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Economist Ryan Straughn Sees the Need for More Barbadians to Understand How the Macroeconomy Works

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Economist Ryan Straughn
Economist Ryan Straughn

Arising from the blog  The Slide of the Barbados Economy: Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Numbers which utilized several graphs created by Economist Ryan Straughn, BU reached out to him via Facebook to get feedback on the several comments posted. Although he is not a fan of BU, to his credit, he offered the following perspective which provides food for thought.

I just spent the last 20 minutes wading through the post you sent. From what I gather from the contributions there seems to be a notion that either the data is corrupt or worse that I am corrupt. I can appreciate that a significant number of persons in Barbados genuinely don’t understand how the macroeconomy works in total and particularly how the public finances are affected or how it affects the system.

I must confess that I seldom read your blog because in my view it’s not a place for person truly seeking information and better understanding. I’m just a messenger but the message is in those charts for those who wishes to pay attention.

What is most unfortunate is that there is a 1-to-1 correspondence change in fiscal management and the change in government in 2008. I’m no psychologist but given that the electorate voted significantly for change there is a reluctance on their respective parts to accept responsibility for their own actions. Hence the questioning of data and of anyone that forces them to reflect on the choices they made. Further, this inhibits rational thinking and fosters inaction and all the while things are getting progressively worse because of it.

I saw a reference about bringing things to book and I smile every time I hear someone make reference to that. All public debt is recorded but what is admittedly messy is how it is classified. A few statutory corporations are able to service debt from their revenue and as such don’t require a transfer from central government to do such. It has been a longstanding debate amongst economic practitioners about how to classify public sector debt and particular that which central government is responsible for. Now government has a fiduciary responsibility for all public institutions and as such could be held responsible for all liabilities. My view is that once any institution is servicing debt on it own then that liability should be classified separately from central government. The long and short of it is that all debt however classified is recorded and provisions are made for its service. Therefore the notion of “bringing things to book” may score points amongst those who genuinely don’t understand how debt service works. As I said before, not enough people take the time to understand these things.

I’ll end by saying something as I said it to other economists very recently.

“There are times when you cannot keep your job and put alternative explanations for data on the table“.

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163 responses to “Economist Ryan Straughn Sees the Need for More Barbadians to Understand How the Macroeconomy Works”

  1. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    Mr Straughn,
    Thanks for explaining the term “bringing things to book”. The Dems made it seem as if the BLP hid debt to look good!

  2. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LOL
    He has always been of the same identical cloth as the politicians that we have been cursed with.
    What bring to books what?

    Look David,
    Those references were mostly related to the BOLTS which would have been PRIVATE ventures undertaken by PRIVATE companies with PRIVATE funds on the government’s behalf.
    ABC highway for example was funded by a BNB loan to a questionable company called 3S (operating from some shady room in the USA)

    Rather than show as PUBLIC LIABILITIES (which they always were) government arranged a lucrative lease arrangement with a transfer arrangement at the end (when a new project would be needed anyway)

    The ONLY advantage of such an arrangement is that the capital liability does not show on our books until 30 years hence (when the politicians done make their killing and retire…)

    …tell Straughn to keep off BU….
    He would not survive here.

  3. ac Avatar
    ac

    tell straughn to stay on BU so we can bang his head wid a couple Brass Bowls..and who he think he fooling bout not reading BU everybody who is any body read BU mostly the ones who say they don;t read,

  4. JUST ASKING Avatar
    JUST ASKING

    Some Barbadians are so stupid it hurts. People like they cant think and rationalize. Take St. John people for example.
    Dont care what nonsense the DLP does, St. John people will vote for them.
    When the DLP got two seats only, St. John people voted for them. How stupid can one group of people be ?

    JUST ASKING

  5. Curious.. Avatar
    Curious..

    @ David.
    Does Ryan Straughn have a job ? What is his area of expertise?

