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Changing Tide

I started to read this opinion piece with interest given the context the author cited he had but ended up a bit disappointed when he described the aftermath of demonetization in India. This is something I have been in the midst of quite directly having retired parents living in Kolkata for the longest time. As it happens, I have been to the UK several times before and after Brexit. May not have lived in either place at the time these events were unfolding but close enough. 

Covering the demonetization experiment in India as a journalist, we spent a day basically trying to get someone to break the equivalent of $50. It took all day and after a couple hours I actually started to feel like a unique form of dread. Like what if your money just suddenly didn't work anymore.

Roll forward a couple years, nothing has radically changed about India. I was there in 2014 before this happened and again in 2018. If I compare my experience of India in these two trips separated by four years with demonetization falling in the exact center, I would not be able to call out anything particularly notable. Life goes on. My parents and other relatives who lived on retirement income through this entire time, did not have their lives transformed. 

There was a fair amount of anxiety at the time of demonetization but the dust settled remarkably fast for regular people. In the UK, as a foreigner visiting for short periods of time it was harder for me to see the full picture but there were no visible signs of crisis in grocery stores, malls, restaurants and the like. The exchange rate made things a bit cheaper and locals I met along the way seemed unsure of what had hit them. Many were ambivalent about whether the decision was good or bad. Much the same with India's demonetization. It seems like people learn to work with the hand they are dealt. I imagine such will be the case for Americans as well. 

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