking at what happened at the Delhi Riot and then what happened with the ongoing Farmers agitation and also what happened in Bengal, post the election when there was post-election violence, TMC goons having won day election went after BJP volunteers, they said their houses on fire. They even allegedly raped some of the women volunteers. So this is the kind of thing that is now being seen as a license for the DMK government, which is already started showing its colours. This is what we’ve been warning our viewers, nobody can ever rule when you have to go and try to target one Community because it comes back to bite you. In fact, the DMK should know because some of its own family members belong to this community. I think this is getting to be a point where I think, it is a basic Law and Order problem and I urge Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to take immediate cognizance of what the Tamil Nadu governor’s report is and act on this right away. We have more information about this whole thing, we will come out with that data. But, first, this must stop. Sir, your thoughts on this and we’ll go to the next item on Indian news.

Sridhar Chityala: Great, first and foremost, I endorse and accept the sentiments expressed by yourself, which is the objective and the role of the Home Minister is to make sure that there is prevailing Law and Order in the country. Though, Law and Order is a State subject. I am told per the Indian constitution when they see injustice being done and no action by the people who are supposed to be enforcers of the law, it’s time for the centre to step in. Now, I have another point to this. I thought that the Supreme Court of India runs a parallel governance body where they call up the government and I don’t remember ever, they’re calling a state, but they call up the government of India to act on various issues, including oxygen, supply in New Delhi, including oxygen, supply to various States. They have been abysmal in watching, what is happening in Bengal. They have been abysmal what happened in Delhi, In fact, as far as the farmer’s agitation, that you are alluding to when the farmers approach that the Supreme Court said, right to protest is the right within the Constitution, but they never stated that you can protest, but you cannot block the normal contact of life, they never said that. The same thing when Delhi was occupied by the Shahin Bagh, they basically turned a passive eye and allowed the burning and looting to happen. So your point that this discriminatory approach even in the Supreme Court which acts as the kind of the intermediate governance body in the absence of or when there is a vacuum, there seems to be nothing coming out of the supreme court on any of these issues when anybody everybody can openly see this.

Sree Iyer: Yes indeed and these are troubling times for India and I am hoping that Prime Minister Modi will see his way clear through all the mud being thrown, but it is also important to tell here that most of these things are also because of his inaction or is government’s inaction. I’m not saying personally, holding him responsible, he cannot be doing everything but the government’s inaction overall is, what is encouraging, all these things. And, and let’s hope that this thing stops and stops now.

And Facebook now says that it will take strong action against people and account sharing fake news. Google also says it will comply with Indian laws. You remember yesterday, we wrote about Twitter, the row now escalates and the government says that Twitter defaming India Delhi spoolie is slamming the company, will India ban Twitter it’s a million-dollar question? But if the Twitter price to play Coy and try to, not answer this thing and admit to some of the things, this, the whole thing stands around this thing called as Manipulated media with Twitter called one of the exposures of the BJP, spokesperson Sambit Patra’s message as manipulated media. This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back in my opinion. What is your thought, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think Twitter’s overreaches well-established well known around the world. So India is no exception to the rule. It is the only platform and only corporation which has the audacity to add using its own rules and principles. When it is fairly well known many, of its practices are biased prejudiced and opinionated, and that’s fine because that is accepted in a Democracy. I am a leftist. I support this, So, therefore, if you want to be on my platform, you have to be this. No problem, say that because it’s allowed, you know, you have news channels in the United States which says, I lean this way, you have another set of News Channel, I lean that way. So you can make a choice. It is not illegal but saying that you have an objective and applying your own principles is wrong. By the way, the same Twitter was made to eat its Humble Pie, when it used a Singapore Variant, Singapore, government and called, and said, I’ll give you 24 to 48 hours or whatever timeline that was given you, please take out and apologize. They not only apologized but, they took out the thing. So, what happens is, Twitter has no fear when they feel that there is no enforcement. So, that is why, if India has any spine, it should basically say you are banned, okay. You do not comply with our rules. Enough is enough, get out. When two countries state, that then it’s done. Russia is stated that Russia is not only put police complaint and basically said if you behave next time you are out. China banned got Google banned, Twitter banned, Facebook banned, everything that you can think of is a ban. It is the largest bilateral trading partner of the United States. Why? Because the United States has compromised, economic interest, very disabled to tolerate, and the tech platforms is fairly well established as very collaborative and collusive approach notwithstanding the fact, this dealing with this big the ignonimity of their Bans. Facebook has the largest WhatsApp customer base in India.