  6. David Avatar
    David

    @Curious

    Challenge his positions taken as an economist.

  7. Curious.. Avatar
    Curious..

    I do not quite understand what you expect me to do by way of challenging his positions taken as an economist . He has never distinguished himself as an intellectual or academic and i am not aware that he has ever successfully run a sweetie shop. As such he has never distinguished himself as an economist of any sort. These are the reasons which led me to inquire if he has a job.

  8. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    The PDC must forthrightly tell Mr Ryan Straughn that it is so-called economists, like himself, in Barbados, that have been helping to do untold – and in many cases irreversible – damage to many of the social political material financial affairs of this country, and especially through the amounts of pernicious advice recommendations that they render to, and that are later put in place, by some people in positions of power and authority in the government, in the private and other relevant sectors of Barbados.

    For example, Mr Straughn mentions Public Finance is his Facebook response to David. This is primarily another name for TAXATION by the Government of this country. He and many other so-called economists have been rendering all sorts of policy advice recommendations out of studies done on social assessments done on what rates of TAXATION must be introduced, kept, increased, in what sectors, and on which categories of persons, etc, to many of the said people in positions of power and authority (some of whom are so-called economists too eg. former Prime Minister Arthur, in this country.

    Yet, these so-called economists – in practicing the worst and most vile of the social studies disciplines any where – economics – have been appearing to overlook the unvarnished and fundamental fact that TAXATION is criminal theft by the government of countless portions of the incomes, payments and transfers of the relevant people, businesses and other entities in this country on an ongoing basis.

    Moreover, what they have also been disregarding too is the unvarnished and fundamental fact that TAXATION has been doing colossal damage socially psychologically politically materially financially, to many people, within various social commercial sectors in this country, when many of these criminal ill-gotten TAX proceeds are wickedly seized wrenched from the relevant many – and only up to the point where the remunerations of these people are known to have been looted and plundered by the government, are seen to be thereafter stored temporarily in government controlled coffers, for them to be later taken by security officers to the relevant financial institutions to be placed alongside other idle money in financial institutions ( which at this stage no longer expresses the remunerations stolen and passed on to the Treasury/Central Bank, no longer expresses the saved remunerations deposited by many individuals, businesses, and other relevant entities in the particular financial institutions), for these financial institutions that are under government warrants too to later hand over some of this money to the relevant others (public workers, those businesses doing business with the government, old age pensioners, etc) as transfers, incomes, pensions, respectively, without there being the logical rational passing on of property or use of services or the use of money at different levels (commercial business activity), as between the people and other entities that would be otherwise parties to the various commercial contracts.

    These behavioral trends altogether say ultimately conclusively how incorrigibly hellish, how actually criminal these approaches are in the government the relevant financial institutions’ securing the use of money for the given purposes, and especially when they are faced with competing legitimate legal claims, eg the need of many individuals to draw down on their savings/or to get so-called investment loans, and having the capacities to actually do so when they like.

    The reader of this PDC piece must, for instance, look at a disgusting scenario where the money that goes to a contractor for the contractor presiding over the building of a road for the government, has come out of the particular financial institution concerned but the financial institution does not become the owner of the road did not secure the human services material equipment used for the building of the said road yet the money comes from it.

    He or she must also look at another damning scenario, and which can also relate – in principle – to the previous scenario – where it is that the government does not have any saved income or payments at the particular institution concerned to draw down on to properly enable it to transfer monies to public sector workers who did work for it, yet this institution is asked by the government to find and give monies to public sector workers (this must be part of the reason why some government workers in Barbados are going to be laid off eventually because the particular financial institutions are running low liquidity levels from the same high cost of use of money, taxation, etc) in a case where the financial institution does not directly benefit from the work done, does not have any claims on the work done by the government workers.

