Submitted by People’s Democratic Congress (PDC)
Former Prime Minister Sir Lloyd Sandiford led restructuring in the early 90s
For, on Tuesday, 17 July, 2012, Standard and Poor’s – one of the three major international credit rating agencies – downgraded the Barbados Government’s financial credit rating. The Government’s foreign currency bonds status has reached junk status – from BBB-/A-3, to BB+/B, in the S&P’S rankings.
But, the PDC is not surprised that this has come about. As that, ever since the Barbados government’s last effective downgrade by Moody’s (another of the three major international credit rating agencies) in 2011, we would have been forewarning many people many times on here – on BU – and in other fora – that the Government of Barbados international creditworthiness would have been deteriorating at such a fast rate, that it was only a matter of time before it was going to be downgraded again by anyone of these credit rating agencies.
Well, that is what just happened on Tuesday – a day when, too, the Nation Newspaper was reporting big and bold on its front page, how the main public sector union – the NUPW – was bombastically ungraciously pressing for a 10% wages hike for public workers.
Arthur accused of sqandermania and padding the public service thus dismantling the work of Sandiford
Nevertheless, what this last downgrading has emphatically said, et al, is that for over the last 25 years or so both DLP and BLP Governments have been grossly and recklessly mismanaging the material financial affairs of this country.
From the time the Owen Arthur government took office in this country in 1994, 18 years ago – it was very clear that this was the position the country was bound to come. So, not constrained by the altruistic nature of the office of Prime Minister and Minister of Finance – the then noviciate Mr. Owen Arthur took it upon himself to carry the ‘triumphantilism’ of he and his party’s winning the 1994 general election further by soon engaging in an unwanton, unnecessary massive expansion of the public sector of Barbados (employment in the public sector employment was estimated to have at one point swollen from 21.9 of the entire labour force in Barbados in 1994, to 30% of that said entire labour force in Barbados, at the end of September 2004); several ministries, government departments and statutory corporations were foolishly inspired and/or inaugurated by Arthur (including the Ministry of Social Transformation, the UDC, RDC, FTC, the Poverty Alleviation Bureau. etc.), and public sector transfer costs (taxation) were estimated to have increased significantly primarily on purely political grounds.
The Late Hon. Prime Minister David Thompson continues to pad the public service
Especially with the VAT coming into existence in 1997, the Owen Arthur government doubled the reported total yearly amount of EVIL WICKED TAXATION THEFTS, moving them from a reported BDS $ 1.0 billion in 1994 to BDS $ 2.2 billion in 2007, mainly to support his political financial squandermania and excessiveness and some of his downright political objectives, for example, HIS ILLUSION OF CREATING 30 000 jobs, and the nebulous POLITICS OF INCLUSION. Ironically outlandishly enough, in 2012 though, this same political nuisance Arthur can be found to be accusing, however rightly, this present Stuart Administration of increasing TAXATION to support the very unsustainable untenable political goal of not sending home a single man or woman from the public service at this very juncture.
Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart leads the biggest Cabinet in the history of Barbados
Some BU readers may well remember the PDC article we did some time ago on BU about certain types of empty insincere recurring words, themes, and discourses that many DLP/BLP parliamentarians/candidates in Barbados deceitful use or not use, at some times to help secure cheap political points over one another in those or other times, even though – whenever the facts have been ascertained – they prove that some of these same people who use these very words, themes, etc. would have earlier themselves indulged in similar things behaviors as those ones that they would then be later accusing some of the other political figures of doing or not doing. Well, Arthur’s case above is a dastard example of that.
Anyhow, what is most reprehensible about that public sector expansion and duplication and wastage of resources that Arthur did during his years of gross misrule – is that they started to take place only within a couple whiffs of the Sandiford Administration having managed to substantially complete the structural and stabilization program it had agreed with the IMF in 1991/2 – and which itself would have realized substantial reductions in the size of the public sector then. For example, the work force of government was reported to have fallen from 24.6 per cent of the entire labour force in Barbados in 1991, to 21.0 in 1993. There was also realized the restructuring of many public enterprises – hence, for example the Barbados Transport Board proceeded to go the route of conductor-less, fare-box buses. Also some enterprises were merged with one another – hence, the BIDC, BADMC.
Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Delisle Worrell accused of less than credible in his utterances
There was also some measure of privatization of government enterprises – Arawak Cement Plant – or divestment in private sector companies – BET, BARTEL, and in the same Heywoods Hotel that has recently been in the news). Mr. Sandiford (now Sir Lloyd) and the IMF had instituted an 8 % pay cut for public workers, had reduced the size of the fiscal deficit of the Government from BDS $ 248 million to BDS $ 54 million, had reduced the size of the current account deficit on the balance of payments, from BDS $ 317 million in 1992 to BDS $ 171 million in 1993, and had been forced to cede greater political material space to the much more efficient private sector to operate in. ALL OF THESE MEASURES AND MORE IN EXCHANGE FOR BORROWING AN AMOUNT IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE SAID IMF!
Of course, the Sandiford Government and the majority of the people in Barbados at the time had to pay a very heavy political, material and financial cost then in 1991/2 and later on for the gross and reckless incompetence of the same Sandiford Government in 1989/90 – part of this said cost being the same draconian DLP Government/IMF program.
Anyhow, back to Arthur, Arthur engaged in the highest public sector borrowing this country would have ever seen at the time, crassly moving the gross government debt from BDS $ 2.4 Billion in 1994 to BDS $ 5.4 Billion in December 2007, and thus skyrocketing the estimated government’s net claims on the public sector to as much as negative half a billion dollars in 2007. Arthur was warned by Standard and Poor’s and the IMF about the adverse consequences for the creditworthiness of the Government of this country when he and the BLP undertook massive large-scale borrowing for the ICC World Cup and its associated projects in2005/7 – chief among them the Kensington Oval Redevelopment Project.
Also, Arthur approved so many other non-income/non-revenue generating projects at such a fast pace and in such a clustered way, and esp. through the use of the BOLT system, that the rising astronomical levels of public sector debt that will incur will serve to drown out many of the productive efforts of many of the people of Barbados for some time to come. Hence, some non-income/non-revenue generating projects and, too, some of which involve very costly repayment terms are the Dodds Prisons, the Halls of Justice, the widening of the ABC highway along a certain stretch, the road rehabilitation project that started from the bottom of University Drive and that ended at Garrison, the NHC Warrens Office Complex. Also, the government’s off budget borrowings rose to staggeringly high levels, and the NIS became another political means for financing some of the borrowings – Hence the Airport Redevelopment Project funding, the Coast Guard Project. (Again, this Arthur now pillories this present government for doing similarly). In 2006 the deficit on current account of the Balance of Payments moved from a surplus in BDS $ 269 million in 1994 to a deficit of BDS $ 664 million in 2006.
What was very unfortunate about such instances was that Arthur did do so many and more dangerous and wicked things to the political economy of this country, despite his saying in coming to office in 1994 that under his leadership there would have been a private sector export led political economy and else in this country.
Well, too, from the time the David Thompson Administration took office in this country in 2008, it became starker than before that the government of Barbados was going sooner rather than later to reach junk bond status on the assessments of the worsening of the creditworthiness of the Barbados government by at least one of the credit rating agencies. For, the late David Thompson further unwantonly increased employment in various areas of the public sector – e.g. scores of people were employed by an expanded Drainage Unit. He incorporated the very unnecessary and useless Department of Constituency Councils and Constituency Councils, and had instituted just before his death the biggest Cabinet in the history of government ever in Barbados. Thompson also ensured that the largest EVIL WICKED TAXATION THEFTS that have so far been carried out in this country were inanely carried out in 2008, so much so that even simple bicycle owners were hunted down by the former DLP leader for more taxes. Since taking over from Thompson, Chris Sinckler would have done nothing to stop the Standard and Poor’s downgrade, furthermore he made sure that he was the Finance Minister under whose watch this was going to happen by increasing EVIL WICKED TAXATION THEFTS further in his 2010 Budget, and by increasing government borrowings.
As for the present Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Dr. Delisle Worrell, his role in this massive decline in the political economic state of affairs of Barbados, has been to casually attempt – however unsuccessfully – to explain away this gigantic prolonged political economic financial depression Barbados is in, rather than to find strategic solutions out of it. Also he has been less than credible in his utterances on many issues pertaining to the amount of growth of nominal incomes, payments and transfers that have been generated in the political economy and services industry sectors in Barbados, pertaining to whether or not these same sectors can be deemed as stable in their overall performances at this stage; pertaining to whether or not the rate of unemployment that exists in Barbados today is more than what the Central Bank officially says it is, etc; such and more, ever since the Central Bank of Barbados would have perfunctorily recalibrated the so-called economy in 2010 to make the fictional size of the so-called economy seem bigger than what it really is, and to mainly mask the deep-rooted material and financial problems that the government is in and the country is in.
