Recent NewsThat's because the bulk of CLICO Life's Executive Flexible Premium Annuities (EFPAs) - which promised high interest rates on deposits - become due in 2012.
According to the senior Government official, "All the potential buyers expressed concern about the EFPAs, most of which will mature in 2012, and that's around $300 million."
"The problem with CLICO is that there is an assets/liabilities mismatch," he explained.
by CLYDE MASCOLL
The current economic circumstances require seriousness.
By April 1 of this year, the balance on the account goes to zero regardless of whether or not the Government makes any payment. The most recent published information suggests that the balance on the ways and means account is $274 million, just short of its legal limit. This balance has been persistently high since April 2008 which is indicative of the fiscal condition.
As stated, the balance of the ways and means account goes to zero at the start of the fiscal year, but this does mean that Government no longer has the liability; it is that a new paymaster account will be opened alongside the existing ones.
The ways and means limit was a source of major controversy when the Erskine Sandiford administration was accused of breaking it in those difficult days of the early 1990s. Access to the funds of the National Insurance Scheme seems to be a temporary alternative source of financing and over the last two years the Government has borrowed a lot more money from the scheme.
This seems to be a failure to admit that excessive spending of the Government, not only the recession, is at fault.
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He questioned the reasoning behind the sum of the supplementary that would almost double the figure outlined for the project originally, which was just over $12 million.
“That is not a supplementary Sir. You cannot increase something, pay almost 100 percent and call it a supplementary. What this speaks to is the fact that the Ministry of Public Works grossly underestimated the amount of works that would be required for this stimulus package or that the Honourable Minister did not have due regard to the proper cost of these works. The people require an explanation. You just can’t come in here and say ‘We need an extra $10 million’‚ Sir. We want to know on which specific road is this extra $10 million going. We want to know why $10 million. It is scandalous when a minister has to come to this chamber and say that he needs almost 100 percent more to execute a program that he originally said to us was well thought out and almost precisely conceived,” Marshall said.
He said the situation was so chronic with Clico in T&T that it caused a rippling effect in the region. T&T must address existing weaknesses in order to strengthen regional financial stability.
He said there are lessons to be learnt from the regional crisis:
• urgent need for all regional jurisdictions to strengthen national financial legislation and regulatory practices.
• establishment of a framework to facilitate close collaboration among regional regulators in the regulation of cross-border institutions.
• establishment of a national crisis managment plan which would detail how regulatory authorities would react in the event of a systemic financial crisis
• greater appreciation of or a link between macro-economic forces and micro-prudential supervision.
Williams describes the regional financial crisis as an important wake-up call that cannot be ignored.
With Barbados' sovereignty being surrendered to Washington, and with DLP Policies now carrying the IMF's: "Made in Washington Label," PM Thompson invites Barbadians to wrap themselves in the flag. Whose - Barbados or the American?
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One of the main ingredients of the plan was the intention to move Barbados from a $500 million deficit to a surplus within a five-year period.
But according to Mottley, the two plans look, smell and feel like International Monetary Fund (IMF) plans seen before.
"We feel this is an IMF plan," Mottley claimed. "It is amazingly reflective of the seven Article IV recommendations, all in this document, and a more nuanced approach to where the cuts must come, how we must adjust, and the time period over which the adjustment must come needs to take place. We are not satisfied that has happened so far."
GOVERNMENT'S MEDIUM TERM fiscal programme which is to be debated by the social partnership today is being termed a hoax about to be perpetrated on Barbadians.
That's the charge from former prime minister Owen Arthur in an address to the St Michael East constituency branch of the Barbados Labour Party.
He has warned that the package includes a five-year wage freeze, increases in VAT and excise tax along with increased fees for Government services, including NHC rents.
"We all agreed that, given what has happened in the last year, expenditure should be cut. But the issue now is whether this country should be forced for the first time since Independence to surrender its sovereignty in such a way that the Government of Barbados cannot even borrow a small loan to help build a school," he said.
Responding to a question from the audience about his 14-year stewardship of Government and the huge national debt which he left in January 2008, Arthur said the costs of providing government and services were spiralling out of the reach of most Caribbean countries.
Arthur said the significant debt that his administration accrued was all reflected in assets that would serve generations of Barbadians for a long time.