    And look at another egregious principle, and which is based on the fact that the all money that is being used in the country will end up going into and back out of the core financial system for many kinds of people and entities to use up – repeatedly – where public servants are not passing property to the financial institutions from which they get the money, nor providing specific services to the financial institutions at the same time, just prior to, or just after, they would have got the money from the financial institutions – where the financial institutions are providing no specific and different services to the government at the same time, just prior to, just after, they would have got the TAX proceeds from the government; and where the government in most cases also providing no specific commodities or specific and different services to the persons, the businesses and other entities at the same time, just prior to, or just after, they are brazenly stolen from by the said government – but imagine how – via this stupid TAXATION system – a lot of money gets into the core financial system of this land, how much potential business commodities and services is suppressed just to get some amount of money into the core financial system for the government to use as transfers to the relevant others.

    Indeed, this chain of events, and related more, does point us to actual evidence in Barbados where this evil wicked TAXATION – in tandem with many aspects of the operations of the core financial system – is not only viciously undermining much of what the individual household corporate and other sectors within the wider private sectors have been doing as much as possible to push the country forwards commercially financially in fairly positive directions, but is also destructively reversing in the opposite direction – to a large extent – much of those same commercial and financial efforts in the country.

    Well, so much for the likes of Mr Straughn and other so-called economists who still remain so philosophically logically challenged!!

    PDC

  9. Curious.. Avatar
    Curious..

    In addition , David , it is quite off-putting when one finds these pseudo intellectuals experiencing such difficulty with basic syntax . Try as you may you are unable to get to the end of their article

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Curious

    The same can be said of Sinckler and many of those in Cabinet. His positions are not dissimilar to Professor Howard who probably satisfy your definition of ‘distinguished’. This us the problem when you frame positions through a muddy political and jaundice eye. Bear in mind he was elected to the position of president of the BES. In fact it explains why the government has been unable to mobilize the support it needs to infuse confidence in the citizenry.

  11. Curious.. Avatar
    Curious..

    @ David
    ” Sinckler and many of those in Cabinet ” do not profess to be intellectuals as far as i am aware ; they are politicians plain and simple . The same cant be said of Straughn who inspite of his position always seems to be remarkably predictable in anythng he says . It would be a matter of great surprise if ever he says anything that is favourable of the present Government.

  12. Curious.. Avatar
    Curious..

    By the way David one does not have to be an economist to be elected president of BES ; Mr Hilford Murrell was a president of the BES. I have never heard him lay any claims to being an economist.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    As a reminder, all Straughn has done with the graphs posted in the original blog (Who will put the genie back in the bottle) is to let the trendlines do the ‘talking’. Speak to the lack of will to attack the trends by the government. In the sixth year of this government we now are seeing a semblance of a response to the deterriorating position. The man has Ben consistent, we need to cut expenditure and this is where we are now. Stop the obfuscation and deal with it.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @Curious

    The argument is the opportunity to be elected based on a perceived value to the post by its members. This is the point.

  15. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    What trend lines what?
    Any brass bowl could have seen the trend lines being created by successive governments since 1995. It was all about getting material things in pursuit of “developed status” and without ANY regard to productivity, efficiency or creativity.

    Any idiot could see that – and in fact, if you look back this was the line taken by BU from day 1….
    .no need for any “brilliance” to see that trend.

    LOOK…. What the hell is an economist? EVERY MOTHER IS AN ECONOMIST….and most actualy manage to balance their damn budgets too… Limited as they are…

    ANY PERSON who claims to be an “economist” is just a shark oil salesman. There is no such serious area of study that is built on any reliable philosophical construct. Their principles are just the application of ‘pyramid techniques’ which were only relevant in the growth period after the last world war, and probably will be again after the next one….
    People who would NEVER pass medicine, engineering, building or Agriculture choose “Economics”….

    The question of what this fellow has personally achieved is also relevant…. That is our problem….these ‘national leaders’ who have NO HISTORY OF LEADERSHIP AT ANY LEVEL, and who suddenly appear with long talk and are allowed to experiment with our national assets.

