This article needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications. Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (March 2008)

Raveendra N. Batra (born 27 June 1943) is a U.S. economist, best-selling author and professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He is best known for his book The Great Depression of 1990 in which he predicted a sharp rise in the US stock market in the 1980s, followed by a cataclysmic drop and a depression in or around 1990. Batra's main thesis, also in his recent work, is that Financial capitalism, which breeds excessive inequality and political corruption, inevitably succumbs to financial crisis and economic depression. The solution is a social system envisoned by his spiritual mentor P.R. Sarkar.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Academic career 3 Novel ideas 3.1 Social evolution 4 Spiritual heritage 5 Bestseller 6 Outcomes of predictions 7 Recent works 8 Present economic crisis 9 Books by Ravi Batra 10 See also 11 External links

[edit] Biography

Raveendra N. Batra was born near the ancient city of Multan in former India ( present day Pakistan) on 27 June 1943. The family moved to Sonipat near Delhi in India shortly after the partition, where his father became a Professor of Sanskrit.

[edit] Academic career

Batra obtained his B.A. degree from Punjab University^{[disambiguation needed]} in 1963 and M.A. degree from Delhi School of Economics in 1965. In 1969 he received his Ph.D. in Economics from Southern Illinois University. He surprised his professors by becoming published in distinguished refereed journals while a student. He became Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Western Ontario in 1969. He moved to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in 1970 to become Assistant Professor of Economics. In 1972, he became Associate Professor and in 1973 he was appointed full Professor of Economics and Head of Department at the age of 30. Until 1978, his career was on a fast track, while he published advanced theoretical articles and two books primarily in the field of trade theory.

[edit] Novel ideas

In 1963, Batra met his revered teacher, P.R. Sarkar (1921–1990), also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti to disciples of the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (Path of Bliss). After establishing himself in his chosen field, he decided to branch out by contributing to his mentor's work. In 1978, he published a novel book The Downfall of Capitalism and Communism: A New Study of History, where he turned his gaze from theoretical economics to history. In the book Batra promoted the Social cycle theory of his spiritual mentor, Sarkar, based on an analysis of four distinct classes with different psychological preferences or endowments.

[edit] Social evolution

The main thesis of the book was that the age of acquisitors, better known as capitalism, was soon to come to an end in the West. This dramatic change was to be followed by the downfall of the age of commanders in the Soviet Union, more commonly known as communism. While his predictions for capitalism to collapse within a few decades due to rampant inequality and speculation have not come true, his prediction for the collapse of communism, due to inner stasis and oppression, arrived in 1990, sooner than expected. The key reason that capitalism, as a self-perpetuating social formation, was seen to be on an unsustainable path, was the relentless drive of acquisitors to acquire ever more capital. Over time, this activity was seen to gain momentum and result in financial booms and busts. A depression would then follow and as it came on top of extreme inequality it would quickly bring social chaos and revolt. As anarchy was not a normal state of affairs, the class of military leaders would step in the breech and reestablish order and thereby usher in a new age of "commanders". In this context, Batra reviews a prior such social change, which occurred two millennia ago, when the Roman Republic was transformed into the Roman Empire. At that time slave uprisings were common but were violently suppressed. This period became known as the Servile Wars. At the same time, the military was in ascendancy as the Roman Army continued to expand the empire. The pivotal figure in the development was the military leader, Julius Caesar, who wrested control from the Senate by diluting its membership, but was in turn murdered by the disgruntled Senators. The military class, led by his adopted son Octavian, cemented the new social order. Batra thinks such a scenario in the future will refocus the social motivity, away from acquisition of money to a mastery of technology and physical bravery including the conquest of space, heralding a new age of commanders in the West. These ideas contrast starkly with those of thinkers like Francis Fukuyama who argues that capitalism, as it is based on democracy and freedom, represents the pinnacle of human social development. For Fukuyama, the collapse of Soviet Communism could have been inevitable, but not that of Capitalism.