Sree Iyer: Sir, what can I say? I mean, the last time or the time before that, when Jack visited India, some people came to meet him and thrust a card in his hand and he holds standing that without understanding, what he was holding. It said Ban Brahminical patriarchy. Do you think that Twitter is going to change its face? This person is ignorant. He needs to understand that he is being exploited, at least, now for God’s sake, get wake up and smell the coffee and do the right thing, otherwise, you’re going to be banned out of India and this is all Twitter’s fault, in my opinion, they need to have more moderation. We are also happy that they’re allowing us to be in this thing live on your channel. Thank you very much to that extent. You are tolerant, but all we are trying to say is take a Centrist approach. You are a social media platform. You should be taking sides.

Modi, the government may set a new panel for cryptocurrency. Now, this is something that India does very, very slowly. I think India’s hand is being forced because perhaps, the United States also is thinking along the same lines. Your thoughts sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think the view is that you know, India usually follows generally, the framework of either the UK or the United States, the fact that the US is now taking an active interest and want to have published a white paper shortly, probably next quarter around sometime around July, they want to publish a paper, you know, on dollar-denominated crypto and that means very soon, Britain will be publishing a paper around this. So India is waking up, oh my god! I can’t be in yesterday’s world. I got to think about what tomorrow’s world is. It is also gaining some Credence and momentum when China announced that you know, we’re not going to accept other digital currencies. So I think it is both political and economic context, it seems to be gaining credibility. So I think India is making the right move, at least, what should be the policy and how do we approach it rather than saying everything is wrong.

Sree Iyer:  Paytm sets 3 billion IPO and what could be India’s largest debut timing estimated to be around Diwali, Paytm is one of the largest online payment systems, it took off after the democratization. They have done extremely well. Sir, your thoughts on how this is going to play out.

Sridhar Chityala: Looking at all the IPOs that have come out in the payment space in PayPal is a very good example, and then, you know the Bydo and the Chinese versions of the e-Commerce platforms under Jack ma. When you look at all the IPOs and the critical mass of users plus the number of transactions that are happening in the digital, it fairly augurs well, for Paytm’s IPO to be successful. It’s a fintech IPO, it is probably one of the first fintech IPO in India, and I think we touched on it. We may have very soon your Fireside discussion around the evolving startup ecosystem, and 52 icons and you know the market being around 288 million dollars and very soon expected to be one trillion. This is not my view. This is the view of an Indian expert who knows this startup ecosystem much better than you know myself. So Paytm as you rightly attributed Sreeji, I think is very well positioned to be a successful IPO.

Sree Iyer:  Indian Government mulls delaying PLI scheme for mobile phone manufacturing to the fiscal year 2022, to provide for Covid hit manufacturers. we know the disruptions that Covid wave first one and the second one has caused, which has kind of probably slow down the momentum for setting up a manufacturing plant because manufacturing plant involves a lot of logistics and maybe that is the reason why the government is mulling over delaying this scheme. Sir, what are your thoughts? Do you think that would perhaps take a hit on the GDP of India? But overall I think the Covid-19 getting under control. I think India need to adjust to the new normal, in my opinion. What are your thoughts, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: I think they are delaying this program and accommodating because there are capital triggers, I am told under the PLI because it is a program linked investment for the capitalization. So therefore I’m told that Samsung is the only one because they already have an established infrastructure within the country, while some of the other players like Foxconn and so on need to have… I think Foxconn has a footprint but there are at least three or four other people who need to acquire land, construct and so on and so forth. And that probably is not feasible under the present circumstances. So they’re saying that doesn’t stop the program but they will differ the program to the financial year 2022. So that will help us to meet the guidelines that are established to avail the capital and the tax benefits. So I think it is fair.