He noted hat there were many important challenges that developing countries now faced which they didn't face in the past.
Arthur told the large crowd that frequently interrupted him with applause, that Barbados would have suffered if he had not undertaken such a strategy. He stressed the assets were available to show how the money had been spent.
OPPOSITION Leader Mia Mottley has blasted the David Thompson administration over its management of the “affairs of this country”.
The response came after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on completion of its staff visit to this country, released a statement that stressed while Barbados had experienced some economic challenges, the Government’s initiatives to date had been successful. The IMF also cautioned the Government to seriously look at cutting its spending, since debt was now 100 per cent of GDP.
Mottley charged that the economic policies of the Prime Minister have led to a deterioration in the country’s economic position.
She lamented the fact that the situation continued to worsen with worrying speed. “It is now beyond question that the Prime Minister’s management of the affairs of this country is dangerous at any speed.
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The Prime Minister’s removal of Arni Walters from Cabinet and his appointment as Executive Chairman of the Barbados Water Authority is a classic case of treating the symptoms and not the cause of the disease.
Even more disturbing though is that the post of Executive Chairman does not exist within the Barbados Water Authority Act.
The Prime Minister is essentially placing Mr. Walters in a collision course with the law. Is this how he defines good governance?
What we have instead is the shifting of someone who has failed in his two special missions - to deliver new Labour Legislation and the Government’s Immigration policy.
“Barbados has been severely affected by the global economic crisis. In particular, the deep global recession has curbed tourism, affecting related activities such as construction and trade which, in turn, depressed aggregate demand and raised unemployment. As a result, economic activity contracted significantly in 2009 after remaining broadly stagnant in 2008."
Reducing government spending, increasing tax collection efficiency, and broadening the tax base would support the exchange rate regime and improve the government’s balance sheet.
Moreover, credible and sustainable measures can actually raise medium-term growth, as better debt dynamics and lower pressure on external reserves would raise the private sector’s willingness to invest in Barbados. Thus, the authorities’ intention to push forward a medium-term fiscal consolidation strategy is very welcome.”
‘DANGEROUS AT ANY SPEED’
It is clear that the Prime Minister and the DLP Government have surrendered the leadership of this economy to Washington D.C. and the IMF. We are not surprised that the IMF has praised this plan as it is theirs.
Tomorrow afternoon at St. Albans School I will be showing the public that his Medium Term Fiscal Strategy is the IMF’s Plan, as reflected last year in the IMF’s Article IV Consultation.
The Prime Minister actions and inaction are a danger to this country’s stability. When the Prime Minister should be inspiring confidence in the management of the Barbados economy in these difficult times, he shuffles the chairs on the decks of the Titanic.
IT IS SO EASY to speak the gospel truth about the Barbados economy and be accused by individuals, who may not know better and are certainly not well intentioned, of preaching "doom and gloom".
Such reception ought not to deter, neither prevent making public, proper analysis of the country's condition which must not be confined to the economy.
Attempts to mask the truth by giving non-economists a forum to sing for their supper will not reduce the task ahead of pulling the country's fiscal condition from the brink of total disaster. We are first and foremost Barbadians and no effort should be spared in sorting out the sordid mess in which the country has found itself, simply out of ignorance.
According to the last year's International Monetary Fund (IMF) Article IV consultation, the Barbados economy was expected to decline by three per cent in 2009.
Given the obvious further deterioration of the Government's finances since then, the decline in the economy has been much more than what the IMF forecast.
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Manning also indicated that other countries would send money to T&T’s Central Bank from where the funds would be sent to Haiti. “It’s not only that, but when we met in the wider Latin American Grouping and Caribbean countries, countries pledged a number of contributions in excess of $20 million for Haiti and they mandated T&T to open an account in our Central Bank and those monies would be wired into the account and the Central Bank of T&T would send that money to an account in Haiti,” he said. He added that T&T’s financial assistance to Haiti should reach there within days.
OPPOSITION LEADER MIA MOTTLEY has charged a "heartless" Government with firing food and beverage workers at the state-owned Savannah Hotel just before last Christmas and outsourcing the section to a concessionaire.
Yesterday in the House of Assembly, Mottley quoted from a letter, dated December 15, from the human resources manager at Gems of Barbados to staff.
