From the time Sir Courtney Blackman, former Governor of the Central Bank, said publicly that he was a creature of the Prime Minister, he stamped his imprimatur on the Central Bank.
I was perplexed to read that the percentage of deficit to GDP had fallen from 117 per cent (not 100 per cent as stated in the Central Bank report) to 70 per cent almost overnight, so I had to look for myself.
The Government holds the National Insurance Funds on behalf of the people. This is similar to an old lady keeping sou sou money for her neighbours. Making the board of the National Insurance invest in Government bonds is the same as the old lady using sou sou money to shop at the supermarket.
Whether or not the IMF has sanctioned that such borrowings be deducted from the deficit, this is absolute folly. It means that the Government can borrow as much of the money that it has in trust as it likes, use it to pay salaries, and it does not affect the creditworthiness of the Government or its ability to repay from taxation.
The Central Bank is acting not in its intended role as the watchdog of the realm, but according to this, as imprimatur. Therefore the ordinary citizen has to look beyond the Central Bank for answers.
The truth of the matter is that despite the dipsy-doodling, our position in Barbados remains quite bleak and will get bleaker in 2012 as the lean season of foreign exchange earnings follows the winter season.
What is more, we need to reassess our takings from international business companies. We are facing serious challenges from other jurisdictions. They are offering zero-tax legislation in comparison to our low-tax regime, and our main support, Canadian companies, will only offer employment if we go that route. In any case, zero-tax jurisdictions attract grey smoke.
We have a problem. The Government needs to keep people employed so as to challenge the elections. It is doing this at the expense of the whole nation.
The real problem for us citizens is that whoever wins the next election has to take corrective measures; I predict that those measures will not be sweet.
We cannot get the minister to see the repercussions of his tax measures on the private sector employment while hotels, restaurants and stores close as he sings I’d Rather Be A Hammer Than A Nail.
Now that the Government has failed to think outside the box and the Central Bank seems to be in agreement, it is left to the citizens who are bearing the brunt of the ineffective measures. Then the citizens have to take matters into their own hands. I recommend the book El Otro Sendero (The Other Path).
In this regard I think we should look at the NDP’s suggestion of a security bond. The banks are key to any possible growth, be it tourism, construction or whatever. Once the banks are not on board, we are spinning in mud.
If people were given a fair shake by the bank, they would be tempted to take risks, even in this environment. But the banks will not move a muscle without security. The banks can be provided with security via the security bond, which is an “A” class security.
We can preach in vain how unfair graduating us is, but if we compare our per capita to some countries in Africa or the Far East, we are miles ahead. We boast that we are among the first 25 in the world with regard to standard of living, 98 per cent literacy, First World status by 2020, we refused food aid from the IMF, so why now seek to re-examine graduation?
Lowdown, cuddear, we have already sent four Prime Ministers to the Great Beyond before their time.
