Letter to BS: Economists and analysts more often than not play safe

This refers to “Addressing the great slowdown” (December 24). While the don'ts prescription looks laudable, in the dos list, the authors seem to be extra cautious and relied only on conventional first-aid remedies like putting bad loans in isolation wards (two 'bad' banks are suggested) and providing incentives to participants. The reluctance of economists and media analysts to even consider options like levying agriculture income tax, exploiting the possibility of mainstreaming the idle unaccounted for domestic gold stock (estimated at 24,000 tonnes or upwards) and forcing the rich who have lakhs of crores stashed in foreign banks to come clean