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Rush for Savings Bonds

Sometimes one has to wonder. The media and analysts have been mostly silent to explain reports two 10 million and one twenty five million savings bond issues have been fully subscribed within hours of being floated. The recent decision by the Central Bank of Barbados to remove the regulation to pay Barbadian a minimum savings…

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Dr. DeLisle Worrell, Governor of the Central Bank
Dr. DeLisle Worrell, Governor of the Central Bank

Sometimes one has to wonder. The media and analysts have been mostly silent to explain reports two 10 million and one twenty five million savings bond issues have been fully subscribed within hours of being floated. The recent decision by the Central Bank of Barbados to remove the regulation to pay Barbadian a minimum savings rate BU suspects […]

has been the great influencer. It should be noted the Central Bank floated a 4.25% Treasury Note on June 1 also and unlike the enthusiastic updates being issued on the sale of the savings bonds, we have not had similar updates about the treasury note. Come on Governor Worrell, update please!

Almost overnight Barbadians who have been earning 2.5% and higher from as long as the BU household can remember are in shock with banks now paying between .5% to 1.5% on savings accounts. To be expected we have not seen the same rapid and significant reduction in lending rates.

Given the haste the Central Bank of Barbados has rolled out its PR blitz to promote the savings bonds, it is easy to conclude the ‘arrangement’ between the Central Bank and the commercial banks has been successfully executed. Hopefully the Central Bank and commercial banks will achieve a win win position: the central bank will be able to borrow on the domestic market at a cheap rate and the commercial bank will improve its revenue position by not paying interest on useless deposits. The 64k question is whether Barbadians are equally as confident to borrow money which is important to stimulating economic activity.

The ignorance of my people!

147 responses to “Rush for Savings Bonds”

  1. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    Hi David

    General Elections in your homeland T & T on Sept 7 2015.
    The way you does cuss the DEMS…..you got be a foreigner!

  2. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    Talking about foreigners cussing the DEMS
    David,

    You now join the ranks of Ricky Singh, Tennyson Joseph and Winnie the pooh! aka De Jamaican lady

  3. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Fractured BLP June 12, 2015 at 4:59 PM

    You and your xenophobic crap again!
    Are you going to blame foreigners also for nasty filthy stinking state of Barbados as exemplified in the above photos provided by Colonel Buggy?

    Why don’t you visit the site behind the now dismantled Fairchild Street market and see the wanton abuse of the environment creating the perfect conditions for an outbreak of a dangerous viral epidemic?
    You guys are so smart that you remove the skips to hold the garbage from the more popular beaches visited by both visitors and locals only to replace them with plastic bags strewn all over the place and the contents let to decompose for weeks before collection and removal.

    You lot are just a pack of nasty buggers! What’s the sense of spending so much money on educating monkeys if they are going to turn into filthy pigs?

  4. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    Miller

    Are times now……worst than the era of Mount Stinkeroo?

    Do you ever stop to reflect that had you stinking lot had stolen the millions earmarked for GREENLAND Barbados’ garbage woes would been far improved?

    But to remind a KLEPTOMANIAC like you of such.

    Opens oneself to be accused of being stuck in the past !

  5. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    ” had not stolen the millions”

  6. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Fractured BLP June 12, 2015 at 5:58 PM

    I suppose Mount Stinkeroo has slipped down the vales into suburbia and urban Barbados judging from the amount of garbage piled up.

    You are the one stuck in the past. Blame the BLP, blame foreigners, blame the CLICO policyholders, blame the credit rating agencies and the IMF, blame, blame! All the problems facing the country today are in your eyes the fault of the previous administration and people who don’t like Fumble and his gang of incompetent goons. Why not blame the previous administration for failing to pass effective legislation and regulations to deal with the ZR mayhem and prevent the carnage taking place on the roads?

    Yes, say it, the dismissal of thousands of public sector employees especially those from the Drainage Unit and the NCC was done because of the BLP’s fiscal recklessness and lies.
    Why not blame the BLP for forcing the current administration to issue savings bonds to help finance current expenditure? Don’t you realize you have increased the national debt by over 100% since taking office with little to show for it?
    Are you going to use the money to complete the St. John polyclinic before June 30th (????)?

    Why not blame the BLP for causing the following projects to remain just figments of your demonic imagination or inchoate ideas in the minds of bureaucrats?

    Four Seasons restart.
    Pierhead marina.
    Sugar Point Cruise Ship Terminal.
    Restructured sugar cane industry and new factory.
    Exmouth Housing project.
    Pickering Housing project.
    Empire Theatre Restoration project.
    West Coast Sewage project.

