est. 2007

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Adrian Loveridge Column – Time for Rethink

By the end of this month the British Government will have a somewhat more accurate idea of just how successful their Eat Out to Help Out scheme has been in sustaining businesses and protecting employment.

From 3rd until 31st August on every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (traditionally the quieter dining days), Brits can get a 50 per cent discount, up to a maximum of GB Pounds 10 per person, when you eat-in at one of the over 83,000 restaurants that have so far registered.

Usage does not require a voucher, can be used as many times as you like and is combinable with other available offers and discounts.

There is no minimum spend.

The discount cannot be claimed on alcoholic drinks or service charges and is automatically available at all participating establishments, which include restaurants, cafes, pubs, food halls, work and school canteens, who in-turn are reimbursed by the Government.

Consumers can easily find those that have already signed-up, within a 5 mile radius of their residence, simply by entering their postcode.

The United Kingdom HM Revenue and Customs stated that it had received over 10.5 million claims under the scheme up until 9th August with the average claim for around GB Pounds 5, which would until this date, bring the cost of this initiative to around GB Pounds 50 million.

British Chancellor Rishi Sunak reported ‘the scheme has served a huge 25 per cent increase in people going out’ and that GB Pounds 500 million has been put aside to pick up the bills for diners who patronize restaurants during the 13 eligible days in August.

This following the slashing of VAT rates from 20 to 5 per cent for all hospitality and tourism businesses until 12th January 2021.

Over 90 of the leading restaurant chains throughout the UK have signed up to offer this deal with most of the major brand names, applying substantial resources to ensure public awareness.

Will Beckett, co-founder of the Hawksmoor steakhouse group reported ‘that six of his restaurants had received a combined 15,000 bookings for the 13 days’ period.

Our policymakers have resisted so far, any obvious attempt to stimulate domestic tourism, for whatever reason.

Perhaps it is time to rethink this approach?

September, ‘normally’ one of the most challenging months of the year is just days away, while we continue to experience an increasing number of our restaurants announcing permanent closure.

For many of them it is truly heartbreaking, having spent in some cases decades, building their business.

From feedback, those closing mostly admit they can no longer sustain survival locally, citing the inability to continue paying rent, utility bills, land taxes or await further delays in the repayment of outstanding VAT refunds.

52 responses to “Adrian Loveridge Column – Time for Rethink”

  1. GP Avatar
    GP

    You may view the latest post of Beautiful Barbados (Bajan things) at
    https://www.bajanthings.com/bueatiful-barbados/
    VERY SAD!
    IT NEED NOT BE SO

  2. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    GBP 10 per person is a miserable amount. Barbados is a premium island. Therefore a subsidy of 100 BBD per meal would be necessary. So that the money is at least enough for dessert in Cliff or Sandy Lane.

  3. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    GP
    You really know how to hurt. Looking at the pictures was painful.

  4. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    The GOB have limited option to prop up the economy. We are not an advance economy with a reserve currency. The USA, UK, Japan, euro area, can print an unlimited amount of money, even if there are highly indebted, Barbados isn’t in a position to do that.

  5. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Forty

    Plse enlighten me. What stops a sovereign state such as Barbados from printing money?

  6. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    We have a fixed currency exchange system , we are highly indebted, we produce nothing and import everything. These are the realities that constrain the government to some extent.

  7. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Forty

    Why should having a fixed currency prevent us from printing money? What are the risks? We have a high debt to GDP ratio, so do the US, China and Japan. How would this affect us printing money? Or, how would printing money affect that?
    What does ‘producing nothing’ (your words) and ‘importing everything’ (your words again) stop us from printing money? How would this impact our ability to print money? Or, as you put it, constrain us?
    I suggest all the points you have made above will have almost no impact on our ability to print money. In fact, I submit that our problem, since 1994, has been our reluctance to print money. That is why we are in the mesas we are in.
    I will add one more point. The only risk to the economy from that liquidity will be asset price inflation; and we know over the last 25 years how to control asset price inflation.
    All the big economies have inflation rates running at under 3 per cent, and base rates of under one percent. Economies can always inflate away their debt.

