Ravi Batra: Difference between revisions

{{main|The Great Depression of 1990}}

Ravi Batra is the author of six international bestsellers, two of which appeared on [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The New York Times'' list]].  

In 1980 he published ''Muslim Civilization and the Crisis in Iran'' where he predicted the fall of the Shah and the rise of a class of intellectuals, or Mullahs, followed by a drawn out war with Iraq. In 1984, he penned what was to become his first bestseller, first under the title ''Regular Cycles of Money, Inflation, Regulation and Depressions''. A central theme of this book was that the mal-distribution of wealth, which Batra found to be the cause of past episodes of financial speculative manias that were followed by a crash and depression. [[Lester Thurow]] was so impressed that he wrote a preface stating the ideas were "novel and brilliant". This book was subsequently renamed as ''The Great Depression of 1990''. It entered the New York Times Best Seller list in the  Non-fiction category in early 1987 and reached #1 later that year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/06/books/best-sellers-from-1987-s-book-crop.html?src=pm|title=Best Sellers From 1987's Book Crop|author=Edwin McDowell|publisher=New York Times|date=January 6, 1988|accessdate=January 10, 2012}}</ref>

Batra predicted a full scale depression in the USA in 1990; it did not happen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/current_issues/ci9-4.pdf|title=Now and Then: The Evolution of Loan Quality for U.S. Banks, Volume 9, Number 4|author=Kevin J. Stiroh and Christopher Metli|publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of New York|date=April 2003|accessdate=January 10, 2012}}</ref> Batra's reputation rose in Europe on account of his correct prediction for the downfall of communism when he was awarded the Medal of the [[Italian Senate]] in 1990. Batra continued to publish bestselling works in Japan with economic malaise lasting until the early 2000s. In the USA, however, his sales began to drop and his booming side-line career as a media commentator on matters economic and financial began to sour. In 1993, Batra received the [[Ig Nobel Prize]] in economics. Batra's views on capitalism have not been popular among mainstream economists, but these views may be changing in the wake of the [[Late-2000s financial crisis|financial crisis]] in the USA and other developed economies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=7369|title=Prophet of Boom (and Bust) - Now will they listen to Ravi Batra?|author=Kendall Anderson|publisher=Ft Worth Weekly|date=December 17, 2008|accessdate=January 10, 2012}}</ref>

In 1993, Batra published ''The Myth of Free Trade: The Pooring of America'' in which he argued that [[free trade]] has enabled the rich to become richer but most people became poorer.  Batra predicted that NAFTA would create unemployment in Mexico  and lower wages in America. He urged the breakup of large firms, a raise in tariffs, and a drastic cut in defense spending to turn the country around.  In his view, domestic monopolies generate inequality and poverty and global trade damages the industrial base and the global environment.