The GST was conceptually superb, utterly necessary — and implemented poorly. There are still so many problems with it that it defeats the purpose. How do we think clearly about its problems? How do we fix it?

Welcome to Episode 121 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Ajay, one of the authors of the original paper of 2004 that proposed a GST in India, talks about what the GST is meant to do, why it fails in its current design and what we can do to make it better.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Edge-of-the-Seat Excitement01:59 Chapter 1: It All Comes Down to Economic Growth09:08 Chapter 2: The Disaster of Cascading Taxes18:59 Chapter 3: How the World Solved This With VAT28:13 Chapter 4: How to Get the VAT Right31:59 Chapter 5: The Indian Journey to a Flawed GST48:23 Chapter 6: The Fix

For full show notes, please click here!

Everyone wants to read more — but how do we do it? As lifelong readers, our hosts get asked this all the time, and decided to do an exhaustive primer with three parts.

1. Why should we read?

2. How do we build a reading habit?

3. How should we actually read a book?

Welcome to Episode 120 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Amit does his best to answer the three questions above — but please don’t stop watching this show if you do end up reading more!

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: The Hood and the Hoodie04:01 Chapter 1: Why You Should Read Books33:31 Chapter 2: How to Build a Reading Habit50:03 Chapter 3: How to Read a Book1:06:40 Chapter 4: Closing Thoughts1:20:23 Chapter 5: How Amit Takes Notes on a Book

For full show notes, please click here!

Financial crises are an unavoidable part of modern economies — and all of us have skin in the game. Why do they happen, how do they unfold, what can we do?

Welcome to Episode 119 of Everything is Everything, a weekly podcast hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah.

In this episode, Ajay shares his learnings from a lifetime of studying and tackling financial crises — and Amit voices his strong dissent at the end.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 00:00 Packaging00:13 Intro: The Fate of the World is on the Line08:35 Chapter 1: Let’s Start With History36:43 Chapter 2: But Should the State Intervene?50:21 Chapter 3: Types of Financial Crises1:12:50 Chapter 4: Why Crises Happen1:22:26 Chapter 5: What Can We Do?1:32:48 Chapter 6: Tackling the Extreme Positions1:41:19 Chapter 7: Amit Attacks the Conventional View

For the full show notes, please click here!