  8. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    @Hal. Printing excessive local currency with not enough foreign reserve to back it, will eventually lead to the collapse of fixed exchange system. We are an import-dependent country, all that extra money will be chasing foreign goods and services. High Inflation would then follow the collapse of the currency leading to other negative unintended consequences. See Lebanon right now.

  9. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    GP you might able to track those television boxes to the owner if there is a will. Why drive so far just go to the tip at st lawrence gap.

  10. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Forty

    You are getting confused with printing money and foreign reserves. I thought you had a more sophisticated economic argument.
    Why do we need foreign reserves? In any case, we should abandon the fixed exchange rat e with the Greenback and fix against a basket of currencies and commodities. We have had this argument on BU almost every few weeks.
    I have just made the point that we can manage asset price inflation and have done for over 25 years. I m not blaming you since our leading economists are trapped in a bygone age. Look at Dr Worrell calling for dollarisation; and the silent voices at Cave Hill, when they speak, do so in a form of economic patois.
    I will say again.We can deal in derivatives to cover our essential imports. The reason we do not is because neither the central bank staff nor our politicians understand the derivatives markets. The is not a problem; hire expertise.
    The thing about derivatives too is that you do not have to stockpile foreign reserves and that Bds$2bn in reserves can be put to work for the nation.
    Further, as thigs are, The Fed is running or monetary policy. Here we are increasing our reserves (in fact we are not paying our debt so it is a false accumulation), while the Greenback is having a tough time on the currency markets, that is why the rice of gold is now about US$2000 an ounce.
    Last month the pound sterling was increased by 14 per cent against the dollar from its March value, the worst month for the dollar since 2010, falling against all currencies. That is about seven per cent lower than when Trump entered the White House.
    Before the CoVid pandemic, the US Congressional Budget Office estimated the budget deficit at $1trn this years and next. Now it expects sit to be $3.7trn this year, and $2.1trn next year. The US is in serious crisis. Added to that, Russia and China are now partnering to avoid using the dollar for bilateral trade.
    In 1995, China’s share of global GDP was 2 per cent, it is now about 16 per cent, the same as the USA. At the turn of the century, China’s emphasis was on exports, now it exports 17 per cent of GDP. China’s growing middle class is bigger than the entire population of the US.
    Has there been a discussion in Barbados about this devaluation? I can go on about this, but the level of serious economic debate is so basic it cannot be taken seriously. Some wise guy has come up with the notion of fiscal space, an IMF concept. Have a look at the theory of post-Keynesian monetary theory, in particular the theory of circuit and monetary circulation (based on Keynes’ Treatise on Money).
    Go to all your economics books and look in the index and see how many times fiscal space is mentioned. That should tell you something.
    I will end in a simple argument. The accumulation of foreign reserves is bogus; the notion that we cannot print money is economic illiteracy (government should have started the machines printing from May 25, 2018, to build a new Barbados. I have said all this before, but they should send the bulldozers in to Nelson Street and the surrounding area; Suttle Street, Carrington Village, and used Weymouth and the Transport Board as a major mixed development)

  11. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ Hal Austin August 17, 2020 5:10 PM

    Finally, Hal addresses the issue of currency devaluation, thank you very much!

    In view of the desolate situation we should devalue the BBD to 1:4. That’s the real rate anyway, when I look at many totally overpriced junk goods. Or should I rather talk about “currency optimization”, because all nationalists hate the D-word so much? 😉

    This will spark a great economic dynamic. We should leave smaller social frictions and uprisings to the storm troopers.