    What is the position with the alternative energy policies and programmes now that you expect to find millions of barrels of light sweet crude off Barbados? Send Bajans down to Guyana to work in the impending oil industry?

    The fact remains, my fractured friend, that you and your bungling colleagues are just a bunch of liars, thieves and scumbags who will be dealt with in the fullness of time.

  7. ac Avatar
    ac

    this whole bunch of blp losers ain’t got nutting to do but sit around with their mouts long out talking crap, the positive response on the sale of the bonds just like the outcome of the last election have sent them in a tail spin and feeding frenzy trying to use scare mongering to dissuade the people same tactics which had been done by the misfits in the last election what done is done and there is nothing theses egomaniac thrash talking belly aching blp losers can say or do to reverse either results.
    Again the citizens has spoken with a loud and profound voice,

    hi miller look at this proposal how about selling off the land to the highest bidder instead of the sale of bonds, how about that proposal,,sound familiar to you ,just an idea ac is floating around,,

  8. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ ac June 12, 2015 at 6:43 PM
    “hi miller look at this proposal how about selling off the land to the highest bidder instead of the sale of bonds, how about that proposal,,sound familiar to you ,just an idea ac is floating around…”

    The difference now is that there is no “highest bidder”. Any ‘John with two foreign cents to rub together can get Barbados all for nothing. Just Ask Butch Stewart.
    He would not touch Four Seasons with a financial barge pole even if it was going for 10 cents a square foot.

    You are behaving as if the floating of bonds is something novel under the current administration. This is an annual exercise. Bajans were buying government bonds since the 1980’s/ 90’s even when the maximum take up per person was $50,000.00.

    Did Bajans in the Diaspora throw their foreign savings in the ling and snap up these attractive investments?

    The question that remains is to what purposes would the proceeds be put? To pay overdue bills or to build fiscal capacity to sustain economic growth?

  9. ac Avatar
    ac

    miller

    The question that remains is to what purposes would the proceeds be put? To pay overdue bills or to build fiscal capacity to sustain economic growth?

    in that case both are an intricate part of each, however paying off the bills would increase the possibility of improving barbados credit worthiness which in long term is valuable and important for sustainability and economic growth,

  10. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ AC

    You really know how to mimic that bloating, ‘pellucidly’ obnoxious, Chris Sinckler.

    People still talking nonsense about building fiscal capacity and sustaining economic growth. This sounds so fifties.

    Well, yuh end up rambling ’bout things that obviously impressed you from the opening in the face of that bull frog.

    Stop defining yourself based on the useless mouthings of these idiots, because they sound pretty…………………. but wrong!

    Yuh ain’t see yet that these fools have not a clue!

  11. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ ac June 12, 2015 at 7:29 PM

    LOL!!!
    You do indeed have the gumption to proffer a response. Now, tell us ac, are these overdue bills the ones incurred by the previous administration that have your people up shit creek without a financial paddle? Yes the same bills that caused the national debt to move from around $5 billion to over $10 billion.

  12. De Ingrunt Word Avatar
    De Ingrunt Word

    Pacha, I was not suggesting that you and Bushie made those declarations but I simply was asking a hypothetical based on the reference to the credit unions you guys made.

    Other similar comments were also posed in that way so I would love to hear what errors I made re your remarks or re the basic business analysis.

    I accept your ‘affirmative action’ concept that “that the credit unions could have been granted the SG and then seek to fund …elsewhere”.

    So essentially you are not against the SG itself “contort [ing] market conditions” but you want the SG to back a select group of owners of the capital ; a local black group. OK.

    I believe my original point becomes moot, therefore.

    @Due Dilignce, my reference to long winded was regarding my commentary NOT yours.

    Really not sure how your comments supported Pacha’s argument. I have missed that logical connection.

    I completely accept that the final contract agreed with Sandals seems very lop-sided against the Bdos govt. but I dismiss the argument that it so significantly disadvantages my grand-kids from lost tax revenue. An alternative economic perspective speaks to new employment and taxes therein generated, tourist traffic on the airlines coming to the island and all other related facts

    I can only believe that the Bajan negotiators did a comprehensive benefits analysis and balanced that very extended tax holiday and other concessions against the immediate and mid-term upsides.

    Your position is that the disadvantages far out way the advantages of this deal, In the absence of hard details and simply not sentiment, who knows.

