Thursday, May 29, 2014

Our Fiscal Situation

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

We do not know how to measure national productivity well enough. Next with economic knowledge so sparse it is little wonder that economic decision making is based largely on hope and NOT hard DATA. Then everybody hopes and prays from top to bottom, Minister and the unfortunately easily-bamboozled population, parrot the unalloyed drivel that all that can be done is to hope. Yet the informed and the initiated know full well that hope is not a strategy. It is religion. Not strategy.

Anonymous said...

Very Good article. There is so much we do not know. We need changes.

Anonymous said...

what kind of changes, I think that the government is on the right track we need a positive mindset and attitude as the government find ways to address what we find ourselves in Even the opposition should weigh in cause they also created this mess.

Anonymous said...

Pollyanna in our midst believe that a positive attitude is all that is needed. I will change my mind when governments put the right mechanisms in place to monitor what is happening continuously in the economy. This is the departure point, not the usual bar stool discussions that some love to provide even in the House. Our airheads don't understand. They are clueless as to the ripple and lasting effects of this or that economic measure. They are at best just reciting terms and concepts in economics and business put in Cabinet papers and speeches. We need BOTH depth and breadth in our thinking and necessary rethinking plus a comprehensive understanding of the redevelopment issues facing our largely untrained and unskilled workforce.

Anonymous said...

Micah said "Reducing the salaries of workers is also something the government should avoid. Let’s examine this a bit. A smaller salary would mean a reduction in the consumption of that household in which that smaller salary goes into. In other words, if salaries are lowered consumption would either remain stagnant or reduce. That will not improve the current economic situation."

Michah, you made some good points, but this isn't one of them. Please will you understand that these salaries aren't paid for out of locally generated revenues. IT IS BORROWED MONEY.

The economic activity generated as a result is not greater than the costs of financing in the first place. The debt interest is compounding as a result and this is why you have such problems. The big ticket things need reducing and the workers should be last in line for the cuts, but you can't keep borrowing money to pay salaries. Please understand this.

Anonymous said...

We need a proper accounting and analysis of our debt obligations. I don't know that anyone in the Ministry of Fiance INCLUDING THE MINISTER OF FINANCE knows how to go about this. That's the problem and an unhappy situation to be in at the moment. Everyone is groping with the issues, sadly with no clarity of vision, just like the proverbial blind Indians going to see the elephant, mainly because the appropriate data are just NOT collected NOR analyzed.

We hear a lot of confusing and idle chatter leading to some very sterile discussions. The Chamber o Commerce saw the last budget only as "interesting". But some key questions for critical decision making are:
a) Who are we borrowing from to pay just what?
b) What is the size of EC-dollar dominated debt? That's easier to handle or manage.
c) What is the size of the US-dollar dominated debt?
d) What have we done to REDUCE the bunching of payments, and
e) What are the foreign US-dollar denominated debt payments and amounts that are due this fiscal year? These are the mission critical issues that are to be managed.

All of these issues are related to FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, which leads us to ask this question: Who then is really minding the shop, so to speak?
That to me also, is not at all clear. Thanks Micah for raising some appropriate issues.

Anonymous said...

I do believe that its lots of oversight in many agencies in the government and many business have gotten away such as even the hotels and real estate, even property estate its something that all parties must come to grip with and the government will have to work it out so that all and everyone be accountable, The roosters are coming home to roost because past leaders failed to do what was right and believe that everyday is the same, Times have change and times are chanding sSt lucians better believe itm and face the music cause we all in this together

Anonymous said...

Change we need.
$6,000,000.00 for a road in VF. Government cant borrow the money so Jo Blow does. Government cant pay its bills now what make them think they can pay this new bill. Roll over some more debt. Not the way to go.

Anonymous said...

EXCELLENT ARTICLE. THESE ARE THE BARE FACTS.

Anonymous said...

The situation we are in currently did not happen overnight and was not solely the construct of the last UWP administration but of prior administrations before. It came about successive governments going about a lending and spending spree in much the same way that was possible when we enjoyed export-led growth by virtue of a booming banana industry, and a relatively vibrant tourism industry. Once the fate of the banana industry was sealed we should have begun to scale back spending and look for a sustainable crop (cocoa) to fill in that gap in foreign exchange revenue. John Compton died still thinking that the UK would fight for us, while Kenny Anthony blithely went along trying to even scores lining all his sycophants around the trough. No thought out economic strategies were implimented to shore up the economy and our reserves for economic "wet days". Of course the King-led UWP was really out in the woods primarily going about in much the same way with everybody seeking for ways to line their pockets with Taiwanese and other government largesse. Economy? What economy? seem to have been their modus operandi. Then this new SLP administration knew all along that coming in we needed a paradigm shift but a leader lacking moral courage went about picking up from where he left off and made a bad situation worse by going on a tax, borrow, and spend binge much to finance profligate jobs-for-the-boys schemes, and other non productive programs. That is how we got here. What is required to get us out of that morass is true grit, leadership grounded in moral courage and not political expedience and vote-securing pandering. Leadership with the courage and credibility to clearly articulate the hard choices we have to make and to summon ALL to put some skin in the game to shore up our precarious economic and fiscal situation for the benefit of all in the long run.

Anonymous said...

What Micah has not said is that Kenny Anthony when in opposition supported the Union's claims for a 14.5% increase.

Jeff said...

When people who should know better play cheap party politics with our economy, in the case of Dr. Anthony marching with the the unions against the King administration just about four years ago to press for huge increases. he SHOULD have known it was not right. Now the same "chickens" have come home to roost. En rouge!

Anonymous said...

Jeff if Dr Kenny Anthony marched with the workers, he was dam right because the country could not afforded anymore time with your UWP government. At the rate they were going, there would not have any St Lucia left.

Anonymous said...

6:38 (Pollyanna satire) you are the real deal- keep it coming on.