  12. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    @Hal. All countries that practice a fixed exchange regime have to at least match the value their monetary base with their foreign reserve. Whether it is Hong Kong, Denmark, Eastern caribbean Islands, Fiji, Jordan, Bim etc have to follow the same drill. In other words, every local dollar in circulation must be backed by at least the same amout of foreign reserve at that exchange rate. If not, then the fixed exchange rate won’t last. Look at the huge reserve stockpile by the Hong Kong monetary board.

    Therefore, is a functional relationship between the money supply, the foreign reserve and the fixed exchange system.

  13. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Hal
    Plenty foreign reserves. A house full of children; the fridge full with food but the fridge door lock. Die from starvation and boast about a fridge full with goodies.
    My brother that is who we are . When last did you hear any real down to earth discussion about the state of the economy ? We are into IMF jargon and abusing statistics. If we could not grow the economy pre COVID, where are we going to find the creativity and innovation to grow it post COVID?
    I’m waiting on the throne speech to see where we are going.

  14. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    It is not a surprise that almost every small island developing states in the world either dollarised or have some kind of fixed exchange regime in place. Why? because most operate from a narrow economic base. They have nothing to export say tourism and offshore financial schemes. Only iceland, operates a freely floating exchange rate system. Iceland have an abundant hydropower and it export tons of seafood and aluminium. And even then, they sometimes get gittery when the krona gets volatile.

    Even if Bim abondon were to abandon the green back for a basket of currencies at a fixed rate, ( like Fiji ) the underlining principle of money supply and foreign reserve will still come into play.

  15. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    Even if we float the currency and use derivatives like swaps or forward market to hedge, our financial system is not that sophisticated to deal with these products. Right now our capital market is still under-developed and cost to hedge might outweigh the benefit.

  16. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    The Jamaica experience, is a prime example of what happen to an island nation currency when they decide to do a semi-float float muchless a full float in 1992. Since then the jamaican $ has become a sinking currency…losing over 500% of its value. Not to mention the high inflation that comes with this kind of depreciation. Jamaica as of late, to stabalise its currency, have introduced an auction system, a swap and forward purchases to no avail. Since the pandemic, the currency has lost over 8% of its value and is projected to lose at least 12% this calendar year. This is worrying, because over 60% of jamaican’s total debt, is in foreign currency.

  17. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Devaluation would help us to cope with the large surplus of people in the civil service. We could afford 100,000 civil servants if we devalue from 1:2 to 1:10.

    99% of civil servants have no idea about finance anyway. Appeal to their nationalism and to their hero Barrow, and they will not even notice that they cannot even buy a loaf of bread out of a 10,000 BBD salary.

    We should save ourselves the expensive education at UWI anyway. It’s useless. What we need are not 1000+X lawyers, but chambermaids and cooks for the hotels. We don’t need a lazy middle class, but service providers who work in the tourism industry at world market prices.

  18. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Forty

    I think Bajans call that a rabbit hole. I have said over and over again, decouple from the Greenback. Is that simple enough. There is no need for a global tour of currency markets.
    By the way, plse explain why the amount of sovereign currency in circulation must be backed by foreign reserves. Is that economic theory? If so, plse point me to the source. Or just explain the thinking behind this idea.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    Stamp rush

    Over 1 300 so far want in on Barbados ‘Welcome’ plan

    by COLVILLE MOUNSEY MORE THAN 800 applications representing over 1 300 people have so far been received in less than a month for Government’s Welcome Stamp initiative.

    This has been revealed by Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) global head of markets Petra Roach.

    She told the DAILY NATION the Welcome Stamp had yielded interest from across the globe, especially in the United States and United Kingdom (UK). Roach said interest in Barbados as a safe haven from the COVID-19 pandemic continued to grow daily.

    “In terms of applications, the key source markets such as the United States and the UK have provided the highest number of interests. This is a global initiative, and our Prime Minister has really positioned Barbados well, and all credit to her because she did the biggest public relations job of all.

    “This thing has hit BBC, it was on CNN and it was on almost all of the major travel blogs, so it is not surprising that we are getting the type of response . . . currently,” she said.