It said: "As you are aware, the company is taking steps to lease the food and beverage operation to a concessionaire, effective Friday, January 15, 2010.
"This means therefore that your employment relationship with Gems of Barbados ends on January 14, 2010.
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With new government paper valued TT$3.4 billion on its balance sheet, Clico would be in a position to use the bonds as collateral to raise additional cash, financial sources disclosed.
This process, referred to as a repurchase agreement or a repo, is normally used by companies to raise short-term money, and would allow Clico to raise more than TT$3 billion over the life of the three tranches of the bond.
Analysts said that the heavy snow at the beginning of the month, coupled with the return of VAT back to 17.5 per cent, impinged on overall sales. But clothes retailers benefited from the weather, as demand for winter coats and boots coupled with January discounting, boosted sales of shoes and clothes by 4.7 per cent, the biggest rise since June 2009.
However snowbound consumers were not even tempted to go online to shop. Non-store retailing, which includes internet and mail-order sales, fell by 3.2 per cent, the biggest drop since January last year.
Colin Ellis, European economist at Daiwa Capital Markets, said that while a decline in sales in January had been on the cards, the size of the fall would dampen the country’s economic growth: “With the labour market still very weak and private sector earnings growth almost non-existent — and tax rises and public spending cuts looming — there is little reason to expect a strong bounceback in household spending this year.”
"Regardless of the price charged, the amount of usage will not decrease substantially, and that is from a pure economic perspective. That is why we speak to methods of conservation," the first-time senator added.
Noting that water remained an essential item for any country, Holder said that its want was an inelastic demand, which meant an increase in price would not bring about a substantial change in the quantity of the good used.
President Obama said that 19 million Americans had their unemployment benefits extended under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, while 95 per cent of working people got a tax cut and 38 million individuals were assisted by increased distribution of food stamps.
"Our work is far from over but we have rescued this economy from the worst of this crisis."
The President admitted, however, that with 9.7 per cent unemployment plaguing the US, “it doesn’t yet feel like much of a recovery”. The programme is expected to save 3.5 million jobs in total over two years.
Opposition parliamentarian Ronald Toppin made the suggestion yesterday when the House of Assembly debated a bill to make the FTC responsible for setting water rates.
Toppin suggested that the FTC should start proceedings post-haste, reviewing the books, accounts, systems and operations of the BWA and involving consumers, with the assistance of the Office of Public Counsel.
While supporting the bill, Toppin complained that Government was "putting the horse before the cart" in introducing a 60 per cent increase in water rates and then moving to make the FTC responsible for determining rates.
Opposition parliamentarian Ronald Toppin made the suggestion yesterday when the House of Assembly debated a bill to make the FTC responsible for setting water rates.
Toppin suggested that the FTC should start proceedings post-haste, reviewing the books, accounts, systems and operations of the BWA and involving consumers, with the assistance of the Office of Public Counsel.
While supporting the bill, Toppin complained that Government was "putting the horse before the cart" in introducing a 60 per cent increase in water rates and then moving to make the FTC responsible for determining rates.
How can Barbadians have any confidence in the words of the Prime Minister?
Barbadian public servants are no closer today to knowing whether they will have to face a wage freeze by this Government. The only thing that Barbadians know for sure is that Prime Minister Thompson has a preference for the word moratorium, as he feels this is a gentler word.
The results however will be the same. No matter the choice of language, public servants will still feel the pain in their pockets no matter which word he uses.
The Opposition is still willing to sit on a Joint Select Finance Committee of Both Houses of Parliament. We too are willing to wrap ourselves in the flag but not at the expense of the public servants or to excuse the incompetence of the Minister of Finance
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The evidence clearly shows that excessive spending is the root cause of the current fiscal position and not the slowdown in Government revenue collection.
The only way to truly address the fiscal crisis is through structured expenditure cuts which have to be planned over a three-to-five-year period.
Put simply, the stock of foreign reserves being held by the monetary authorities is what is keeping the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from the shores of Barbados.
Barbados' fiscal position is much worse than it was in the early 1990s; but unlike that period, the country has international reserves.
To compound the plight of Barbadians by freezing their wages is unnecessary and certainly at variance with what is required to help pull the economy out of recession.