[edit] Spiritual heritage

Batra's writings should be considered in terms of the philosophy of his mentor, Sarkar, who has had a profound influence on him. The ideas of Sarkar are in the tradition of Hindu idealism - a cosmology stating that the universe, both inanimate and animate matter, is permeated with a singular consciousness, a living God. The basic premise is that the souls of all life forms have a singular embedded motive over the evolutionary eons, going from birth to death to birth again, to develop their consciousness. Once they reach the level of human reflective consciousness it is their duty to seek to ultimately unite it with the God consciousness. Part and parcel of this view is that humans should regularly practise yogic meditation - ideate on God - and follow an ethical and vegetarian life style. But Sarkar goes further than anyone else in declaring that God realization is easier with full participation in social service. According to this philosophy, Batra rejects the basic foundations of materialist economics, including the need to consume and acquire without limit, as well as the premise that the saving of capitalists promotes the greater good through investment, itself the penultimate justification for allowing inequality to exist. Instead, Batra promotes raising the incomes of people with the sole purpose to increase their consumption, but in a balanced and sustainable way - in harmony with nature, each other and other life forms. An equitable distribution is not seen as a means to only ensure material welfare but also to secure the ability of all to develop a full personality. This is an integral part of Sarkar's practical theory of PROUT - PROgressive Utilization Theory.

[edit] Bestseller

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”. Renamed as The Great Depression of 1990, this book rose to first place on the New York Times bestseller list for Non-Fiction in the Autumn months of 1987, just as the Dow Jones share price index was about to suffer its biggest daily drop in almost sixty years. In 1988, he followed his success with another book on how to survive the predicted calamity. The book also made it on the bestseller list. However, due to his unorthodox and controversial views, his perceived political incorrectness, honesty, and forthrightness, Batra fell out of favor with the mainstream academic community.

[edit] Outcomes of predictions

When 1990 arrived, there were concerns about the stability of US banking system but no financial crisis erupted. In Japan, however, a financial and economic crisis gripped the country at the beginning of the year. 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 that year. 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, after powerful interests at the Federal Reserve began to lobby against him. Batra was even presented with an Ig Nobel prize.

[edit] Recent works

In the 1990s, Batra published such books as The Myth of Free Trade: The Pooring of America, criticism of Alan Greenspan type policies. In 1998, he published Stock Market Crashes of 1998 and 1999: The Asian Crisis and Your Future. The book was revisiting the premise of his earlier bestselling work, arguing nothing had changed, only the palliative cures of economic policy had become more effective at suppressing the symptoms of financial capitalism, but not cure its underlying illness. He therefore predicted increasing stock market volatility. Again in 1999, he published a book The Crash of the Millennium: Surviving the Coming Inflationary Depression, which suggested a plunge in stocks. The drop in high-tech stocks in the Spring of 2000 sent a shiver through the global market place. However, his critics claimed that since the the capitalist system remained relatively intact, that he was proven wrong. In 2004, he wrote a new book Greenspan's Fraud: How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy where he critically evaluates the policy prescriptions of Former Federal Reserve Chief Alan Greenspan. In this hard hitting and comprehensive look at Alan Greenspan’s career over the last two decades, bestselling author Ravi Batra reveals the devastating economic effects of the Federal Reserve Chairman’s ideas and policies. Greenspan has reigned over the U.S. economy since 1987, if not since 1981, outlasting at least three presidents. His views have shifted so frequently with the political tides that his actions, in Batra’s opinion, amount to an intellectual as well as a tax fraud against the people. This is unfortunate, because the chairman’s words resonate loudly around the world. Greenomics, Batra argues, has extracted trillions of dollars in excess taxes from the American middle class, lowered wages for working families, and hurled millions into poverty. He pinpoints Greenspan’s glaring inconsistencies on Social Security, income tax cuts, free trade and the minimum wage and shows that many of his views are illogical and deeply flawed. Batra demonstrates how Greenspan unwittingly brought about a global crash; how he helped spread the virus of regressive taxation, which is the main culprit behind stagnating wages around the world. In this revealing portrait, the enigmatic head of the Fed stands exposed. Few realize that he once regarded President Kennedy as a fascist dictator, considered America’s big business as a persecuted minority, argued that inflation hurts the stock broker more than the elderly, and paid lower wages to female employees while taking “better quality” work from them. In short, Greenspan emerges as a true friend of the rich and a covert foe of the poor and toiling workers. Not surprisingly, the U.S. economy, shepherded by the chairman for over two decades, now stays afloat on a subsidy of nearly $2 billion per day from the rest of the world. Such a pitiful state cannot endure. Batra offers practical economic reforms to do away with Greenomics and restore the comforts of the middle class that have vanished in the Greenspan era. This book is a must read for anyone interested in bringing sanity to the global economy, which is currently afflicted with numerous debts, deficits and special interests. It is also a must read for those seeking an objective evaluation of the Bush administration’s policies making headlines today. The simplicity with which Batra presents his arguments and counters the orthodoxy will astound you. In 2008 his latest book was published - "The New Golden Age - The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos" - where he analyzes the present day economic downturn, and the forces behind it, and is envisioning a new bright future ahead, after some significant struggle. The economic crisis and recession of 2009-2009 has resulted in his complete vindication from his critics, and has proven that his predictions and economic analyses were in fact correct, all along.