    …as Bushie said, Straughn is just like Mascoll and all the other politicians… Shapers who are in politics because they have failed at everything else….

    Bottom line…
    It was the BOLT projects which Arthur sought to hide from the books and which the DLP also wanted to do….but which the IMF, CDB and World Bank folks have vetoed…..

  16. Common sense is not common Avatar
    Common sense is not common

    Curious

    You are raising some very ,very pertinent questions that must be considered when reading the offerings of ryan straughn.If a gardener is seeking to give me advice on dentistry then I need to find out what track record he has to make these pronouncements.

    Who indeed is ryan straughn? Is he just another accolyte of Owen Seymour Arthur?

    What department or instituition has he headed?

    What are his qualifications?

    What projects has he worked on?

    Is all of this just something he read out of an economics book or has he looked at the theory in the context of the Barbadian economy?

    So because someone called ryan straughn who was once president of the Barbados Economic Society,says something does not mean we must take it as gospel.

    Truthfully I believe his heavy empahasis on cutting expenditure is lopsided and has flaws especially in our current setting.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    All that you have stated about the reading the tea leaves corresponds with what Straughn has stated. Attacking his profession is tangential to the discussion. Is he correct or not!

  18. David Avatar
    David

    In other words deal with the graphs which he has presented or distract from the debate by going personal. This has become our problem in Barbados, attack the messenger.

  19. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Wait David….are we still talking about the need to bring a number of large budget items on to the National Accounting Books around 2008 or not….
    Has Straughn said this is not the case?

    …perhaps Bushie is still sleepy. It happens after 9 straight hours of sleep at this age….

  20. Bajeabroad Avatar
    Bajeabroad

    What tangible results have any of these intellectuals shown by way of job creation etc. They talk hard and produce nothing.
    Talk is cheap, Job creation, entrepreneurship and earning foreign exchange is real.
    I don’t want talk I want results

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    It seems to BU that Straughn’s substantive point is that all public debt is recorded but the quibble has been in the classification of all government debt. Don’t let us split hairs on these issues. Bottomline the graphs for Barbados for the last 4 decades show we have a problem and we have to change up how we are doing things. The personal and political battles will make it harder.

  22. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    So what exactly is a ‘public’ debt David?
    Bushie can understand a government debt….
    But is SOL’s debt public? Is COW’ debt public?
    …so was 3S’s debt public debt – before David Thompson scrapped the arrangement?
    Is the VECO prison debt public? …was it public as a BOLT owned by VECO.

    ….genuinely asking….
    …did government not have to add the ABC debt to government books after scrapping the BOLT?
    Would this not adversely affect the statistics such as debt /equity ratios etc?

  23. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Bush Tea | September 21, 2013 at 9:32 AM |
    “Wait David….are we still talking about the need to bring a number of large budget items on to the National Accounting Books around 2008 or not….
    Has Straughn said this is not the case?”

    Sometimes you accuse people of being brass bowls especially when they seek to distance themselves from the views you holding dearly as unassailably true.
    But aren’t you getting your own knickers in a twist where this ‘bringing to book of government liabilities’ is concerned?

    Can you explain to us on BU how politicians from both sides of the divide are responsible for the government accounting policies and procedures?
    Isn’t such responsibility in the hands of the accounting officers with the Director of Finance the ultimate accounting officer?

    FYI Bushie, (and don’t argue on this one, please) there are two systems the government has adopted over the years to account for its financial transactions. The first was the cash basis and the second and prevailing one the ACCRUAL method.
    The first method the cash basis speaks for itself as expenditures are only recorded in the books when payment is made or encumbered in one period for payment in the next period.
    It is precisely because of the government’s changeover to the internationally recognized standard of the Accrual Method of Accounting for public finances that the government (not politicians but accounting officers) was required to recognize all liabilities and financial commitments for examples BOLTS, guarantees and contingent liabilities.

