@TMW

Are you saying you refute the governor’s position based on your anecdotal position?

If we coming out I glad because my business suffering and if this will cause people to spend again, I could catch a break. I cautiously optimistic because I hear Hilton made 5m loss, Almond 20m, taxis says people here but they not spending; and hotel operators ain’t shouting for joy. Some hotels say the spend is down. So I am not quite sure how the increase in numbers convert to spend to boost GDP and foreign reserves. But that level of increase if spending is up should move foreign reserves significantly but it does not appear so? I am always a little bit suspicious of Dr. Worrell’s pronouncements. Sorry for being a doubting Thomas I wonder if the governor would mind giving us the actual tourism earnings not the percentage.

Clyde Mascoll asked the Governor some useful questions today. Is it conceivable that the USD for the EMERA deal did no make it into the Barbados’ foreign reserves? It seems one of the greedy banks found a way to keep those dollars inhouse.

Why did the NIS Board sell the shares? Was it to benefit from the capital gains, the foreign exchange or both?

What I find extremely surprising is that despite all the ‘finger rape’ claims by Jamaica’s nationals tourism is UP from both the UK and US not to mention that it has increased economic growth by almost 3 percent compared to Jamaica’s 1.6 percent !!!!!

I don’t think anyone should expect any sort of growth until the next 3-4 years considering the country has a deficit and a debt.Therefore,economic activity might not be apparent until bills are paid or at least seem to be on time with inflation being contained.If growth reaches ~4.5-5 percent next year then things might go back to normal.

@Adrian Hinds: “Are we going to continue listening to Clyde Mascoll, Owen Arthur, and Avinash Persuad

Please forgive me for this AH, but are not most Bajans intelligent?

Should not Bajans listen to all the information available, and then make their own decisions?

Or, should they instead simply accept what they are told?

I have long lost faith in the social science professional class especially those who worshipped at the altar of Adam Smith “invisible hand” mantra. I see no difference between an Economist, Financial analyst etc and a person of the cloth. There prediction about stochastic future events is even more worse than a meteorologist or physicist trying to do the same for turbulence. I think their subject matter is not worthy to have the word science juxtaposed in the same phrase.It should be called vodooism, cultism or alchemism.

But not only that, it is the same class of people who through there irrational exhuberance and herd mentality which then trigger speculative behaviour which causes the current price of oil
to be going through the roof. That the price of oil can increase substantially overnight because a pipeline was sabotage in the Niger Delta or because of the political tension in Libya -which by the way-supply an insignificant supply to the US market is absurd and ludicrous. Then they turn around and talk about market forces. These people are a bunch of legal higway robbers. They and their “sciences” should be permanently locked away in the moratorium.

@Adrian Hinds: “Notice the core of commentary he did not see.

Care to enlighten us all as to what I missed?

As everyone knows, I’m more than happy to be proven wrong.

DeLiar Worrell is spinning again….2.8% of nothing is still nothing…2010 was an awful year and 2011 getting worse due to higher gas prices…

As for spending $500million on a marina!!!
Do we really need this now? who building it…JADA? Isn’t this BOLT project just like Dodds….only we had to build a prison, we don’t need a marina in the middle of a deep recession.

I guess as the rats sense their ship is sinking…they search for a marina to make their offshore lives so much more comfortable!

Do we really need another Marina? Is there an unlimited supply of millionaires waiting to purchase these high end condos at this new marina?

Jada is busy building their marina and as far as I can see they have some way to go. I wonder if they have their millionaires to purchase their condos. There are soo many new condos that are on sale on the island, all waiting for de millionaires to come calling.

I want Hoyos to know that the people of Barbados did not elect him to do anything for them. They elected the DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY to act on their behalf.

The Govt. is moving ahead with projects that will bring wealth and prosperity to this Barbados.

Nothing Hoyos has ever done was a success so he is in no position to question anyone, a failure like him. Even his marriages fell apart.

@David. Agreed. The weatherman has more credibility than the Economist. Notwithstanding that the issue of turbulence is one of the greatest unsolved problem in the natural science.

