Notes & updates.
Shorter writing between publications.
Why a 4% Cap is a Bad Idea
In an effort to manage borrowing costs and ease pressure on businesses, Bangladesh Bank recently introduced a 4% cap on the lending-deposit spread -- the margin between what a bank pays its depositors
Bangladesh Bank Needs to Establish Policy Credibility. This is not How.
The Monetary Policy Statement was announced in the last week of June, and was almost immediately hemmed in by the circular announcing the spread cap -- a sequencing that signals incoherence.
Reading the latest monetary policy statement
A short note on what changed, what did not, and what to watch.
Democratizing Growth: Key Takeaways from the Economic Reform Summit 2025 in Dhaka
Following months of intense economic recalibration and transitional governance, Bangladesh reached a major policy milestone late last autumn. Organized by a coalition of civic, tech, and policy groups—including Voice for Reform, BRAIN, Fintech Society, INNOVISION, and the Nagorik Coalition—the Economic Reform Summit 2025 took place on October 27–28 at the Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka.
The Institute opens its doors
The discussions are institutionalized — what the Panam Institute is, and what it is for.
Shifting the Gear on the Economy
Every budget season brings the same ritual. Numbers are unveiled, pundits declare them too optimistic or too austere, and commentary fixates on a set of numbers -- GDP growth or revenue targets are to
The Politics of Synthesis 2.0
Economists are infamous for their physics envy, whereby they try to model social phenomena involving human interactions with precise mathematical rigour. Scholars of politics or sociology, in turn, ar
Shanghai Spirit and Westphalia
Amidst the clamor of the Iran war, the world order is silently shifting from unipolar American dominance to a multipolar reality. As this situation transitions into a relative calm, the world should f
Bad News and Good About the LNG Crisis
There has been a lot of confusion around the LNG situation -- what Qatar’s force majeure declarations mean for Bangladesh, whether we’re locked out of supply for years, and how bad this really gets. I
The Looming Persian Storm: Why Bangladesh Cannot Afford to Defy Economic Gravity Again
The potential for a full-scale military confrontation involving the United States, Israel, and Iran casts a long, dark shadow over the Bangladeshi economy, one that promises to be far more destabilizi