We again call for the public to make sure that there is a Commission of Inquiry into the administrative research functioning of the Central Bank of Barbados.
Well, since money cannot make money, and money cannot cost money, other than it is foreign exchange, and since nominal incomes, payments and transfers cannot be produced without money, the position that the Barbados government finds itself in having its credit rating for foreign currency bonds downgraded to junk bond status by Standard and Poor’s; in having therefore to face the grim prospects of paying higher costs to use the US dollar here in Barbados; and in having to face the spectre of outright refusal by some persons overseas to invest in government bonds on the international capital markets, etc. is extremely scandalous and ignominious.
As that, contrary to what Standard and Poor’s has said about the reasons why the Barbados government has had its debt profile downgraded…as stated by them ….“owing to the weakening of the economic fundamentals…and that such is a function of a still very weak external environment and its impact on Barbados, and the big competitive challenges and structural shortcomings that Barbados faces, inter alia”, the real and fundamental causes of this down grade are not even being dealt with by them. This is something that Standard and Poor’s must be told in no uncertain terms. Standard and Poor’s, in its reported explanations for downgrading the debt profile of the government of Barbados, is dealing with the symptoms or the effects of the causes of the fundamental political material financial problems that Barbados faces at this stage. So, in its down grading of the government of Barbados credit rating, it is not dealing with the underlying causes of these problems either, neither is the jack-o-lantern DLP/the BLP dealing with real underlying substantial causes of those problems.
For some of the real and fundamental causes of the conditions and decisions that have led to this junk bond status are:
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DLP/BLP Barbados governments having over the years been purporting to make so many people believe that it has the ABILITY TO REPAY LOCAL AND FOREIGN DEBTS, WHEN IT CLEARLY DOES NOT. It mainly conducts that kind of atrocious deleterious debt generating business via its fiat. It is a fraudulent thieving series of subterfuges that these governments have been engaging in. No financial institutions in Barbados would lend millions to any private person or any private entity that does not have the ability to repay period.
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Notwithstanding their having so many marketable and saleable assets and services at its disposal, and their having so many government people with so many marketable skills and services at its disposal, DLP/BLP governments have been blatantly openly wicked and gross carrying on with TAXATION and excessive interest rate driven public sector borrowings, etc. rather than they making sure that TAXATION, Interest Rates are abolished, etc. and rather than they making sure that these things and people are put to maximum use in the process of the government earning more of its income on a sustained basis in this country. What backward wicked governments!
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The improper use of money and improper allocation of money by Government.
So there we go.
@David if some starvation hit the heights and terraces will be wash way in kitchen gardens.
But that can’t happen because Barbados is Utopia and this recession and downgrade is just a minor challenge.
Tings gine get back to normal as soon as Owen get back in power.
EQUAL RIGHTS & JUSTICE. wrote “afford house and land for the least ah hundred and thirty grand they should be able to do wha they feel like with it”
ah hundred and thirty grand can only build a nice bathroom where Old Onions does live.
@Equal rights & justice “tell de big shots things tight i paying some ah wunna over $10,000 ah month LIVE OFF OF IT .”
I agree with you.
I mean why do we pay our MP’s so much money and then are still expected to provide them with free food when Parliament meets. If they had any decency at all they would immediately agree to have $25 per meal deducted from their pay cheques, and that money used to pay for Parliamentary catering. Or they can agree not to take the Parliamentary meals and bring a bowl of food from home.
Then we would know that they are really with us. And they might just lose their pot bellies.
@HANTS ya got ma deading with laughing i live in ah housing area and when de govt built de houses in coverley and called them low income man u should ah hear how de ppl down hey get on cause de man or woman down hey that takes home at least $2500 does be considered well off,da aint ah fellow down hey that qualify for any of govt’s so called low income houses
@equal rights
When did the government indicate these houses were low income?
@simple Simon, let me tell u if i had my way all of them big rides would have on them nice and neat FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY so that when they finish do de govt work they would leave them and get in their own and go home in da own house and not de ones de govt does pay five and four thousand for
@Equal Rights
Are you sure the government provide vehicles for MPs and ministers? Think you are wrong. With the exception of the PM.
The best thing right now for Barbados is for Stuart to hand over the leadership to Sinckler or Donville OR call elections and let Owen win.
There is nothing happening in this country and nothing positive will happen between now and April 2013.