I want t digress a little to speak about Patrick Hoyos.
As a moderator on Down to Brass tacks he is very sarcastic and dismissive to callers.
The BLP callers asked for the persons who were showing rational though like Mr. Marshall to be removed from the program. David Ellis is now trying to get all pro BLP moderators on the program and Patrick Hoyos is one of them.
The excuse that Mr. Marshall asked for leave does not hold water because from David Ellis mouthing’s I knew Mr. Marshall was going to be put under pressure because he is on a government board.
David Ellis like he does not really believe in freedom of speech because today he told a caller that he always comes in to defend the government. Mr. Ellis could you please tell me what is wrong with a caller defending the government.
Is that not his right like the Jamaican lady who called for Mr. Marshall to be removed because he was unfair to BLP callers?

CCC, Adrian Hinds and Charlie.
I am fed up with bias politically blinded individuals who are blinded by partisan politics.

I am having a fishy sense that the Governor is basing his percentage primarily on Cruise ship visitors; but we should realise that these cruise ship visitors don’t spend to create would influence GDP. We must understand these visitors are pre-packaged with a pre-arranged itinerary. Local taxis received less than 20% of these visitors who stroll through Bridgeown visiting mall after mall, jewelry store after jewelry store and even peruse the entire Cave Shepherd and scarcely spend any money. That’s a fact.

@David….

Are you the official apologist for the sorry state this Government has gotten us into and for this politricking excuse for a Central bank Governor?

Regarding the $500+ Million Marina….yes we should diversify…no we should not do it now when we have such a glaring fiscal deficit (ask Jepter to explain lol) and our foreign reserves are in a precarious state…

And why a BOLT arrangement?…didn’t the DLP suggest that the Dodds arrangement was flawed…why are they pursuing this for this project…Sealey got to make some money to catch up with the 10 dollar man in housing before the bubble burst?

Not an apologist at all. BU’s position is simple, the economic model we are using is broken and we appear not to have the appetite to transform it. In the meantime we have to still grade the performance.

Tell me why
To tell the truth I was fed up with you from early 2008 when you and your power withdrawal syndrome buddies could not accept that you were in opposition and were critical of the government from day 1.
You accuse all who do not see eye to eye with you as political blinded but you can see political clearly.
The fact you must accept is that the government has kept the economy going and it did not collapse as you and your buddies wanted.
Have a political clear day

Can anyone tell me where I can purchase a copy of the “Broad Street Journal”?

Carson here you are again trying to be personal, however this time you are the joker since the Broad Street Journal in now coming electronically. Now Dumbert go to the back of the class and continue sucking your finger.

OH DEAR …FOOLISH CARSON, ONCE MORE …. but this post is for CHARLIE.

@Charlie | April 13, 2011 at 4:35 PM |
“Chris Halsall, I must say that Owen Arthur and Clyde Miscall have been trying to mislead me for the past three years. Their predictions are more scare tactics than anything else. Any intelligent Barbadian would recognize that the world economic situation is not easy. Only this weekend Owen Arthur said that Barbadians should never vote for this foolishness ever again.
Now you should be castigating him for feeling that Barbadians are not intelligent enough to know why they are voting a particular way. Dean Crichlow reminded him last month that Barbadians are not stupid and were right to vote them out. From reading what Adrian Hinds said he was using his intelligence to show that Owen and Clyde had both predicted that this economy will crash and it did not?”

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hi CHARLIE, even the most intelligent person can at times be blinded by obvious foolishness, especially if they are subjected to a sustained blast of massive deception and political lies, such as what the DLP perpetrated on the Barbadian populace in 2007-2008. It was all underpinned by a highly emotive call for “CHANGE” and was designed to win the elections AT ANY COST! This is what I think Owen Arthur was speaking of. He was NOT questioning the voting intelligence of Barbadians.

In his wide-ranging address to his party’s Annual General Conference in October 2007, Mr. Arthur included some remarks about the type of enlightened governance that would be required, as Barbados moved into the anticipated turbulent times ahead.