    And yes you are so right that the Jamaican Investor may not be around for forty years but he is here now and there is employment and activity at a once cloistered property. That is a positive.

    Again I repeat I can agree that the contract seems lop-sided but do we know the details and obligations for those major concessions.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    The bottom line is: we have been running a deficit for several years, we have been borrowing at high levels and our productivity is flat. Therefore there is little fiscal space for the government to be aggressive developmental wise.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    At the mention of credit union what is the latest with the proposed credit union bank?

  15. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ D Ingrunt

    Not merely a local Black group, the actual risk takers – the people of Barbados, with credit union members comprising a substantial number.

    We have difficulty understanding how you can’t seem to be able to absolve a complete idea. You seem to have difficulty with ordinary people in Barbados owning substantial interests, but it’s alright for Bizzy to. Don’t you have questions when Bizzy owns something that is made possible entirely by the provision of a public guarantee? Is it not unfair for the risk takers not to receive the rewards? What is so special about this cracker?

  16. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ David

    All of that maybe true, but if government is supporting private sector projects notwithstanding the dire economic situation, when will the people who are committed to paying back money borrowed privately ever going to get a chance to receive the possible rewards that come with those risks.

    Separately

    This is a simple question and everybody wants to avoid it.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    For a people centric model to take root is alien to the existing model which allows the yardfowls to feed. Yours is too idealistic a notion to ever be considered.

  18. De Ingrunt Word Avatar
    De Ingrunt Word

    And Prof Bushie what we can agree on is that there is a lack of transparency in government. Period. Corruption is rife.

    The part that I fail to get with the analyses presented is this.

    If our system of secondary schooling, university et al have not engendered, produced and facilitated “ORDINARY Bajans who are willing to put in the sweat and capital to become INVESTORS, innovators and business moguls” where did the Everson Elcock’s Raysides, Gary Husbands, Solar Dynamics of the old guard come from?

    And the Berthram Halls and many others of the younger crew get their druthers.

    Again I repeat, these generalizations are ridiculous.

    Lambast the projects on the merits or lack thereof; lambast governments for their corruption “policy of secretly signing one-sided contracts with their political funders” but to suggest that as a country or that our leadership group have almost systematically not pushed towards entrepreneurial growth and development is simply lacking validity.

    Is there room for improvement and greater innovation, OF COURSE.

    Private corporations do rely on government for business revenue but I am not aware that any credible entrepreneur or investor WAITS on a government to “encourage, facilitate, support and entice…”

    The businessman/woman sees the opportunity or niche, creates their competitive advantage and goes hard to be as successful as possible.

  19. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ David

    We are well aware that you always feel our ideas are too unrealistic, ‘idealistic’, to say the least.

    What is idealistic about saying that if the people of Barbados are to be tied to debts incurred privately and therefore bear all associated risks that the risk takers should be the reward takers as well.

    Seems to us this is a basic principle of capitalism. Is this not what happens all the time.

    The fault is on the other side. What this government is doing and you are failing to see is the drastic consolidation of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people and they are using the creditworthiness of Bajans, born and unborn, to give White people everlasting economic power.

    It is slavery, by stealth.

  20. Hopi Avatar
    Hopi

    A long time ago, Age and Experience were synonymous with WISDOM, but that time has now passed us by. Mr. Central Governor, pray tell…who owns Barbados debt and how can you compare Barbados a mealy-mouth service industry economy with the technological-industrialised economy that Japan is. A service industry that can can be negatively affected by a severity in weather, the price of fuel or another 9/11 attack by the criminal bankers. Compared to Japan, what does Barbados produce other than INSIGNIFICANT ‘SCHOLARS’ who couldn’t pin a tail on a flying donkey’s arse! Are you aware that Iceland kicked out the criminal bankers who were sucking the life blood out of their economy and today Iceland’s head is above the water?

    Instead of taxing the poor and middle classes why won’t the Gov’t ask those who enjoy the tax haven status that Barbados affords them to ‘man-up’ and pay their fair share of taxes which would still be considerably lower than what they would have to pay in their home countries. How could this gov’t be so traitorous as to sign on to another parasitic blood-sucking treaty such as FATCA which open the financial institutions books to the US Treasury.

    The US owes the Caribbean nations about $288 billion. Mr. Governor how much of that belongs to Barbados and why won’t the gov’t demand what is theirs?

    When Bajans lend this Gov’t this money, they’re still gonna have to turn around and pull their pockets to finance the interest on these bonds i.e double-taxation. What a big effing con. Without any shadow of doubt one can certainly conclude that the DLP of Barbados is a gang of SHYSTERS who baffle their blind followers with bullshit. These people don’t have a clue about economics, administration, foreign relations etc.