It is clear the confidence level in the country is low under this administration. Whether we like the BLP or not, right now they are the best for Barbados. All now, Freundel aint make an official statement on the downgrade. I like Freundel but he is not PM material, he has poor leadership skills. People must believe in a leader and be confident. Stuart is devoid of these characteristics.
“the NUPW – was bombastically ungraciously pressing for a 10% wages hike for public workers.:
why did y not respond in like manner when the Prime Minister gave himself, ministers, Permanents Secretaries and heads of department, a salry increase this January, with back-pay to 2009? (I think it was a 10 or 12%) how would the NUPW be aware of a downgrade of Barbados to junk status? why is it that even in America which is also going thru a recession, do workers still get their salary increases? if public servants should not expect to get an increase, then VAT should return to 15% and other taxes imposed should be removed. how can the DLP administration expect civil servants at the middle and bottom to hold strain yet they and civil servants at the top continue to get salary increases? it is obvious that the NUPW against that back drop asked for a salary increase for those who are really suffering. when u want to talk ur dribble, get the facts correct first
@David i hear wid my 2 ears pun my TV de housing minister in parliament saying “we build houses for low income workers police,nurses ,firemen,maids”….. and this is what is what i said to my self if they are called low income workers what do u called the workers who work for less that $1400 ah month? that live down by me?
David it seems like the revolution starting with EQUAL RIGHTS & JUSTICE and Simple Simon.
Some radical thought for a change.
“what do u called the workers who work for less that $1400 ah month? that live down by me?”
Equal Rights &Justice……dem is BLP …below poverty line and at present dem is invisible to de Government .
i did not mean vehicles for de MP’S i talking bout civil servants some have 2 official vehicles and driving de hell out of them, they and da family when they are off; don’t get me wrong i am not against perks but if u claim things so tight and de average man got to tighten they at de top got ta tighten too if ah man getting $300 ah week and got ta draw back why de wuns that getting $15000 cant give up some of de govt sponsorship knowing that govt got ah revenue problem
the only era Barbados could be proud of would be the era of Grantley Adams followed by Errol Barrow when industries were developed by Adams and schools more schools were built with Barrow along with other factories etc. Barbados during the reign of those kings was a country to be proud of, now it’s slowly going the way of a 4th world country if there is such. every single Party has come into government to rob this country. due to lack of jobs, young people’s brains are going to waste, serious crime have increased since those poor people cannot find an honest job. if u apply for a job, it is always about who u know. this country is not being managed by the best brains at all. politicians heading to US with suitcases full of money etc…it is sickening what’s happening here but worse because we seem unable to rib the country of these political thieves
@islandgal ya see them ones u talking bout them is de ones who give the DEES the advantage last election, man they hold ah reggae show pun de pasture down by me and de ppl say it on!! these are ppl who don’t really vote but they believed in David Thompson and de fact that his driver had locks pun he head and tompy did at all de dub shows they thought he was going to AT LEAST ease the simple possession ganja laws but it aint happen they thought real change was going to come but very few even know ah thing bout politics they got ah $50 or ah $100 and they wer told who to vote for some even got ah 750ml long nek to drink and now.. they said they are waiting on fondels ass
Those interested can watch the BLP Stream to follow a political meeting at Deacons:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/blplive
While listening to the show on the economy today on VOB two of the guests I think names were Lord and Straughan were laughing and happy to announce that Barbados will be downgraded by Moodys. In many countries that level of treason would end you up in prison or worse.
I dont know the two men but they dont deserve to be citizens of our noble country. And to think their education was free on my taxes. As Wikileaks Wickham did in giving state secrets to the CIA the two of them are likely providing whatever misinformation they can to Moody’s and S&P’s.
The BLP fractured leadership and its yardfowls are running around the country with big smiles overjoyed in the knowledge Barbados is down graded.
@ Listener | July 22, 2012 at 8:41 PM |
So you would like to see these young men educated at the taxpayers’ expense (not only Listener’s but also their families) stripped of their birthright as citizens, thrown in jail and, even worse, given the implied death penalty?
Is that what you DLP people would like to do to people who exercise their right to freedom of speech as guaranteed under the Constitution?
As soon as criticism is leveled at your party you would move to silence it and eliminate the source, would you?
And you think the so-called educated Bajans would return you to power for you to carry out this censorship, jailing and execution of our young people for utilizing their free education by objectively criticizing the madness your party is inflicting on this country?
