For as long as the global economic situation remains depressed, small open economies like Barbados will continue to struggle implementing economic and social policies. Contrary to what Clyde Mascoll, Avinash Persaud, Michael Howard et al have to say, there is no rule book which adequately prepares governments in the region who are unfortunate to be elected at this time.
The foregoing is not meant to disrespect academia, after all, partly responsible for the ‘success’ of Barbados has been the commitment to educating its people as evidenced by large budget allocations even at the worse of economic times. It is a social policy supported by successive governments for greater than four decades which separates Barbados from the rest. Exacerbating the economic problems we are facing in Barbados is the extent to which those in academia have allowed a political lens to cloud the sobering and dispassionate analysis which is required to facilitate a constructive debate on the issues.
BU most times has distanced itself from lacing our postings with jargon when distilling our points of view; even at the risk of being accused of being simplistic. In the ongoing debate about whether the government has been making the correct decisions, the average Barbadian must now be giddy at the myriad of perspectives being offered. The understandable reality that Barbadians have been living a very expansive lifestyle for the last 15 years on the back of a global economic boom makes the situation we find ourselves unpalatable for most Bajans. When we insert adversarial politics to the mix, rhyme and reason goes through the window.
Commonsense says if the global market is sluggish this would negatively impact spend by individuals originating from source markets like the US and UK. Therefore expect tourism, foreign direct investment and remittances to be negatively affected. Less tourists means less spend, more tourists probably spending less, depressed global economies, less of an appetite to invest, jobless growth in the USA, austerity measures being implemented in the UK, you get the drift. If you have not done so, recall that the Barbados economy is service based. That was the policy pursued by the last government. You can’t enjoy the sweets of a service economy but runaway from the bitter when the economic model is not a good fit to flex in a global economic slowdown.
We have created a monster with a voracious appetite for ‘things’ which have to be paid for in foreign currency. A huge food import bill, a fossil based energy which has to be paid for in foreign currency, a consumption lifestyle at the individual level demonstrated by frequent travel overseas, luxury vehicles. An abundance of foreign based companies which have to repatriate foreign currency to their parent companies, the list is not exhaustive. In the current predicament what are our options?
The government is on record stating its commitment to preserving jobs in the public sector, staying true to its position that Barbados is a society first and an economy second. We have become a big public sector, magnified in a shrinking economy. The government will have to perform a Houdini act to prevent the economy from stalling on the present trajectory. This debate BU would like to dominate the public space is, how do we command the attention of all Barbadians we need to work together to design the best homegrown solution.
Chris Sinckler, a rookie finance minister finds himself in a very bad place. Our greatest fear with a general election on the horizon is relevant economic policy will be trumped by political expedience. The current situation brings to the fore BU’s position that Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart needed to call a general election on assuming office. He would have benefited from the sympathy vote and BLP infighting at the time. Despite Stuart’s aversion for ‘treachery’ as the political leader of the DLP his only objective should be to win the government once done within the law.
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