Sree Iyer: Sir, with your permission I’ll put up a chart of where things stand as far as covid is concerned in India and you have the chart with you, sir, you can go over now, it up there. You can take a look at it.

Sridhar Chityala: Yes, I think India continues to make progress. Everything we’ve covered enough data. More than 200 million vaccine doses have been given. You can see that on some days, the ramp-up is close to 3 million vaccines on a given day. Some days, it is a million but ramp-up is clearly visible. 2.9 million vaccines in a day, which is reflected in the rightmost corner on the top on the purple side is a pretty good number. Also, the other number that one needs to look at is the differential between the people who are getting discharged versus the new cases that’s in the positive territory or the negative territory, it is 76,000 in this instance, but there are days when it is close to a hundred, or greater than hundred thousand people coming off the active list. The active list recently was close to four million is now around 2.34 million. So augurs well, but the tragedy is quite enormous when you listen to a number of stories that have occurred. But the fact is that despite all the hiccups and difficulties Indians seems to have responded and managed well. So this is positive. There is a positive light at the end of the tunnel to get out of this most complicated and most venomous wave-2.

Sree Iyer: Sir, I also have a chart that shows India’s foreign exchange reserves, which have been growing up and showing an upward trend and this captures it from 2012. So you have the chart, perhaps you can speak on it as to how impressive the foreign exchange reserves have grown under the Modi administration.

Sridhar Chityala: In simple terms, when you take a look between 2014 to 2020/21 India has doubled its foreign exchange reserves. It has moved from $300 million to $600 million. This is number one. At $590 it’s now net positive by virtue of all the debt that it holds, effects of foreign currency debts, as well as the public debt it holds, private debt it holds. So it’s net positive by close, to 40-45 billion. So, in other words, it has very positive reserves in its currency. Historically, whenever money was needed, India used to take its gold reserves, pledge it to some central banks and bring Foreign Exchange to meet its import obligations. This is now a piece of very positive news in terms of not only sentiments but how the reserves have been managed by the Modi government! Now, there has been both a number of criticisms and observations to say, why not take this money on spending on vaccines, why not you take this money and do this? No, Reserve is a reserve. Reserve is meant for the strategic objective of import requirements. It is not meant to address the domestic operational needs of the country and that is to be made only by borrowing and working through your balance sheet and not through the reserves. That’s the fundamental difference between the two.

Sree Iyer: Now, we cast an eye on global news. China cover-up hampering the investigation into the covid origin, according to top US general. Fox News is also reporting that there is growing evidence of a covid cover-up. Sir, this is major. We’ve been saying this on DGI pretty consistently for a long time now. Finally, the mainstream media is also beginning to acknowledge that there is more than what meets the eye as far as the origins of covid are concerned.

Sridhar Chityala: Indeed. I think one of the most important pieces of evidence or justification came when Dr Fauci said yes, we were involved in the research. We were part of it. It would have been irresponsible for us, not to have been part of this research, but we never allocated capital for gainful purposes, which made the Republicans go irate and said, ‘what do you mean by gainful access and what do you mean by you had to access? You are saying that the United States was a part of it. If it was, then how it was not revealed. And we have been hammering away at you as to what is it that you know about this if he had access to this information.’ Now, there are several set of videos and several pieces of news that is floating around and which basically will tell you that even the United States was aware of the weaponization program, that was being conceived between these Wuhan Virus Labs – Virology Institute – WVI and the PLA. So I think more to come out. But what’s happening is it’s becoming now a public issue. What is it that we were aware of and why this information has been stalled? We covered it a couple of days ago, Biden Administration stalled it. Now, they have re-established that the WHO investigation was complete hogwash and the Chinese manipulated and managed it and suppressed all critical information. The question therefore is, let us say, we find the truth, this is the greatest Global disruption, even greater than the World War that we have seen where economies have been stalled, millions of people have died and millions of people have been affected. What is the consequence, should this be true to the role of China in the global ecosystem? What’s the role of China? I think this is the fundamental question one has to look at. Right now, China has got away with every action that it has committed be it human rights, be it pandemic, be it encroaching into the territories of the people, etc, etc. So I think there is much more to come out on this covid investigation.

