AKD; promise and performance

JOHN Maynard Keynes once described the ideal economist as someone who was a “mathematician, historian, statesman and philosopher” in equal measure.

- By Sarath De Alwis

Keynes isn't fashionable anymore. Economics, which is about human behaviour, has become a mathematical science. So much so, Larry Summers as chief economist of the World Bank wrote in 1991 “the laws of economics are like the laws of engineering. One set of laws works everywhere.”

Under the NPP Government which is now following the straight narrow corridor to a possible debt-free Walhalla as promised by the IMF, a car dealer has airlifted exotic luxury chariots under amended regulations on vehicle imports. Hence, these random musings on AKD’s promise and performance.

“A brand-new Rolls-Royce Phantom Series 8 II, Bentley Bentayga and BMW M3 CS have officially arrived in Sri Lanka, marking the high-profile return of ultra-luxury vehicles following the recent easing of the vehicle import ban.

The vehicles were spotted unloaded from an air cargo shipment at Bandaranaike International Airport. The delivery is reportedly considered one of the most expensive air cargo shipments in Sri Lanka’s history Pictures courtesy social media — (https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Rolls-Royce-Phantom-touches-down-in-SL/108-308998).

This piece of reassuring news of ‘entrepreneurs with cash to splash’ in the Daily Mirror of 16 May 2025 is an incontrovertible vindication of our Treasury Secretary's treatise “Sri Lanka’s Economic Revival — Reflection on the Journey from Crisis to Recovery”.

The link cited should help readers interested, concerned and nosey enough to scroll down for a look see of these fabulous chariots unloaded from a Turkish Airlines freighter.

It appears that Sri Lanka’s economic recovery and the new NPP Government's steely steady stabilising process is the kind of stuff that makes history.