    However, the BTMI official could not go into further details about how many had received approval thus far.

    When contacted, Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams, who has responsibility for the Immigration Department, said the information was still being compiled on some applications. He added a press conference would be held later this week to update the country on the exact numbers.

    BTMI’s director for the Caribbean and Latin America, Corey Garrett, disclosed that Latin American citizens who fit the income requirements were also clamouring for the opportunity to work remotely for 12 months in ‘paradise’, as many of the alternative destinations they would normally frequent had been ravaged by COVID-19.

    “When you look at a country like Brazil, one often just looks at the masses and what we have been hearing in the media about the masses being affected. However, what one should also know is that Brazil is a country that has about one million millionaires; a large number of highnet- worth individuals exist in Brazil. So those persons are way beyond the disposable income threshold and who can afford to have all of the testing and to move their family.

    “So again, Barbados is uniquely positioned for those persons to come and ride out this pandemic. We have ample villas and amenities, and we are geographically close to them, and the US, where they would normally frequent, is pretty much shut down,” he explained.

    He added: “The bottom line is that this programme has been going extremely well and it is gaining traction worldwide. Our PR teams globally continue to be overwhelmed with requests for information with regards to the requirements and protocols. Another measurement of the success of the programme is the fact that other countries are picking it up and trying to run with their own models. This tells you that this is a 21st century campaign that persons can look towards.”

    Barbados has taken a hit in its long-stay tourism sector with the recent announcement that Ross

    University will not be holding any on-campus classes for the fall semester. Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn, had expressed hope that the Welcome Stamp would pick up some of the slack.

    “The reality is that the same protocols that extend to the Welcome Stamp would have to be used with the students . . . . Certainly, Barbadians would have felt it on the ground in terms of students moving around and spending.

    “I have not been able to effectively give a full calculation of that benefit, but I am confident that the benefit will be similar to the Welcome Stamp,” Straughn said in an interview last month.

    Source: Nation News

  20. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    @Hal

    “Plse enlighten me. What stops a sovereign state such as Barbados from printing money?”

    At the moment if you start printing money, IMF, CDB together with present lenders would cut off funding, government forced into collapse.
    No more nice trips for ministers, civil servants on the bread line etc. Not saying this not a good thing, Tron proposal, REALITY TV cometh.

  21. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    @David

    “Stamp rush”

    I hope your not buying this CRAP government announcement, it’s just more of the SAME OLD SAME OLD, PHOTO OP AND FUFFF.

  22. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @Wily

    What about BOSS and the other loans that government has received? Truth is, in 2008, the banking crisis, governments printed money to rescue the economies; in 2020, the CoVid crisis, governments are printing money to rescue economies. In the UK, the government is even paying half the price of a restaurant meal, up to £0, to keep people in jobs. This is old-fashioned Keynesianism.
    Barbadians are scared of printing money because of the Washington Consensus, which has been rejected by the very people who authored it.

  23. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Fuh true ?

    ” Barbados as a safe haven from the COVID-19 pandemic”

  24. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    Are you implying we have community spread in Barbados?

    >

  25. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    Have the predictions of the Club of Rome (and long before that Thomas Malthus) that finite resources will put a limit to perpetual economic growth and population size really disproved? Thomas Malthus’ concern at the end of the 18th century was that a finite limit to the food supply would limit population growth. However, introduction of mechanized factory farms and “green revolution” agro-chemicals which Malthus could not have envisioned in his day came into play to enable a continuing increase in the world food supplies and populations to continue increasing beyond anything Malthus would have thought possible.

