IS INDECISION A SIN? Will all sinners go to hell? Will hell constitute unceasing fire and brimstone? Will not fire and brimstone destroy completely? Then will any traces be left? A conundrum.
The Bible says (1 Kings 18-21 about Elijah): “How long halt you between two opinions? . . . . if it (be) Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” They got fridges, televisions, cellphones and so on. Now they will get houses. Are the people following God and the politicians following mammon? What is mammon? Is the restoration of salaries mammon?
History never said that Nero was inactive. It said that Nero fiddled on his ukulele probably quaffing nectar while the soldiers sought mammon for themselves, or is the Wild Coot misquoting history?
The manner in which Michael Manley altered the economic situation in Jamaica after the People’s National Party won the elections in 1972 was spectacular. He did it in the name of something called democratic socialism – an oxymoron.
Were we not echoing that Barbados was not only an economy but also a society? Hence, the imbalance in expenditure; hence the employment in the public and statutory corporations that the Wild Coot bewailed as costing us $50 million a month since 2008. Eight years x 50 million is $4.8 billion. To be raised in taxes or printing.
As in Manley’s case, there was pandering to the lower end of the society as a political strategy. Everything has come to a head now. There is no money as 60 per cent of revenue goes to debt servicing. You cannot use the expected foreign exchange investments to service debt. What about growth? In any case those investments identified will come in drips and drabs that will be used
for recurring expenses and debt, rather than capital input and growth.
Leadership is a lonely place. The buck stops there. Right now, judging from the responses coming from the lips of Nero, all is well; and stop meddling in our business. This is not borne out by the minister of finance. We ask ourselves, how much cooperation is he getting from his Cabinet?
Will the Cabinet destroy Barbados in the mistaken interest of winning a parliamentary seat? Many of the current DLP parliamentarians have marginal seats. An austerity programme in an election year will not suit them. They will prefer that we follow Baal.
It is felt that everything must be done to stretch out our dilemma until March 2018. Winning the elections then would put the Government in position to institute any harsh measures – just like in 2013 when a purge temporarily followed elections. Is not the situation worse now?
The mere fact that the minister broke ranks with the governor and initially sought help from Mr Owen Arthur signals that he has no confidence in where he is going. The plight of the poor and the more vulnerable in the society will be unbearable.
You know that some people do not understand what devaluation means. They do not understand how it relates to money and the cost of living. They do not understand what it means to wages and salaries. They do not understand what it means to supermarket shelves and the price of food. Are people in Government and especially the Cabinet aware? More importantly, is Nero aware? We must avoid at all costs.
The $1 000 that you might have in hand or in the bank does not change. What will happen is that that stove or fridge or pound of rice will not cost you $1 500 or $2 000 or $8, but may cost you $2 100, $2 800 and $12, and so your $1 000 will have less purchasing power.
Then your union will protest or march, and your employer will fight with you and may eventually raise your pay. But you will be behind all the time. There is no uniform ordear of response to devaluation.
It is better that our prime minister remains silent. Each downgrade changes the interest rate on existing foreign loans. Does he understand this external report?
“Yields on the $255 million of notes due in 2035 rose 0.35 percentage point on Thursday to 10.23 per cent, joining securities from Venezuela, Mozambique and the Republic of Congo with double-digit yields. Barbados debt is the worst performer this year among more than 60 countries tracked by the Bloomberg USD Emerging Market Sovereign Bond Index, losing 4.7 per cent while the gauge rose 2.1 per cent.”
• Harry Russell is a banker. Email [email protected]