    You should therefore ask yourself when did the government change over to the Accrual Method and see if it is aligned with the so-called bring to books of liabilities hidden by the previous administration(s).
    Since Ryan Straughn is of the value in explaining this one maybe Dennis Kellman could help you.

  24. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    Hopefully the economists will clarify for you but BU’s layman understanding is that government acted as guarantor for these BOLT arrangement therefore government policy necessitated that the debt be recorded by government.

    See the Central Bank link attached:

    http://data.centralbank.org.bb/docs/downloads/Public%20Debt%20Outstanding.pdf

  25. David Avatar
    David

    @Bajeabroad

    What tangible results have any of these intellectuals shown by way of job creation etc. They talk hard and produce nothing.
    Talk is cheap, Job creation, entrepreneurship and earning foreign exchange is real.
    I don’t want talk I want results

    Are you suggesting the only yardstick to measure performance of an academic is in job creation? It is not Straughn’s job in this instance to create jobs but to draw on his training to generate analyses from research observations etc which then can lead to informed debate on the issues.

  26. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ millertheanunnaki | September 21, 2013 at 10:21 AM |
    “Since Ryan Straughn is of the value in explaining this one maybe Dennis Kellman could help you.”

    Should read: Since Ryan Straughn is of ‘NO value in your estimation’ in explaining this one maybe Dennis Kellman could help you.

  27. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Miller
    You well know that Bushie can’t help but argue…. 🙂
    ..and there is nothing personal against Straughn, Bushie just Likes to abuse ALL lawyers, Politicians, pollsters and Economists…..and any others who care to present themselves….until they prove their mettle….

    In fact, much respect to Straughn for speaking out publicly as president of the Eco-whatever society….but now that he no longer represents that body he becomes eligible for Bushie abuse 🙂

    …somebody gotta replace old onions …. and Ross has taken to such mature responses of late (since he and Amused found themselves) that Straughn is a good prospect…

    Look Miller, what accrual what? You think Bushie born this century…?

    One of the measures used to judge government finances is debt to GDP ratio.
    If instead of Government borrowing $500M to build flyovers, and carry this ratio to nearly 100% like Greece, the government arranges a BOLT where BUSHMILLER INC. arranges the loan (which the Government facilitates) and owns the project, then the debt ratio remains good (on paper) while achieving the same end…
    …well better actually, since as a ‘private ‘ project, there is MUCH greater scope for…ahhhhh…contingencies – shall we say? Wink wink!

    You playing you ain’t know….!

    @ David
    Does a guaranteed amount not only become a loan liability on default of the substantive borrower?

  28. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Some people really have cast Iron stomachs. This includes the Blog Owner.

    “I must confess that I seldom read your blog because in my view it’s not a place for person truly seeking information and better understanding…..”

    If I owned this blog and this idiot Ryan Straughn had said that to me I would tell him to carry his ass.

    But just because this Ryan Straughn is a bitter opponent of the Democratic Labour Party Government the blog owner is willing to stomach this insult just to undermine the Government.

  29. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    Yes but the point remains the debt liable by government for the BOLTS should be factored by the lenders as included in or debt profile.

  30. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    The Anglican priest Guy Hewitt went through Ch Ch West and painted a poor picture of the stewardship of Jerome Walcott.He went to great lengths even from the pulpit of Christ Church Parish Church to preach doom and gloom with support from the Rector Austin ‘Shorty’Carrington.Hewitt was rewarded with the chairmanship of the QEH.He was subsequently advised to step down as it was generally felt that he was not the right man for the job.
    In a reshuffle of responsibilities and to specifically stem the haemorraging of the institutions finances,in comes the Hon Senator,expert in liquor and liquers,gaffer of the Hoe and Sickle bar of Shorey Village,St Andrew,near to Lowdown.With all her expertise and knowhow in liquidity,it turns out that she knows nothing of Public Finance.She too was reshuffled and removed.In comes the local Paul Robeson,only difference this fellow cannot sing very well but he told bajans you have to pay for health care at the QEH from here on in.
    So much for the Dems and their policies of taxing and taxing and making the taxed pay and pay.It has not occurred to the Dems that the need is to control and reduce Government EXPENDITURE and they can start with reducing the large number of ministers and the large number of the non performing statutory corporations like the Drainage Unit,CBC,Constituency Empowerment,Family,Transport Board,Housing,Rural,Social Care,Sports etc

  31. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LOL @ David
    HOW?
    Don’t you see that was the whole POINT of having BOLTS?