One would conclude that the only time freedom of expression would be allowed under any future DLP regime would be the right to read the Bible and “blindly” accept and repeat the myths and fables contained. But again the slightest questioning or critical analysis might invoke the wrath of the authorities under the DLP resulting in both censorship and dismissal. Ask Rev. Morris and his CBC experience.
Hey Listener
Stop being a Carson….Have I not dispel that stupid myth on this very thread many many times….why would we do that ?Not just listen…but think also….we have already won the elections..Stuart only has to do the formalities…..Remember we now got to FIX the economy and Rebuild the country…so why would we be rejoicing?
By the way… Last night meeting was the bomb with about 600 in attendance..Chris boy…Nicholls got your number….watch out !
@ onions
seeing and feeling the ramifications of the past 14years under the BLP given another chance the effects would be worst than world war1 the BLP left bardos sitting on a “ticking time Bomb” which has now exploded . what solutions i hope you not talking about that prposed imaginery budget as the cure all .
@ ac
Yeah yeah yeah..we all know your rhetoric,blame blame blame blame .BLP…..wait you all ain’t realize it soon all over and you all still ..blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming
blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming blaming
The BLP…..you all can’t come up with anything else ? Why ask anybody, the people did not put you all there to BLAME, but to do what you all said you all would do as put forward in the DLP Manifesto….and blaming was not one of them..think of that if you may..cuz the people tired of hearing it now !
GLOBAL ECONOMIES… BLP ..GLOBAL ECONOMIES….BLP…GLOBAL ECOMONIES….BLP…GLOBAL ECONOMIES BLP>>>like a stuck record….
I’m beginning to get a funny feeling about this upcoming general elections, I hope, seriously hope that the way I feel is sOOOOOOOOO wrong. Somehow, I feel that for the first time in our modern day post-independence era, there is going to be violent clashes between the two political parties. it appears to me, there is a segment of the DLP who are determined NOT to lose the next general elections, and is willing to do anything to avoid a return of the BLP. Yes, we will have our difference of opinion, a that is expected, but we are NOT a people who will get violent over such matters, this behaviour is known in places like Jamaica, but unfortunately, we seem to be catching that political cold. I speak this because of what I’m hearing from the underground from differenet parts of the island. Maybe P.M Stuart is right, the next general elections would be a fight to the bitter end. I HOPE NOTT.
The S&P recently downgraded Barbados to junk bond status. This is a negative reflection upon Stuart and the DLP group. Barbados, however, before the 2008 general election was downgraded several times and reflects negative upon Owen Arthur and the BLP group. Arthur and the his BLP cronies continuously spits on the DLP though it often backfires. The DLP certainly has some ammunition to spit back. Don’t expect them to roll over and play dead.
Arthur barks and wags his tail quite a lot butttttttt the DLP may have its turn to bark back at him (Arthur) “dig one ditch, you better dig two. The trap you set just may be for you”. The BLP upon election time will not know what to expect as did all those children that mocked the prophet Elisha (Old Testament/2 Kings 2:23,24). The DLP upon election time may be prepared to “cook a goose”, yes, of course, the BLP.
Arthur and the BLP in 2008 we know were forced out of office but left behind a lot of things that just can’t hide. Stuart and the DLP cannot hide the recent S&P downgrade or CLICO. Barbados BEFORE the 2008 general election was downgraded several times. Arthur and the BLP cannot hide this. The Al Barrack matter originated during the days of Arthur and the BLP. They know this, can’t hide it, that or the 75,000 campaign cheque that Arthur invited into his personal banking account. The Mottley family linked to Mia Mottley purchased the Arch Cot land that couldn’t be built on and got planning permission within six months. The previous owner was denied planning permission. The Mottley family was not. The Codringer family totaling five ALL died at Arch Cot, Britton Hill; their home fell into a cave beneath it. Arthur and the BLP cannot hide this.
Those deaths at Arch Cot, Britton Hill could have been avoided. No building on that land should have been allowed. Al Barrack was awarded a government contract WITHOUT TENDER. Al Barrack built the complex at Warrens in St. Michaels though he had never built a project that size. The BLP exposed to Bajans their INCOMPETENCE and cannot hide it. VECO, a corrupt Corporation homebased in Alaska was awarded a government contract via Owen Arthur, Mia Mottley and Dale Marshall. The VECO Corporation built the prison at Dodds in St. Philip WITHOUT TENDER but had no record of building prisons. Owen Arthur, Mia Mottley and Dale Marshall exposed to Bajans their INCOMPETENCE and cannot hide it.