    How much of the EU scraps is Barbados getting and at what cost?

    “A SOCIETY OF SHEEP MUST EVENTUALLY BEGET A GOVERNMENT OF WOLVES.”

  21. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Pachamama June 12, 2015 at 8:35 PM #

    The fault is on the other side. What this government is doing and you are failing to see is the drastic consolidation of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people and they are using the creditworthiness of Bajans, born and unborn, to give White people everlasting economic power.

    It is slavery, by stealth.
    ……………………………………………………………………..
    Or Reverse Reparations. Reminds me of the Bajan who was kicked in the arse in Swan Street one Saturday by an Asian, and was subsequently for causing a disturbance.

  22. watchman Avatar
    watchman

    @ACs
    @ Fractured
    There is history of the DLP farm yard but You two yard ducks have learn nothing you all must have seen the way some of your former yard stocks have live a life of a liar and thieves dress and look honorable but coming to the end of their life what do you hear they ask for,like the dead David Thompson, he ask the same people he rob, lied too, and make life hard for, to PRAY to God for his soul, did he not know there is a God when he was living a life of thief and liar ? the same request came from Minister Lowe when he was sick the present set of DLP stocks tell lies daily forgetting that they have a soul, I know for a fact some of the former DLP stock lost their mind before dying,

  23. ac Avatar
    ac

    Ac is not mimicking anybody my response is a simple and basic financial knoweldge that anyone should know that when in debt and have the funds available at hand the quickest medicine in seeking relief from under the heavy weight is to pay off the debt especially those that have high interest .
    btw have any one ever given the thought that some forms of taxes are loans to govt which govt repays at the end of the year to the tax payer.in reality some forms of financial transaction to do with running the country are dependable on loans whether it by taxes or govt having to borrow expeditiously through financial markets or in the instances of bonds treasury bills etc..all of which are legal instruments /instrumental in building an economy.
    Yes one can argue the validity as to how these monies are dispersed after govt receives ,however it is incumbent that in a two party system the opposition becomes the ears and eyes and the watch dog of the citizens ,however it is apparently clear that in this country the “watch dog (opposition) are two busy concentrating on yard fowl and nonsensical issues as way of broadening support and establishing a party following,

  24. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ De Word 8:29pm
    steupsss!!

  25. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    But how can Minister Lashley be in the newspaper appointing Transport Board workers who were acting in posts between 3 to 6 years i.e. hired since 2008 after skinning out workers with far longer tenure recently? These are truly one set of wicked people!!

  26. ac Avatar
    ac

    @ watchman,go to sleep it is way past your bedtime,,please enuff of your DLP bedtime stories,

  27. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    WTE proposal Page 7 of BarbadosToday.

    http://www.ridleyenergygroupinc.ca/

  28. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    And to think this proposal has been knocking around since 2011. What have we been saying about lack if transparency?

  29. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    from Ridley website

    About

    Ridley Energy Group Inc. (REGI) is a Start Up Canadian Company with its head office located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is a family owned company with the major shareholders being David Ridley (50%) and Kevin Ridley (25%). The remaining shareholders are two other family members; Christopher Ridley (brother) and Matthew Ridley (David’s son) who together own 15% and two family friends who own the remaining 10% of the company.

    Our Assets

    REGI’s assets are our people and our relationships with our technology provider BCS and our builder of the WTE facilities State Group Inc.. David and Kevin Ridley have developed relationships with various Consultants and Agents in Canada and Barbados that have connections to various waste providers and Governments within the Caribbean Basin. REGI has the support of the Government of Barbados which is very much in favor of REGI treating the organic waste on the island to create “Green Electricity” and fertilizer.

    REGI has established a formal relationship with The State Group Inc. (State) of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada to construct and operate the WTE facility in Barbados and other installations throughout the Caribbean, an area in which they have acquired significant construction experience. Please visit them at The State Group for further information on this company.

    A Start Up Company whose assets are its people and relationships.

    Sounds like they have about as much substance as Cahill.

    And they are going to build a $100 million WTE plant!!!!

  30. are-we-there-yet Avatar
    are-we-there-yet

    Due Diligence; you said above “Sounds like they have about as much substance as Cahill.”

    This is really becoming sickening!

    And what about the Jada project which BT reported had been recently signed with the Government for $100M?

