"I must say I was surprised to read that Kaushik Basu, once my friend and neighbour, had been succeeded as chief economist of the World Bank by Paul Romer, whom I admire as an inventive economist. I do not mean that the World Bank is no place for inventive economists. But it is a sort of cooperative of countries, responsible to its members and financiers.

"It has to be careful with its money; hence it is rather conservative. A job with it would be lucrative; but it would not call for brilliance. Paul Romer is always roaming across the intellectual world looking for new ideas and new applications. I did not think that bank lending policies would interest him. True, he could roam the entire world, in person, and discover all kinds of fascinating facts and correlations; but that would be a side benefit. Most of the time he would have to read boring reports and sit in boring meetings. Why on earth did he take such a job?"

Read Ashok V Desai's column for the Telegraph.