And let me remind you Charlie, that even some of the top people in the DLP were wary of the type of CHANGE that Thompson would bring to the DLP itself, moreso the whole country of Barbados! One year earlier in 2006, when FREUNDEL STUART, in his quest to become PRESIDENT OF THE DLP, released a Manifesto entitled ” PUBLISHED BY THOSE DEDICATED TO THE LEGACY OF BARROW AND THE FUTURE OF THE DLP AND BARBADOS”

The following questions were amongst those asked by FREUNDEL In his DLP Presidential Manifesto:

“What has transpired since the resignation of David Thompson; six weeks after the 2001 Annual Conference, to encourage me or you to want the member for St.John to lead the DLP anywhere at this time?”

“Do you want a return to the days of internal hate, infighting, blood letting, and ruling by division?”

And In his 2007 Conference Address, as he spoke about the type of CHANGE the DLP WERE CLAMOURING FOR, Mr. Arthur asked:

“CHANGE BACK TO WHAT? That question to this day has never been adequately answered by the DLP nor its pushers of malignant propaganda.

MR. ARTHUR added his own justified queries to FREUNDEL’s onslaught on THOMPSON, and further asked:

“Do you want to swap me as Minister of Finance and replace me by David Estwick? Do we want to change back, as Estwick has promised, and reverse all the income tax relief this (BLP)Government has given the people this term?” (Well we have ended up with a probationer who, after the fact, has to implement so many adjustments to, and offer lengthy explanations for the measures he introduces, that Barbadians are losing confidence in the economic management of their country)

MORE QUSTIONS FROM ARTHUR:
“With our foreign reserves and Treasury in good and ample order, do we want somebody like Hartley Henry, with his reputation for claiming finders’ fees, close to the Prime Minister of Barbados and calling the shots?” (Hartley is gone(???) with the dead king, but PM FREUNDEL now has his PAY PAL BUDDY, Leroy Parris)

“Do we want to change back to the bad old days of wage cuts, public sector layoffs and the promise of bus fare and lunch money solutions to the problemsof unemployment?”

‘Do we want to change back to the bad old days when the Minister of Finance of Barbados was merely a parrot for the IMF, as THOMPSON still is(was), and are you prepared to have your Minister of Finance say, “We know what the IMF wants us to do and when?”

“Do you want to change back to the bad old days when THOMPSON as Minister of Finance promised the IMF in 1994 that the Government would increase bus fares, NHC rents, water rates and everything in sight?”

“Do you want to change back to the good old days when the DLP promised the World Bank that it would stop the payment of tuition fees for our students at the UWI?

“Do you want to change back to the bad old days when the country was in such a desparate position that an expatriate “Sugar Daddy” offered to bail out the Sugar Industry for a paltry sum?”

“Do you want to change back to the bad old days when Barbadians had to suffer the indignity of having to consume contaminated Guatemalan sugar?”

‘Do you want to change back to the bad old days to suffer the embarrassment of having the Barbados currency rejected by Banks and business houses in the region?”

“Do you want to change back from the good inclusive politics we are practising to THOMPSON”s politics of the FATTED CALF THAT HE HIMSELF PROCLAIMED, according to which only those who have been with him and have served him will be allowed to feast?”

“Do you want to change back to the days when Barbados had to go cap in hand to the countries of the Eastern Caribbean to borrow money to pay?”

“Do you want to change back to the days when the Leaders of Barbados were the laughing stock of the international community and came to be known by an “Ode”?

‘Must change in Barbados mean that politics must become a conjurer’s game?”

AND HERE CHARLIE IS THE QUESTION THAT MR. ARTHUR ASKED, THAT TREATS TO YOUR SUGGESTION THAT HE DID NOT THINK BARBADIANS INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO VOTE WISELY. HE WAS NOT QUESTIONING THEIR INTELLIGENCE NOR WISDOM … HE WAS HIGHLIGHTING THE ABILITY OF THE DLP TO HYPE UP AND DECEIVE A POPULATION, THEREBY SWINDLING THEIR WAY INTO GOVERNMENT!!