    Of interest also is the variety of posts by new names that surfaced here recently attacking Claire Cowan. It sounds like some local talent trying to put a spanner in the Cahill works but to whose benefit? Jada, Ridley, the people, the BL& P or none of the above?

    Interesting times. Perhaps the upcoming budget will make things slightly clearer.

  31. David Avatar
    David

    Press Release No. 15/202: IMF Concludes 2015 Article IV Visit to Barbados

    "The team encourages the government to continue lowering the overall wage bill, which is one of the highest in the region, and reform the civil service to manage this transition. Review of social spending would be important, in particular by reducing the provision of free services and goods to high-income groups … Public enterprises pose a major fiscal risk in Barbados, and many are providing services without any link to overall costs or objectives."

    Press Release: IMF Concludes 2015 Article IV Visit to Barbados

    A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by Nicole Laframboise, visited Barbados during April 27-May 8 to conduct discussions for the 2015 Article IV consultation. At the conclusion of the mission, Ms. Laframboise issued the following statement:

    imf.org

  32. ac Avatar
    ac

    You guys are just a bunch of nitwits

    a company sends out a proposal !

  33. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Hopi

    What you telling these people about FACTA for. You think ’bout hey deh will show any interest.

    Bajans will know things hard but they will not connect hardships to the modern colonial imposts of the global financial elites.

    They will know that it’s much more difficult to open a bank account but they will accept it and move on to the imposition.

    They will know that if they send 10 US dollars from St. Vincent to their son in Trinidad that the US Treasury Department must be informed.

    Hell no! Don’t tell them about FACTA and all the other onerous impositions of international rent seekers.

    These people got business people, with any sense, seeking non-FACTA countries, a reducing number, to do transactions.

    And of course dey would not be able to connect this financial architecture to the standard spying done by the colonialists for their own companies. What competition!

    Then you will have a buller like Fruendel Stuart walking around here pretending there is something to be proud of.

  34. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Due Diligence

    We cant be SERIOUS!!

    You click pun dat ting called Green Energy at de bottom of Ridley webpage?? Where it say “Disposing of organic waste environmentally with the patented AFC2 anaerobic digestion technology.”

    https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/green-energy–8#/story

    Dem jokers promoting a crowdfunding initiative!!

    Tell de ole man dat it ent so!!!

    Bush Tea really right when he does call we a class of brass bowls unequalled by none!!

  35. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Are We there Yet

    De ole man don’t rally belong to no crew for Cowan nor Ridley so your comment bout “It sounds like some local talent trying to put a spanner in the Cahill works but to whose benefit? Jada, Ridley, the people, the BL& P or none of the above” doan really include me.

    Whu is of interest to me is due diligence, no, not de poster fellow but the process of ensuring that de people dat you gine pay $100 million and $400 million can deliver and that them know bout WTE and not HTFW (which mean How to Fvck We)

    Anybody only got to call the Canadian, American or British Economic Consul and dem does tell you whu is what bout any one uh dem companies, IN WRITING.

    Because de Cowan woman pull you aside and svck you parts good and you nevah had a white meat yet doan mean dat you is to do similar tomfvckery to de peeple of Bulbados.

    Long befo de internet due diligence used to tek 3 to 6 munts fuh a fellow to get back information bout a nex body by Snail Mail, but nowadays all you gots to do is enlist to Dunn & Bradstreet http://www.dnb.com/all-products/manufacturing-industry-business-information.html#.VX3IfFxViko and Whaplax, for a fee you can get a printout about anybody dat you want to do business with

    Everybody does got an agenda and special interests but you see politicians, de one dat we should be voting for, should only got interests uh de peeple uh Barbados in dem sights and, if dem dont, VOTE DEM OUT, EVERY LAST ONE UH DEM

  36. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    I pass near the Central Bank yesterday, and I swear I heard someone inside singing ” Three Coins in the fountain.”

  37. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    pieceuhderockyeahright June 14, 2015 at 2:20 PM

    Thanks for the heads up.

    This ole man (DD) did not do very thorough diligence, and did not dig into the Indiegogo link.

    According to the site, the goal was to raise CAD$750,000; but the campaign was closed October 16, 2014, after raising “pledges” of CAD$2,951.

    Only $99,997,429 left to fund the $100,000,000 WTE plant.

    Using the words of ac (which I never thought I would do) those guys in the traditional media who reported on this scam “are just a bunch of nitwits”

    Can’t wait to start Googling about the new projects to be announced tomorrow by the MOF in his Budget.