    Anyway…the IMF sees it your way – and MADE them bring them on to the books to reflect the TRUE financial situation…..which was the original point made by a few bloggers.

    LOL
    But since Straughn don’t read BU – that may explain why he sounds as clueless as he often does…even when making valid points…

  32. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    Isn’t this the point, Bajans don’t understand macroeconomics? Lol

    Especially the yardfowls.

  33. JUST ASKING Avatar
    JUST ASKING

    Every time the DLP forms the Government –We get Hardships –Excuses by DLP sycophants and attacks by DLP politicians on the Media, Teachers and ordinary citizens etc–This goes back to Errol Barrow’s time. The DLP should disband

    The WPB Women’s Party of Barbados should challenge the space occupied by the DLP as a political party.

    It would be interesting to see how St.John people vote when Mara leaves the DLP to either head the WPB or assumed the deputy leadership of the party

    The DLP HAS FAILED BARBADOS
    IT SHOULD DISBAND !!!
    IT IS NO GOOD !

  34. ac Avatar
    ac

    Yardfowls and all don,t need a degree in economics to understand weighing public debt against expenditure what people don!t understand is the pseudo economist like strughan and others asking govt to throw out the baby with the bath tub to find quick fix solutions.

  35. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    Interesting read on BOLTS

    Using BOLTs correctly
    The BSJ Published April 26, 2011

    It is clear that the Stuart administration is following the advice of the IMF and focussing on private-public sector partnerships as the financing method of choice for many capital projects.

    
Whether it is the leasing of failing government enterprises, the providing of government land at bargain rates to developers for middle class housing, or the awarding of Build Operate Lease Transfer (BOLT) contracts to developers for massive construction projects, as we have seen with the marina and now the new cruise ship pier, there are many benefits to the government and the taxpayers in bringing in the private sector to help develop the country.

    However, there needs to be an independent eye watching out for the taxpayer in all of these deals. Otherwise we could find that deals may have been made in circumstances that were not as transparent as they should have been. Dodds Prison springs to mind.


    We understand that several more PPPs, some in the form of BOLTs, are in the offing, and we look forward to hearing more about them as the government undertakes long-overdue projects to help propel our economic recovery.

    But the danger of too many BOLTs is that you could wake up one morning and find that somebody else owns your country because the deals that were made were more in the interest of the developers than the citizens.

    We are sure the government is aware of such pitfalls, so we are asking our leaders to make as much information as possible available to the public on these long-term binding contracts so that we all know what we are giving away and how much it will cost us. •

  36. David Avatar
    David

    @ac

    As usual you don’t disappoint. All Straughn as been saying from ball one is that government has to cut public expenditure. We have been spending a lot more than we have been earning. It is supported by his graphs. We can disagree with his solutions but his cry to curb government spending cannot be refuted.

    Fast forwarded to after elections held in February.

    Fees to be introduced at UWI; Temporary workers to be not renewed; 35 million cut in QEH budget with a promise yesterday that Bajans will have to start paying user fees

    It is all coming to fruition, the government has to find a way to cut spend.

  37. David Avatar
    David

    @DD

    Thanks, the fowls would have us accept all that a government tries to ram through as policy should be accepted. In a democracy the moment we stop asking questions is when we compromise on those rights which are enshrined in what we like to boast we have, a democratic system of government.