    It is notable that although food production might have increased beyond what Malthus thought possible, more and more people are becoming increasingly concerned the nutrient content of our factory famed crops are decreasing. Numbers of people are now seeking our organically grown food where available because they believe factory farmed mono-crops grown on depleted soils with just a few essential elements (i.e. NPK) added back in to the soil artificially through chemical fertilizers are less nutrient-dense than crops grown using organic agricultural techniques like crop rotation, composting, companion planting etc. which put an emphasis on maintaining the soils’ health. This is seen as an absolutely vital foundation to maintain a high nutrient content in the crops produced from that soil. The pesticide residues left on the factory farmed crops after harvest ares also believed to be a factor in rising rates of non communicable diseases seen in many societies. See sites like responsibletechnology(DOT)org , or
    rodaleinstitute(DOT)org/why-organic/issues-and-priorities/nutrient-density/

    Below is an excerpt of a post from her blog Our Finite World by retired insurance industry actuary Gail Tverberg where her main concern is not food but energy. Basically Tverberg’s thesis is that hydrocarbons and oil in particular are essential to our modern economies, and for economic growth to occur oil supplies have to continue to increase, because alternative energy sources currently available cannot fill in the gap if energy produced does not meet the energy needed for economic growth.

    The world has increasingly used up its most easily available and cheapest to produce oil and therefore oil producers have no option but to spend greater amounts of money and energy to develop oil from the more expensive to develop sources, e.g. the oil found in more remote locations and/or hostile environments (might need long pipelines built to bring it to market), offshore oil found further and deeper offshore, oil that has to undergo fracking to get it to the surface, sour oil that needs extra processing to remove high sulfur content, Canadian tar sands derived oil that is higher cost to produce and refine compared to traditional oil etc.

    What Tverberg claims is that her analysis shows nowadays the price of oil CANNOT be high enough to bring a profit to the oil companies, allow them to set aside funds for the future development of future more difficult to produce oil, and at the same time still be low enough to make products (including food – mechanized agriculture depends on oil fueled machinery) cheap enough to be affordable for consumers. Without enough consumer demand, economies have to shrink or at best stagnate. She sees the world economy now on a continuous see-saw: when oil prices increase , the oil companies are pleased their profits will go up. That is, until consumer prices go up and therefore demand drops and recessions occur, and then oil prices drop to the point where consumer spending can resume, but the oil companies find themselves behind the financial 8 ball again.

    I didn’t bother mentioning the climate change debate, but Tverberg does not see the current alternative energy technologies we have available being able to provide enough energy to replace hydrocarbons and oil. As she points out, the foundation of our economies are built on hydrocarbons/oil and will be for a long time yet. The alternative energy sources we have today like solar panels, windmills etc. are constructed on a hydrocarbon based economic foundation and can supplement, therefore, the oil based energy to some extent, but if the hydrocarbon based foundation crumbles before some miraculous new alternate energy source is there to pick up the slack, then the economic basis making it feasible to build solar panels and windmills crumbles with it.

    See for example:
    ourfiniteworld(DOT)com/2020/07/17/why-a-great-reset-based-on-green-energy-isnt-possible/

    Here is an excerpt from Tverberg’s look at the effect of the pandemic on world economics:

    Understanding Our Pandemic – Economy Predicament
    Posted on May 13, 2020 by Gail Tverberg

    The world’s number one problem today is that the world’s population is too large for its resource base. Some people have called this situation overshoot. The world economy is ripe for a major change, such as the current pandemic, to bring the situation into balance. The change doesn’t necessarily come from the coronavirus itself. Instead, it is likely to come from the whole chain reaction that has been started by the coronavirus and the response of governments around the world to the coronavirus.

    Let me explain more about what is happening.

    [1] The world economy is reaching Limits to Growth, as described in the book with a similar title.

    One way of seeing the predicament we are in is the modeling of resource consumption and population growth described in the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, by Donella Meadows et al. Its base scenario seems to suggest that the world will reach limits about now. Chart 1 shows the base forecast from that book, together with a line I added giving my impression of where the economy really was in 2019, relative to resource availability.

    Chart 1 available to view at source, see link below /GM

    In 2019, the world economy seemed to be very close to starting a downhill trajectory. Now, it appears to me that we have reached the turning point and are on our way down. The pandemic is the catalyst for this change to a downward trend. It certainly is not the whole cause of the change. If the underlying dynamics had not been in place, the impact of the virus would likely have been much less.

