Not the foreign devils, but our homegrown ones.

The tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which led to the subprime crisis in the US and to panic on global markets, will be on 15 September. This led to "the empowerment of the central banks. The role they played in staving off the crisis -- which in itself was remarkable and commendable -- transformed the status of central banks, which acquired regulatory independence only a few decades ago," wrote A Padmanabhan. "The big question is whether it is fair? After all central banks are manned by technocrats and not by elected politicians." "Although this should have been the moment for the representative governments to rise to the occasion, too often political leaders failed to take actions needed to preserve the welfare of those who elected them," wrote F Giugliano. "The institutions that did the most to help economies recover were the most technocratic and without popular mandate: the central banks." "So, the power of central bankers is here to stay. When the next crisis hits, politicians -- even those with popular mandates -- will depend more than ever upon the whims of unelected technocrats." Showing his displeasure at record low interest rates, former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague wrote, "Central bankers have collectively lost the plot. They must raise interest rates or face their doom." To which Bank of England Governor Mike Carney replied, "The objectives are what are set by the politicians. The policies are done by technocrats. We are not going to take instruction on our policies from the political side." In a snub to the Finance Ministry, and hence to the government, officials of the Reserve Bank of India refused to meet ministry officials before a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI last year. Now government officials are trying to pressure the RBI to sell dollars to support the rupee which has fallen 13% year-on-year against the dollar. "If you look at the domestic economic situation and global situation, there are not domestic reasons attributable to this, but all reasons are global," said the Finance Minister. But of course he has no idea because he is a lawyer by trade, and not a 'technocrat'. Foreign devils did not impose huge taxes on petroleum products when the international price of crude was very low and waste taxpayer money with abandon so that India is now in the tentacles of a 'twin deficit problem'. Previous Governor of the RBI Raghuram Rajan has gone back to his post of professor at Chicago, and the present Governor Urjit Patel will easily find a prestigious post if he is forced out but Indian politicians are otherwise useless. Politicians are asking for the RBI's powers to be reduced. They should beware. They may have to beg the RBI to save them when the next crisis hits. Which could be any moment.