  38. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    Colonel Buggy June 14, 2015 at 3:04 PM #

    I pass near the Central Bank yesterday, and I swear I heard someone inside singing ” Three Coins in the fountain.”

    Guess they had just counted the foreign reserves.

  39. are-we-there-yet Avatar
    are-we-there-yet

    PUDRYR

    Re. your 2:34 pm post.

    It seems that you misunderstood my earlier post. I was not at any time endorsing the Cahill-Clare Cowan apparent scam and I was not including you in the new posters whose interest in the WTE comedy of errors plants seemed to be exclusively in scuttling the CCC scam but who have nothing to say about the other Canadian (or Bajan) scams related to WTE. I was wondering if those new posters,through their apparently coordinated posts, were acting on behalf of one of the competitors.

    In my view, the plethora of projects related to WTE would be funny and reminiscent of Barbados having 2 coney islands at the same time (the poster child of gross incompetence of about 2 decades ago) if it were’nt so serious and if it didn’t clearly send a message to anyone who was following that we had definitely reached the level of a banana republic, if not worse.

    One wonders again if someone is leading the Cabinet and why the Ministry of the Environment can get into such egregious positions without extremely serious action being taken against its management.

  40. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    ”The 64k question is whether Barbadians are equally as confident to borrow money which is important to stimulating economic activity.”

    In case you have not noticed, the foreign owned banks are not lending much these days. If you seek to borrow, it takes so long. One begins to surmise that the approval must come from overseas. The folk here take the info and submit overseas for approval?

    I think they are reducing their exposure to Barbados debt, and have done so significantly. In fact, if one or more are sold soon, do not be surprised.

    It might be too, that they have such a book of loan losses already, that they are reticent to expose themselves to more.

    Maybe why the Government has allowed the saving interest to drop so much. Because they know the foreign banks already want to leave? So, they sweeten the pot by allowing the interest rate to drop.

  41. Luxotica Avatar
    Luxotica

    If you lower the interest rates on savings to virtually nil and make sure the commercial banks don’t lower mortgage interest, its amazing that could fool people into investing in junk rated saving bonds of a sovereign in BIG financial problems.

  42. Budget Blackbox Avatar
    Budget Blackbox

    David of BU
    look for the following in today’s budget presentation:
    cell phone tax
    tax on the sugar content in soft drink beverages
    adjustment to the income tax bands along with removal of some allowances you can claim on.

    I will link with you…….as I am off to Parliament to listen to the Hon. Chris Sinckler

  43. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Budget Blackbox June 15, 2015 at 2:12 PM

    Would not be surprised if your ‘suspected’ proposals are indeed included as additional tax revenue measures. The proposal to adjust the personal income tax allowances (e.g. reducing the standard personal allowance and scrapping the deduction for house improvements/repairs) is something the IMF has been pushing.

    The cell phone tax was included in a previous budget (was it 2008 or 2009?) as a revenue raising item that never saw the light of day because the ‘architect’ was a complete joker with respect to its implementation. It was proposed as a specific tax of ($4.00) to be levied on the handset on a monthly basis instead of it being an ad valorem tax levied on the monthly bill for post paid and on each top up for prepaid users.

    Why not have a separate VAT rate for cell phones that would incorporate the existing VAT and reflect government’s need to raise revenue from this easy target of a financial gold mine?

    It would be interesting if the jackass for a MoF would go against the demands of the IMF and grant exemption from this tax to the likes of Sandals.

  44. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    Hi David

    The contribution above , of Budget Blackbox is spot on so far!

    He gotta be a true DEM!

  45. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    A very riveting and revolutionary budget presentation so far, by Hon. Chris Sinckler.

    Barbadians in months and years to come will appreciate its significance.

  46. David Avatar
    David

    No comment on Arthur labeling government savings bond NOT investment grade?

    http://youtu.be/3z7BksGTZeI

  47. Mobert Avatar
    Mobert

    So, what would Arfur prefer folks do. Invest at the commercial banks, for 1%, when they make huge profits, give hell to get a loan unless you already own ten acres of land or more (exaggerating but..), reduce staff and pay the minimum they can, unlike the English firms Barclays and Cable and Wireless who used to give excellent packages.

    Do you see current large overseas companies try to give as little as possible, including using a process where they offer a ‘package’ to all and then decide who they want to go?

    That is used in multiple overseas-owned large corporations here and is unethical.

    They have NO USE for local staff, only as much as they can get from them.

    Then they outsource much of their operations, thus spending little in Barbados but wanting huge profits.

    And then people wonder why no one wants to put their money in them.

    Really??

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