  38. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    David

    Don’t ask too many questions, or DEM gonna crack you head.

  39. ac Avatar
    ac

    David no one is against govt cutting spending as if not the govt has not embarked on doing so .yet we have same ole yardfowls crticising govt for use the surgeons knife in a mild form and applying such tactics as “affecting the poor” are used Nobody is stupid not to understand that some expenses must be curtail but it i obvious that the Straughans and others even though the repeat calls for cuts are coming they have attempted by means of intimidation hence charts etc as a way forward to privatise

  40. David Avatar
    David

    @ac

    Again you miss the point. The government even now has not commented to meaningful public sector cuts. It continues to vacillate on what has to be done. In the meantime pandemonium is present with a heavy lack of confidence. The point here is tat Straughn has been calling for the action which government is now attempting to execute a couple years ago. In act it is what Bu has been calling for asbell. This is not a time to cackle. Why not attack Washington based Charlie Skeete is h h been saying the name as Straughn? Or Professor Michael Howard?

  41. ac Avatar
    ac

    What Pandemonium stuepse all this theatrics being driven by the BLP yardfowls who would not be content till barbados is sold off to the highet bidder. what u called vacillating is being cautious trying to Find a balance that would not catapult the fragilty of the economy.ac not an economistbut ac knows that if the drain is blocked one does not unclogged by bursting every pipe.it seems that the yardfowls would like govt to dismantle everything in its way even if it means catspraddling the social network.

  42. David Avatar
    David

    @ac

    You have no idea. A market needs confidence to make investors feel comfortable. There is no confidence. The government cannot even open parliament to debate and pass laws because of its tenuous majority.

    Then the building out of a society which the late Thompson floated to political advantage has been exposed. There is a lessening of values by the day. The iPhone and fete culture has taken root, anything else is secondary.

  43. K.G.B Avatar
    K.G.B

    Economist Ryan Straughn Sees the Need for More Barbadians to Understand How the Macroeconomy Works@ zzzzzzzzzz
    He need to add Violet Beckles so he can know how it works , as you can see it does not work .

  44. David Avatar
    David

    And not to forget the errors in the last budget which has not inspired confidence. It is very difficult not to be negative given the ‘style’ of this government.

  45. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    We are a bitter, bitter, bitter set of people. What is so funny is, as David has pointed out, what Ryan has been saying all along is what the Government is now preaching and doing.
    David I love that upper cut you put on Curious about Sinckler and syntax, he has not recovered as yet–TKO.
    I am no economist (macro or micro) but when I look at the latest Central Bank Report I see the justice centre on the books since 2006, the coast guard 2005, prison 2006, ABC highway 2007. By the way what is the cost to date on the ABC highway?

  46. ac Avatar
    ac

    HELL NO /u think ac fellioff a turnip truck. NO it think the BLP yardfowls have latched on to the idea of giving this govt a no confidence vote attacking and decrying at every turn .Ac is fully aware of how confidence can make or break an economy apparantly it is only the yardfowls and BU who does not hence their doom and gloom cries and selfserving articles hindrance rather than a help

  47. David Avatar
    David

    @ac

    Confidence is something which must be led by those who lead.

    It is not happening from a PM who we have to beg to communicate.

    A MOF who shouts at everyone as if angry (maybe because of the inaccuracies in budget after budget or is it he is still pinged at the failure of E11)

    A MOT who has seen unprecedented decline in the sector for which he has responsibility for the last six years.

    A MOE who has taken being a servant of the people to heart to the point he conveys in language that cracking heads and shooting people is an option available to government to demonstrate how much he cares.

    A minister of the environment who has had more sick leave in the history of post colonial Barbados.

    A minister of labour whose legacy will be pissing of Sir Roy that he has withdrawn from the heralded social partnership.

    A minister of state who believes that he is not political therefore he is exempted from defending government policy using public channels. Yet he does not have a problem speaking to a constituency gathering of a fellow Senator.