Ravi Batra is the author of six international bestsellers, two of which appeared on the New York Times list.

He has appeared on CBS, NBC, CNN, ABC, and CNBC and has been profiled in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, and many more.

He is a professor of economics at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.

[edit] Present economic crisis

Batra's prominence as a long standing critic of Greenspan-type unregulated financial capitalism and monetary policy, coupled with artifically high mortgage valuations by the Mortgage Lender Industry, which together caused an artificial financial bubble, has borne out to be correct in his major prediction of a deep financial and economic crisis in the USA, said prediction whic actually served to make him an outsider in academic circles. He suggests the failure in predicting the exact timing of said crisis by him may be linked to advances or innovations in policy management and institutional safeguards, such as an exceptionally accommodative monetary policy stance, the creation of a federal deposit insurance scheme and increased expectation that the government will act as lender of last resort. Importantly, however, Batra holds that the inexorable growth of income and wealth inequalities in capitalism will have the predicted effect on economic behavior and government legislation. Experience now shows his claim to be correct; the modifications and accommodative policies are only able to postpone the outbreak of a fundamental crisis but not prevent it. The eruption of a historical financial crisis in 2008, which poses a grave risk of an outright economic collapse, is serving again to increase and re-ignite interest in his views.

[edit] Books by Ravi Batra

• Studies in the Pure Theory of International Trade, 1973
• Theory of International Trade Under Uncertainty (Economic theory, econometrics, and mathematical economics)
• The Downfall of Capitalism and Communism: Can Capitalism Be Saved?, London: MacMillan, 1978, ISBN 0-333-21645-8
• The Downfall of Capitalism and Communism: Can Capitalism be Saved?, Dallas: Venus Books, Second Edition, 1990, ISBN 0-939352-09-5
• The Great Depression of 1990, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987
• Surviving the Great Depression of 1990, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988
• Regular Economic Cycles|Regular Economic Cycles: Money, Inflation, Regulation and Depressions, St. Martin's Press, 1985, ISBN 0-0312-03260-9
• The Myth of Free Trade: A Plan for America's Economic Revival. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993, ISBN 0-684-19592-5
• The Great American Deception: What Politicians Won't Tell You about Our Economy and Your Future. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996, ISBN 0-471-16556-5
• The Crash of the Millennium: Surviving the Coming Inflationary Depression, New York: Harmony Books, 1999, ISBN 0-609-60512-7
• Greenspan's Fraud: How Two Decades of His Policies Have Undermined the Global Economy, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN 1-4039-6859-4
• The New Golden Age|The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, ISBN 1-4039-7579-5

[edit] See also

• Free Trade Controversy

[edit] External links

• Ravi Batra´s homepage
• Southern Methodist University