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He said the then board was concerned with improving programming, ensuring the station's financial viability and improving the skills of the resident journalists.
Speaking at a mass meeting at St Patrick's, Christ Church, on Sunday night, Mottley said Thompson's Democratic Labour Party (DLP) manifesto and promises to the Barbadian populace amounted to a social contract which the Government had broken at every turn.
She said Barbadians voted for the Government on the strength of promises that included: Duty free cars for police, nurses and teachers; VAT off electricity; 2 000 lots at $2.50 per square foot; a special interest-free fund for public servants, among others.
The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) leader said since the DLP Government came into power, it had directed its energies in one direction.
She said Thompson was practising a politics of "families first", where the only people benefiting from what little his administration was doing, were close friends of the party.
Mottley said the greatest promises were made to Barbados' public sector and it was to them that the greatest betrayal was now being meted out.
That is the view of Roger Smith, Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidate for the constituency of St Philip West, as he shone spotlight on the two-year tenure of the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) since it took over the reins of government.
Smith, speaking at a mass meeting at St Patrick's, Christ Church, on Sunday night, said that the DLP should not take credit for a number of roads built in the constituency because they were part of the road programme conceptualised by the BLP.
He also said that nothing came from the Dems in terms of housing, adding that "the case was well made" that all the progress that was seen for the past two years was from residual BLP projects.
"I have come to the firm realisation that a man's purpose in life is to work towards the advancement of human civilisation within his capacity so to do, and politics provides an opportunity for all right-minded persons to use statecraft, the power and apparatus of Government to improve the lives of one's fellow citizens."
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh making his budget presentation in the National Assembly yesterday.
The budget, titled “Consolidate, transform, sustain,” represents a 10.8 % increase over last year’s announced expenditure. Like last year, Singh did not announce an increase in the income tax threshold but noted that there would be no new taxes.
According to the Finance Minister, the overall real growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to be 4.4%.
Last year, the country recorded a Growth Rate of Real GDP of 2.3%. In the 2009 Budget, this figure had been pegged at 4.7%.
In relation to inflation, Singh projected a rate of 4%. In 2009, Guyana recorded an inflation rate of 3.6%. The Finance Minister said that “this occurred against the background of the depressed global conditions…which resulted in price pressures imported into the domestic economy being minimal.”
By Clyde Mascoll
ON THE SAME DAY that the Minister of Economic Affairs is calling for a national wage freeze, the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister is proposing that Barbadians establish small businesses as the major way of creating jobs in the short term.
Apparently the Government has not yet learnt that it takes consumer spending to truly generate economic activity. In the face of recent evidence that additional taxation reduced consumption expenditure which comprised the base of Government tax collection, the idea of a wage freeze still emerges from the lips of a minister.
It is unreasonable to expect workers to bear the brunt of rising food cost; a 60 per cent hike in water rates; a pending increase in electricity on top of the fuel clause adjustments; staggered increases in telephone rates; higher cost of insurance; more road taxes to name a few, and then call for a national wage freeze.
The freezing of wages is an anti-growth strategy which puts jobs under more severe pressure both in the private and public sectors. The strategy reduces spending power and so hurts the private sector.
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The public servants of Barbados have already effectively taken a cut in salary over the last 2 years where their wage increases were wiped out by rising inflation.
To have a wage freeze on top of this is to take more money out of their pockets especially given the known increases in the prices for water, electricity, telephone, energy products and other rates and fees, like road taxes. And let us not forget that it was the Prime Minister who has led the charge in this arena of price hikes.
The public must not be fooled that by failing to agree to a wage freeze that there will inevitably be layoffs.
Yet again here is a Government that is prepared to ask the public servants, just like in 1991, to pay the price for their incompetence over the last two years. We will address this matter on Sunday night in St Patricks and lay bare the facts.
One minute they want to buy BNB and Sam Lords. Now they want to sell Government assets.
The two areas of current expenditure which have grown fastest are wages and salaries, and transfers and subsidies. Having committed itself to legislation, cutting wages is not an option but cutting subsidies and transfers is an option and, perhaps, goods and services.
Incidence explains why the Government collected less indirect taxation after imposing heavy taxation in July 2008 on the wrong groups. What is needed is more economic activity from which Government derives more taxes, especially VAT.