    The 1972 model leaves out two important parts of the economy that probably make the downhill trajectory steeper than shown in Figure 1. First, the model leaves out debt and, in fact, the whole financial system. After the 2008 crisis, many people strongly suspected that the financial system would play an important role as we reach the limits of a finite world because debt defaults are likely to disturb the worldwide financial system.

    The model also leaves out humans’ continual battle with pathogens. The problem with pathogens becomes greater as world population becomes denser, facilitating transmission. The problem also becomes greater as a larger share of the population becomes more susceptible, either because they are elderly or because they have underlying health conditions that have been hidden by an increasingly complex and expensive medical system.

    As a result, we cannot really believe the part of Figure 1 that is after 2020. The future downslopes of population, industrial production per capita, and food per capita all seem likely to be steeper than shown on the chart because both the debt and pathogen problems are likely to increase the speed at which the economy declines.

    [2] It is far more than the population that has overshot limits.

    https://ourfiniteworld.com/2020/05/13/understanding-our-pandemic-economy-predicament/

    Now if only Star Trek’s Scotty were here with us along with some of his dilithium crystals we might have a real solution to our predicament – or would we just take a new, cheap, dilithium energy supply to further strip mine and pollute the earth looking for minerals to build high tech gadgets and self-driving cars while burning down even more rainforests to plant soybean plantations and cattle farms to meet the consumer demand brought about by the new growth resulting from Scotty’s new, cheap energy gift?

    OK Class – discuss.

  26. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David,

    I am suggesting that selling Barbados as a haven from Covid 19 would not be my strategy.

    Buh doan mine me.De marketing maguffees got dis. Uh wunda wha PLT tink.

  27. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    Given the challenge that exist to promote economic activity and battle Covid 19 at the same time what alternative approach do you recommend?

  28. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    Despite our perceived efforts of successfully managing COVID-19, marketing Barbados as a virus free haven may not be a very good strategy at this time. Especially when one considers other territorial destinations that previously recorded relatively low cases, such as Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten, have reported an increase.

    Look at how St. Lucia, which is boasting about having reported a 100% recovery rate from COVID-19, is dealing with their tourism industry.

  29. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ GreenMonkey August 18, 2020 10:00 AM

    We had a large inflow of capital from the mid-1990s until 2007, especially for the property market. Since 2008, the market has been completely ebbing.

    However, there are more reasons for the fact this we had ZERO economic growth since 2008. Just look at the Taliban-like conservatism. We have no casino, no other amusements etc. that could attract more tourists. Nor is it attractive to invest in property in a country that does not use the USD but a currency without any value.

    Instead, the local racists and other radicals are agitating against foreign investors, same-sex couples and against any progress in society. These people want a new Uganda or Zimbabwe to spread their radical agenda. As long as the population pays homage to Presscott and the outspoken senator, investors will continue to stay far away from Barbados.

    My criticism does not include our present government, of course. Our leader has brought a private foreign university into the country and is doing her very best. She even listens to the BU community, especially to PLT. We will see whether this is enough to feed the many hungry mouths on the overpopulated island.

  30. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ William Skinner August 17, 2020 6:31 PM

    Our so-called “reserves” consist almost exclusively of loans and government securities, that is, debts. Correctly, it should be “currency debts”, not “currency reserves”. If the Barbadian Newspeak were correct, countries like Argentina or Ukraine would have particularly high “currency reserves”.

    If I borrow five million USD from the bank, I will have five million debt, not five million equity.

    Our Central Bank has been lying to the population about these facts since its inception. However, Central Bank is only so successful in rewriting the facts because the children at school only learn useless stuff like poems and singing the national anthem, but no economics.

  31. W.Parker Avatar
    W.Parker

    If I was going to a restaurant or bar I would go to a locally owned and operated one and not one that did not want me in the good times!