The BLP responds to all of the above saying [it] has a enviable record of keeping promises. Whatever happened in the past cannot be changed. . . . The DLP government is guilty of GREED AND INCOMPETENCE. Truth is that both parties, the BLP and DLP exposed to Bajans their INCOMPETENCE. Both had parties with GREED AND CORRUPTION.
The S&P recently downgraded Barbados to junk bond status. This is a negative reflection upon Stuart and the DLP group. Barbados, however, before the 2008 general election was downgraded several times and reflects negative upon Owen Arthur and the BLP group. Arthur and the his BLP cronies continuously spits on the DLP though it often backfires. The DLP certainly has some ammunition to spit back. Don’t expect them to roll over and play dead.
Arthur barks and wags his tail quite a lot butttttttt the DLP may have its turn to bark back at him (Arthur) “dig one ditch, you better dig two. The trap you set just may be for you”. The BLP upon election time will not know what to expect as did all those children that mocked the prophet Elisha (Old Testament/2 Kings 2:23,24). The DLP upon election time may be prepared to “cook a goose”, yes, of course, the BLP.
@ The Scout | July 23, 2012 at 5:12 PM |
I am beginning to get that feeling too!
From the sounds of the likes of CCC and more recently “Listener” we must be on guard.
Miller
That’s why I’m going back into my little cocoon and just observe. To the entire BU family, thanks for accommodating my simple silly remarks and I apologise to anyone I’ve offended. To those who are glad that I’m gone and to those who MAY be sad, I’ll Simply say GOOD LUCK. BLESSINGS
Uh! Nobody has mentioned here that Moody’s is about to downgrade Germany’s debt. Comments from economists on the BBC were to the effect that the rating agencies lost all credibilty when they supported Lehman Bros. just before the global collapse. Really, nobody takes them seriously any more.
Do you know what is the new RBT-TT offer for the RBT-BNB shares owned by the GOB
@Aliean
One would think it has to be less than the first offer.
@ David | July 24, 2012 at 9:26 PM |
“Do you know what is the new RBT-TT offer for the RBT-BNB shares owned by the GOB”
“One would think it has to be less than the first offer.”
Is there any prevailing factor that is stopping the GoB from selling the shares to local private enterprises who have some liquidity with which to diversify their investment portfolios. What about the NIS?
Must the shares be sold to RBTT? Or is forex the purpose of the sale?
What’s the difference between the BLP sale and the DLP sale- the word fireside?
@Miller
As was the case when the BLP contrive to sell to procure USD, the same probably applies in this case.
@David | July 25, 2012 at 8:35 AM |
I got the impression (not first hand or by observation) that the BNB shares were offered to the people of Barbados before on-sale to the RBTT.
Were the shares made available to Bajans to purchase under the BLP regime? Advise please, since I am not 100% sure want went on.
@Miller
Will have to get back to you but there is a recall that although the offer was made public the intention was to raise forex.
Peltdownman | July 24, 2012 at 2:13 PM |
Uh! Nobody has mentioned here that Moody’s is about to downgrade Germany’s debt. Comments from economists on the BBC were to the effect that the rating agencies lost all credibilty when they supported Lehman Bros. just before the global collapse. Really, nobody takes them seriously any more.
The BLP ass lickers staying far from your news.
as i recall the offer was made to Bajans. which is why i don’t understand the agreement that persons make about “selling the national bank”. the same can be said for BL&P but as i understand it, Bajans love to see the money on a the bank account.
So in other words, Cyrus, dont worry about the downgrade, it is no big thing and should be of no concern to us, right??
@miller,
As far as I remember, the shares were offered to Barbadians and only a few took up the offer, I did. I remember a certain person discouraging Barbadians from buying up the shares saying that it was wrong for the BLP to sell the national bank, all the while he bought many of the shares. Then as soon as he got power, playing again to nationalism, declared that he will be buying back the shares only for the CEO of the Bank to say….as far as he knows, for there to be a buyer, there has to be a seller and as far as he knows, they have not have anything on sale!
@ David | July 25, 2012 at 9:48 AM |
“…. although the offer was made public the intention was to raise forex.”
The Bajan Diaspora is also a source of forex.
The likes of Hants and Sargeant can step up to the plate and buy the shares off the GoB. Maybe the loss of the name BNB has left a bad taste in the mouths of overseas Bajans.