Sree Iyer: The United States state department slams China for clamping on the human rights of Hong Kong. Wow. Many, many months late and also viewers, please go back on the timeline and look at what China did before November 4th of 2020, when Trump was very much in control and after November 4th, there is a clear message there. I think, as an American, everybody needs to understand that this is basic decency that the residents of Hong Kong deserve a better response than this. I’m still happy that there has been some response from the state department. Sir, your thoughts, what is going to happen? How is it going to play out? Now, Hong Kong is literally gone, isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: It’s gone. It’s too late. It’s over and done and dusted. So, we have a very meek administration. The fact that the state department is now talking, when all the human rights, when basic Democratic norms that were prevalent in the Legislative Council has been bypassed. Now, you have got to get police verification, you got to be certified, got somebody from mainland China even to contest’ and everybody is now mandated to wave the China flag and say Xi Jinping rah rah rah for you to be sitting in the council. So I think it’s just an eyewash for them for the state department to wake up and make this statement this late just shows the inertness of where the United States is.

Sree Iyer: The United States restructures supply chains with Korea and Taiwan to decouple from China, and China is now supplying Iran and North Korea with dangerous nuclear technology. There you go. There’s your next Hot Spot brewing. So this behaviour of China, what is it going to take to stop them from doing all the sabre-rattling and all these poking its nose around. What are your thoughts, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Sir, there is no sabre-rattling. They’re basically saying I am the superpower. The United States has surrendered, Biden is incompetent. He will not do anything. We will see in one more news item, he will not do anything. This looks like the repeat of the Biden-Obama administration, they didn’t do anything from 2008- 2016. I have repeatedly asserted and mentioned this. This is the time when the Spratly Islands came up, the South China Sea was taken away, more and more assertive status was established, the International Court of Justice ruling in favour of the Philippines was violated by China, Indo-Pacific sanctions, no-fly zones across the Pacific was established. What did Obama do? He said planes can fly, but they have to comply with the Chinese rules. This is to the commercial, then he sent bombers unarmed, the Chinese laughed. So they know this particular Administration is not going to do anything. So what do they do? They do have a bilateral deal with Iran for $400 billion for ten years when you have sanctions prevalent. They give them nuclear technology. They give access to infrastructure. And they are basically going to be supportive, right in the middle when the EU and the United States are trying to negotiate sanctions and make them comply with restrictions on the enrichment of uranium. So what it tells you is that China is saying ‘try and do what you can. I am the boss.’ That’s effectively what China is taking its position as.

Sree Iyer: Well, our next news item is even more interesting. Egypt invites Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinian authorities for a long-term truce. Perhaps Egypt can set an example by seeding some of its desert lands to Palestinians to form their own country there and let all the people who want to move there, move there. Why not?

Sridhar Chityala: There are two things here. I think you’ve brought up a very interesting proposal which probably… I don’t know, the Palestinians must accept. Maybe they can even give a part of the desert, the Sinai desert to Hamas and move things forward. But I think the more important issue is this is another abject failure of the United States because the United States historically has been the mediator in the Palestine-Israel issues and they have supported Israel’s cause in many ways because it’s a small place with so many issues and so much of a threat for its existence. But this is a very big concession saying that United It’s is totally incompetent, the present Administration to manage the affairs and for Egypt to step in. Kudos to Egypt that it’s inviting very interestingly the Hamas and the Palestinian authority. So do we have now two groups with whom, the world with the negotiating? It looks that way.

Sree Iyer: The US tells Russia that it will not rejoin Open Skies Arms Control Pact and the US’s Regan is leaving for Asia to help with Afghan troops withdrawal. So that is also going on now. So that can’t be good news, sir, that the US is also withdrawing from Afghanistan. Leaving one more place open for China to occupy.

Sridhar Chityala: Yes. August-September last year, again, if you go back to a DGI you will find that we said two specific carriers were sent by President Trump – Nimitz and Regan to act as a deterrent. Regan was sent from the Middle East to cover the South China Seas but also to protect and to have a watching brief on Taiwan. The fact that they are moving Reagan out of that place is a reflection that again, the US is trying to wash up its hands. The question is Afghan Troops withdrawal is important but is it far more importantly relevant to what is happening around that specific region – Pacific, Taiwan, the Senkaku Islands, Japan, and the South China Sea issues? So therefore it’s another foreign policy issue. And it also raises questions about who is actually running the White House? Is it the surrogates or is it the proxies of Obama who are running the White House? Or is it Mr Biden running the White House? These are some of the fundamental questions that are propping when you look at some of these decisions coming out.