  32. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ GreenMonkey

    It is the end of growth. In about 100 years, and the invention of the internal combustion engine, the world is on the brink of a climatic disaster.
    Mainstream economics has devised a narrow way of measuring progress through gross domestic product (an 1930s invention), which counts only monetary transactions.
    If a nation of people are happy, conventional economics does not measure that. That is why Prof Richard Layard created his happiness index (I was in the audience when it was launched).
    A related issue is what is called externalities, that is when production or consumption affects a third party, but that is considered external to the market. So, damage from logging, over-fishing, road-building, mining, etc are externalities if they are not considered in the cost of the product.
    Most corporations do not include negative externalities in their pricing; for example, if you have a cement factory that is destroying the lives of local people such an economic loophole is exploited by the corporation, since they do not have to compensate local people or pay taxation on their pollution and abuse. That cost passes on to the ordinary taxpayer, while the profits from the enterprise remain with the company.
    Asset depletion, such as over-fishing (conch, sea-eggs, sprats, etc) are treated as income (the fishermen make money) while the value of the actual asset is ignored, especially their value to future generations.
    Just look at oil depletion. At first it is cheap to extract from land-based sources, then as those are depleted it moves offshore, then to other forms of extractions, all of which are more expensive.
    I will give another example of how economists cook the books. Post-Covid, it is now common to talk about unemployment as a pay-roll issue, as the number of people removed from payrolls, etc. So, if you are not on a payroll, ie PAYE, and not working, officially you are not unemployed.

  33. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ GreenMonkey

    I forgot. When all those jokers talk about the genius of Owen Arthur’s economics policies, ask them to give facts and not emotion.

  34. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    “Printing our own money/float currency”

    fortyacresandamule, explained in depths the consequences for BDS or any country that imports every commodity needed to sustain economic stability. However, the GOV can cultivate medical marijuana in the existing abandoned sugar cane fields and eventually become the biggest hub in the southern Atlantic for the commodity that is responsible for globally $60 billion USD annually to date. Projections $75 billion USD 2027 or much higher. Discuss the idea with our Christian ✝️ community heads. The biggest farms around the world are located in countries with climates that won’t sustain the cultivation, they uses in-closed nurseries with controlled light/heating systems. In the short term we won’t have to borrow from lending institutions or countries to prop up our economy. The GOV can implement stiff penalties against theft/arsonist. Our biggest foreign currency resource to date was tourism. How long do we plan to wait for their $$. Why these countries go to extreme measures to cultivate medical marijuana product $$$$$

  35. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    @ W.Parker

    I agree, the Cliff won’t want you there and you won’t be able to afford the bottle water. John Moore have good crooks too. I’m sorry that was meant to be cooks.

  36. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    How do you know he couldn’t afford the bottled water?
    Is buying bottled water a sign of affluence?
    What if the cooks are really crooks? Then the bottled water may be from the pipe?
    What if Cliff was really Steve?
    I just realized that cuhdear really enjoys mAking irritating comments.

  37. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    @ TheOGazerts

    We should always proof read before texting or hitting send. Last week I was out having a good time. I text de wife an told her what a sweet time I’m having and said “darling I wish you were her” I forgot de other E. I was scared to eat de piping hot/sweaty coucou when I got home. I ain’t eat from home in a week. Cause I scared 😟

  38. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Time to rethink barbados policies on crime and violence
    Dont forget that the USA is quick to issue high level alerts on small islands where crime has taken a stronghold
    Today will mark 28 murders in barbados for the year
    If the Tourist dollar counts govt must get their act together in ways to create a safe and secure environment for the visiting tourist

  39. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    @ Mariposa

    That’s a very high number for a population of 280.000. What are the contributing factors???

