Quotes from Raghuram Rajan

The problem with forbearance is that it always looks like a good thing to do until it stops working.

I am not a 'doom and gloom' guy.

We are taking a greater chance of having another crash at a time when the world is less capable of bearing the cost.

Common man is always benefited by a rate cut.

I will say this: the central banks can actually support growth beyond a point. When there is no inflation, they can cut interest rates, and that is the way they support growth, but if you cut interest rate to the bone, there is nothing more to cut. It is very hard to support growth beyond that.

Ultimately, in the long run we need to immunise our system from being overly responsive to fluctuations in the exchange rate; that is, people should, by and large, be reasonably hedged, or they should borrow more in domestic currency rather than foreign currency.

If economists were to wait for careful studies before offering opinions about policy, we would never have anything timely to say.

The idea was never for me to be a career bureaucrat or career technocrat; it was more about where I could implement ideas and reform programs.

How do we get more politicians to move from 'fixing' the system to reforming the system? The obvious answer is to either improve the quality of public services or reduce the public's dependence on them. Both approaches are necessary.

If developed countries' citizens want to feel slightly better about their economies' slow growth and high unemployment, they should contemplate how much worse matters could be without the institutions that they have.

I don't think policy makers surprise unnecessarily. You don't pick surprise as a part of your policy. Markets value a certain amount of predictability. But there are certain areas where surprise is a tool.

Central bankers have had enormous responsibilities thrust on them to compensate, essentially, for the failings of the political system. And my worry is we don't have sufficient tools to do that, but we're not willing to say it.

Democratic accountability means that governments must be popularly accepted, with citizens empowered to replace corrupt or incompetent rulers.

The Reserve Bank cannot just exist; its ability to say 'no' has to be protected.

One of the difficulties of a job in the, quote, 'real world' is you don't really get time to shut yourself off in a room and think.

Customers often value a good more when its price goes up. One reason may be its signaling value. An expensive handcrafted mechanical watch may tell time no more accurately than a cheap quartz model; but, because few people can afford one, buying it signals that the owner is rich.

The government will always tell you that it wants low inflation. The real issue is the horizon over which to bring inflation down.

By killing transparency and competition, crony capitalism is harmful to free enterprise, opportunity, and economic growth. And by substituting special interests for the public interest, it is harmful to democratic expression.

As a country that does not belong to any power bloc, India cannot afford to put itself in the position of needing multilateral support - a trap into which even developed countries, like Portugal and Spain, have fallen.

Monetary policy is like juggling six balls... it is not 'interest rate up, interest rate down.' There is the exchange rate, there are long term yields, there are short term yields, there is credit growth.

Competition is like a treadmill. If you stand still, you get swept off. But when you run, you can never really get ahead of the treadmill and cover new terrain - so you never run faster than the speed that is set.

If anybody was to look towards a big source of demand in future, it would be hard for them to miss India.

Indian-ness, love for your country, is complicated. For every person, there is a different way that you show respect for your country... my mother-in-law will say karmayogi is the way to go - do your work.

I am an academic, and I have always made it clear that my ultimate home is in the realm of ideas.