Sree Iyer: Sir, all these indications are there that when a certain congresswoman from Minnesota said 9/11 was ‘some people did something’. This is the kind of whitewashing that should have been round, condemned by the “Iron Lady” and she didn’t do that. And somehow GOP did not fully exploit this outrageous statement that a certain congresswoman made and that person continues to keep making noise. So, India, and United States and Afghanistan, all these people can now sit back and watch what happens when you have people with this kind of calibre representing you. I’m saying this for everybody. I can also come up with examples for politicians in India who do the same thing.

Anyway, let’s go on go on to the next topic, sir, which is Markets. Dow gains 158 points after jobless claims improve the new pandemic low. So looks like people are returning to work now. What are your thoughts, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: I look at some of these numbers with great scepticism. Whether they’re returning to work or whether they’re getting a huge amount of money. So remember, it’s jobless claims when you have a lot of money and you don’t need to go and work, then you also don’t need to make a claim. You can’t receive $2,000 checks and deposits and then go back and say I’m unemployed because you’re receiving the check. So I think that I’m looking at these numbers with great scepticism, many of the other states, which has a high propensity for employment are still saying people are not returning to work. They’re struggling to find the workers. The most important data, 1 million jobs should have been added and by April we only added somewhere between 244 to 300,000 jobs. That’s the first data point. Relative to last February, we are still about six to eight million jobs less to where we were before the pandemic. So it begs the question, is it really the unemployment that has gone down or quite a few people are not going back into employment? So it is a misleading number, which comes to the next point…

Janet Yellen says, borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow more money so that we can kind of re-tweak with the economy. So that’s her position. This is with inflation at 4.2%. So, I took the liberty of completing that, in the interest of time, we are already 36 minutes into the program.

Sree Iyer: Yes, indeed. Sridharji, please complete your thought and I have something to add.

Sridhar Chityala: I mean, I’ve never seen anything like this in the United States in quite a few decades, even during very difficult periods of crisis that we have gone through. But it’s quite astonishing as to what the medium to long term, forget the debt, as someone’s said will not be alive to pay off their debt. But what it does to the balance sheet by virtue of interest cost and the growing gap between the revenues and expenses. The revenue grows only by 4-6% and we have given all these numbers to you and what constitutes the revenue receipts, as they say, or revenues within the US balance sheet? This doesn’t augur very well in terms of the overall economic management. I hope there is a change in 2022, and there is a much more balanced government, which is more diligent and frugal in making sure things move forward.

Sree Iyer: Yes. And we already told that Biden is a President in name only. Now we are also seeing that Janet

Yellen is the Treasury Secretary In Name Only -TINO. Anyways, this is our opinion, it could be wrong. Prove us wrong, we’ll be happy to be proved wrong.

Viewers, we are not going to be live on Monday because it’s Memorial Day weekend and I’m taking some time off and Sridharji also has some respect. So we will be recharged and we’ll be back on Tuesday. But in a couple of hours time, I’m going to be having a PGurus prime-time hangout with Sri RVS Mani and ex-Home Ministry official, as we take look at a couple of incidents that are happening in India – the Tamil Nadu thing that is going on about DMK, DK, LTTE lumpens and also the verdict that came exonerating Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka. We are going to look at that judgment also. So please do tune in two and a half hours time.

Thanks again, Sridharji, have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week on Tuesday, Namaskar.

Sridhar Chityala: Namaskar Nice car and have a long wonderful weekend and a much-needed rest for you, Sreeji. You have been working nonstop and at least, I come for one session and your sessions go on, 3 sessions, 4 sessions in a day, seven days a week you keep on working not just television but also books and so on. So well deserved rest and we are all happy to see you all back and happy Memorial Day to everybody.

Sree Iyer: Thank you sir and Namaskar.