  40. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Tony
    I suspect their are multiple contributing factors
    For e.g a family dispute between two siblings resulted in death of a sister
    Then they are the underground mafioso style killings which govt attributes to drugs
    However there are also the drive by’s which might contribute to lawless youth having nothing else to do with their time and where innocent lives have been involved
    What ever the reason the growing numbers would reflect on how the outside world sees barbados as a safe and secure place to be
    Not forgetting that tourism is our number one economic nest basket

  41. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    @ Mariposa

    Understood. Something drastic has to be in place as a deterrent. The Shadow ministers need to send proposed solutions to the blog master on the subject. It’s an urgent matter that require Immediate input.

  42. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Not kidding something has to be done
    COVID kicking butt on one sidr and crime and violence on the othet
    Two major negative forces that will affect the tourism industry
    Also something of enormous expense which our health system cannot afford
    Now given that govt has extended a welcome come one and all hand for people to come here and work increase crime would not help those of likened minds to make a decision to come to barbados
    Which would add another blow to the tourism industry

  43. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    RE: “COVID kicking butt on one side and crime and violence on the other. Two major negative forces that will affect the tourism industry.”

    I’m a bit curious, so, please allow me to ask you ‘one or two’ questions.

    If crimes used to deter people from travelling, then, why countries such as Jamaica, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico or Puerto Rico where certain crimes are perpetrated against both tourists and locals…….. remain popular tourist destinations?

    In Barbados we’re experiencing an increase in crimes, some of which are as a result of reprisals, drugs, gangs and silly immature men.

    Don’t you believe people would want to travel here, since there is a low incidence of crime against visitors?
    Why would tourists want to travel to Jamaica where crime is also on the increase…… and not Barbados?
    Why has the US issued travel advisories for COVID-19 only, and not for both COVID-19 and crime?

    Why is it the ‘alarmists’ among us are prepared to accept as gospel, any negative characterization the US places on any country…….yet, they ignore the fact that, although the USA has several law enforcement agencies, perhaps the most worldwide, several US states are among countries with the highest crime rates in the world?

    This region does not issue travel advisories against traveling to the US………… and we ignore crime and violence in its states to travel there for vacation, work or to study.

    Just asking (for a friend).

  44. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Artax
    You’re absolutely correct. Nobody wants crime ,but all the tourists who come here are exposed to all kinds of crimes almost every second in their countries.

  45. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    “Demarco Gibbs, the ten-year-old boy who was hospitalised for the past four weeks in a coma, passed away tonight.”

    Condolences to his family and friends.

  46. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @40
    https://medium.com/@RJGriffith/barbados-and-the-indecent-inconsistency-of-currency-devaluation-989c4ffa4a07

  47. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    My sympathy to “Demarco Gibbs” Family 🙏

  48. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    In international countries the tourist venues are predominately out of the areas where there is frequent crime
    For e.g In Disney World a place widely known for tourist situated in an area which is far removed from the city limits of Miami and where crime is at its very lowest
    Add to all this is the frequency of police involvement for safety and security
    Compare these countries to little barbados where security and safety has reached a roadblock having an inactive AG and no set pre- planned day to day schedule of dealing with ongoing crime is an exercise in futility
    If Barbados is serious about investing in tourism nipping crime in the bud must be given a high priority
    Looking across the water into other peoples back yard is not the answer

  49. Tony Avatar
    Tony

    Crime In Barbados 🇧🇧
    Mr. Blog Master Sir, this topic needs your immediate attention at the forefront. As per noted by “Mariposa“
    Barbados is serious about investing in tourism nipping crime in the bud must be given a high priority.
    Looking across the water into other peoples back yard is not the answer.

    We can’t wait for the negative publicity coming out of Europe or South America via the press that feeds on ???????

  50. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Williams Industries has teamed up with an international global player in operating airports to bid to run the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA).

    The company, owned by industrialist “Bizzy” Williams in consortium with VINCI Airports, is among 12 other bidders vying for the operations, financing, development and maintenance of the state-owned airport.

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/08/20/bids-open-as-a-dozen-firms-vie-for-airport-contract/

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