The cat, it seems, has been let in among the pigeons. President Obama has announced changes in the tax structure whereby US companies will have to pay taxes on overseas earnings. Until today companies paid taxes only on the money they repatriated back to the US and paid nothing if they ploughed their earnings back into the overseas country. No more. Indian politicians and industrialists already resemble headless chickens. Some are puffed with indignation at this effort at protectionism, predicting big losses for the IT sector while others say this will only harm US companies by increasing expenses and thus reducing competitiveness. Today the pharma sector has caught cold because they are afraid of the big pharma companies cutting down on backroom operations and R&D that they are doing in India at present. No one has a clue. Politicians are engaged in a turf war called elections and anyway stand for elections to loot the exchequer and not to formulate policy. In contrast the US has a plethora of thinktanks staffed by any number of phds from Ivy League colleges with experts in everything from the effect of locusts on Africa to the recruiting practices of LeT. Yet a look back at US policies does not inspire confidence. From the Bay of Pigs fiasco to the war in Iraq the US has repeatedly made huge blunders. Its support of right wing dictators in Latin America has resulted in the rise of anti american left wing leaders like Chavez and its support of Pakistan has resulted in US troops dying in Afghanistan today. So are we better of in having political thugs and kleptocrats running the country? Perhaps ' Ram bharose ' will see us through. Fingers crossed.