    An Attorney General who should be renamed Adriel Robot Brathwaite.

    And on and on we can go.

  48. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    The problem in Barbados is the lack of proper data. A good example, given to me by a former central bank economists, was new builds. The town and country planning department and the central bank for years came under the same minister, usually fhe prime minister.
    Yet the planning dept used to refuse to give any details of planning approvals to the central bank.
    The central bank compiled its data by new utilities connections, which was crudely incompetent. Yet, we would see constructions figures in central bank data. It was all bogus.
    Further, at the top of the housing boom there were only about 2000 properties changing hands, hardly a dynamic sector. These figures came from a minister.
    If we separated out the top end of the market, which did not depend on mortgages, and the so-called returnees, who made all their purchases with cash from sales of property in Europe and North America, the housing sector was very small.
    With the recession and the foreign-owned banks now refusing to lend, it must be insignificant. You do not need official figures to work this out.
    With about 1000 attorneys, and some traditional solicitor firms getting most of the top end work, it is clear that some young attorneys do not get any conveyancing work at all. So, when they do, they have to return to their college notes or ask as senior colleague to do what to do.
    Few can be surprised that there is so much nonsense going on.
    We could deconstruct the official tourism figures the same way – with about 500000 visitors, staying on average X days, and spending y per capita, with Z rooms and AA hotels, the arithmetic can be worked out.
    What Barbadians need is credible data; and academics can contribute by analysing official data with accuracy and precision.

  49. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Gabriel | September 21, 2013 at 12:18 PM |
    “In comes the local Paul Robeson,only difference this fellow cannot sing very well but he told bajans you have to pay for health care at the QEH from here on in.”

    The analogy used in comparing John Boyce with Paul Robeson is most hurtful and insulting to the memory of a black man few can match in talents abilities and achievements to even tie his latchets or laces.

    Come on Gabriel how can you compare an incompetent lying “nutter” with a man who embodied the spirit of integrity and blessed with the ability to excel in sports, law, politics, stage and theatre (the first black man to be the lead in Shakespeare plays) actor in many films and musicals like Showboat, an accomplished singer of all genres of music, political activist in the early struggle for civil rights and black liberation for which he paid a hefty price under McCarthy and his communist witch hunts and a man of international sophistication who spoke five different languages including Russian a rare skill among stupid Americans.
    Come on Gabriel you can do better. Please liken Boyce to say Mia when it comes to the deep voice or even Boy-child Smith as a contrast but certainly no Paul Robeson.
    We are grossly insulted and demand an immediate apology. Even the missing Alvin Cummins would disagree with your most inappropriate analogy (LOL!!!).

  50. Bajeabroad Avatar
    Bajeabroad

    @ David
    ===================
    “Are you suggesting the only yardstick to measure performance of an academic is in job creation? It is not Straughn’s job in this instance to create jobs but to draw on his training to generate analyses from research observations etc which then can lead to informed debate on the issues.”
    ===================
    David the short answer to your question is YES. Generate analyses what!!While we quibble about economic definitions and indicators, which by the way were devised to measure REAL economic output as opposed to be the centre of discussion, our competitors are earning REAL foreign exchange and making REAL products for international consumption. Simple example, whether we measure a car’s speed in kilometers/hr or miles/hr is an irrelavent and purely academic discussion if the need is for the car to go fast. Focus on actually moving the vehicle before we entertain such academic and frankly asanine debate which produces nothing at the end of the day

    A clear strategy that exports REAL products or attract REAL tourists who will spend REAL dollars is the urgent focus, not purile academic debates, from UWI academics who have never created a product or sold an item in their lives, yet want to pontificate on how a collection of producer and sellers i.e. a national economy, should be structured.

    Wake up, this S$$$$ is real. Let’s get doers and financiers with the right incentives together to get the economy going. REAL plans from people who can implement based on their track record. Not proverbial UWI talking heads.

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