“Will the best educated citizens of the Caribbean be taken in (DECEIVED – my emphasis) by the empty and obscene promises of a bunch of POLITICAL CHARLATANS to the effect that we can all expect duty free cars and interest free mortgages within the first 100 days of a DLP Government?” (THAT CHARLIE …. IS THE KIND OF FOOLISHNESS BARBADIANS SHOULD NOT VOTE FOR AGAIN!!)

“Will we agree to accept this and conspire with the DLP to bankrupt the Treasury and return to the grim and dismal days of the 1990’s from which, with great effort, this Government(BLP) has had to rescue it?”

‘Will we not listen carefully and take to heart the words of FREUNDEL STUART, HIS VERY OWN; that DAVID THOMPSON IS NOT FIT TO LEAD?”

CHARLIE …… what a massive irony that PM FREUNDEL now finds himself, thrust very unexpectedly into leadership of this country, and appears unable, even to a far lesser degree than the departed Thompson, to function with any semblance of effectiveness in that position.

Your long drawn out comment almost put me to sleep. Not that I would have miss much anyway.

Pure Barbados Labour Party gibberish.

Truthman Burton

“I am trying my best with you; being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”

If you expect me to learn according to Barbados Labour Party standards, then I would prefer to be “ignorant”, thank you very much.

DON’T JUDGE Prime Minister Freundel Stuart on his silence on burning national issues to date. He is aware of what is happening and has his hands firmly on the steering wheel of state. REALLY ???
I DONT THINK SO

That is the defence of his Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Chris Sinckler to growing calls for the Prime Minister to speak out publicly on the problems facing Barbadians daily.
MINISTER OF SILENCE !

But Sinckler said the Prime Minister would speak when he was ready.“Don’t take a six for a nine when it comes to Freundel Stuart.
YEAH RIGHT ! BUT WE KNOW AN INVERTEBRATE WHEN WE SEE ONE

Don’t take him for a fool because he is studying these issues. He likes to be very deliberate, he likes to study issues, and then he intervenes at the right time to do the right thing. And we are comfortable with that,” said Sinckler in a telephone interview on Thursday.
HE IS STUDYING THE ISSUES ?
MAN YUH MEKKING MOCK SPORT AND THE MAN SINCKLER
“Mr Stuart is extremely articulate and, of course, people know that he is a very bright individual. When Mr Stuart is ready to substantively address the public of Barbados on matters of national import, he will do so.

“He might not do so in your timing, he might not do so in my timing, but I am sure that he will do so because I speak to him on a daily basis,” Sinckler added.

He said a number of initiatives that had been taken came through the Prime Minister’s intervention, though he had not been credited for them.

“He would call on the phone and say, ‘Chris, X and Y needs to be done’, or ‘I want you to look at X or Y’, and I would go and do it. It may come out that it is me that is doing it; he may not take the credit for it, but the originating call may have come from the Prime Minister, as has happened on several issues.

“So I don’t think it is fair to just judge him on how many times he speaks or how many times he does a Press conference or something like that; he will do those things when the appointed time is right,” Sinckler stressed.

Quizzed for a response on the public’s perception that he was the choice of late Prime Minister David Thompson to lead the Government and not Stuart, Sinckler suggested he had no time for such distractions.

“I am a team player; it’s the Democratic Labour Party team. We have one leader at a time, not two or three . . . and that leader is Freundel Stuart. OH YEAH –A TEAM PLAYER –I FORGOT

“And I’m more than happy to be a minister in his Cabinet. I thank him for the opportunity to serve as Minister of Finance in this period.”–

YOU ARE HAPPY DRAWING MONEY
STUART TOO !

Sinckler added: “People say all kind of things. But at the end of the day, it’s what is important, and the task at hand is to get the Barbados economy back on track [and] get Barbadians benefiting; of course to ensure the DLP Government is returned to office and that we carry out the mandate which the public has given to us.

“That is my central focus. The other things really are not of concern to me at this time.”
THIS SOUNDS LIKE COMEDY
SINCKLER mekking mock sport at the man !