I know it is not usual for Government to reduce taxation while reducing expenditure, but the economic circumstances are not usual. Barbados has never been in a fiscal crisis of the magnitude being witnessed, not even in 1990/91.
The saviour for us at this time is the stock of foreign reserves which is enough to keep the country from approaching the International Monetary Fund.
Unfortunately, if the current winter season performs below par, then the second half of 2010 will be more than challenging.
“Oh No! Not At This Time”
The Barbados Labour Party is of the view that: “now is not the time for any electricity rate hike as Barbadians are already at their limit - having to tighten their belts and make harsh decisions, in the face of the high cost of living and increases in fees, rates and taxes.”
While the Barbados Light and Power has not had a rate increase for 26 years, it has been adequately compensated by the Fuel Adjustment Charge and has also benefitted from more efficient operations and cheaper capital through Government provided guarantees.
“Even if there was a case for an adjustment – now is not the time.”
We regret that the Government has not set a good example, in respect of its increase in water rates and other fees and taxes. Further, it is unfortunate that the Government is not speaking out on behalf of Barbadians families and businesses, who will bear the brunt of this electricity increase.
The IMF yesterday told The Gleaner that while its executive board was scheduled to consider Jamaica's request on February 4, it expects that by tomorrow the Government would provide it with key information.
"The debt exchange should yield the intended interest savings and extension of maturities; and a plan for Air Jamaica should be outlined," Andreas Adriano, IMF spokesperson, told The Gleaner.
Adriano said the decision to delay the executive board's discussion of Jamaica's request was made last week, when it was realised that it would not be possible to get the results of the debt exchange in time for a January 27 meeting of the board.
The IMF executive board was expected to rule on Jamaica's request yesterday, but in a late-night submission to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Finance Minister Audley Shaw announced a delay.
He said the only outstanding issue is the trust fund mechanism through which the money will be disbursed and Guyana hopes to conclude discussions on this with Norway and the World Bank by next month.
The agreement with Norway provides Guyana with an initial payment of US$30M into Guyana’s REDD+ (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) development fund and Norway will offer further investment in the country of up to US$250M if this initial investment succeeds in reducing emissions and tackling poverty as expected.
But while the Norway agreement is well under way, Guyana is unhappy that pledges by developed countries to a US$10 billion fund for countries more vulnerable to the catastrophic impact of climate change have not yet materialised.
“We are very unhappy that of the US$10 billion pledged, very little has actually been delivered so far”, he said, noting that the United Nations has called on the countries that made the pledges to stump up the money.
The source told Stabroek Business that large companies with pension funds invested with CLICO have begun to come under “real and persistent pressure” from employees whom he says “have now become totally preoccupied with concerns over the fate of their savings.”
Meanwhile, Stabroek Business has learnt that local companies with funds invested with CLICO are also facing complaints from employees over problems associated with the unavailability of payment of medical expenses under their health insurance plans.
Companies are reportedly faced with requests from employees for loans and advances to meet medical expenses which would otherwise have been met under their health insurance plans. The source named one major company that is said to be pushing for the matter to receive “more serious official attention.”
Fortunately there is a blueprint, drawn up by Haiti’s government and presented to donors last year. It calls for investment to be targeted on infrastructure, basic services and combating soil erosion to make farmers more productive and the country less vulnerable to hurricanes.
More than a week after the earth convulsed beneath it, Haiti has still to plumb the depths of suffering and want. The numbers are still only more-or-less informed guesses, but their magnitude is grim: perhaps 200,000 killed, 250,000 more injured and some 3m in desperate need of help. The generosity of the world’s response has also been profound. Barack Obama led the way, dispatching 16,000 American troops and marines, but others, from Europe to Brazil, Cuba, China and Israel, responded too. Immediate promises of aid added up to around nearly $1 billion.
The urgent task is to connect this supply of help with the demand. That is proving extraordinarily hard (see article). Seven days after the earthquake, the United Nations had got food to only 200,000 people.
Lessons from other disasters are not always relevant to Haiti. The Asian tsunami, for example, struck a ribbon of remote, mainly rural, areas. The governments of the affected nations could lead the relief effort. But Haiti’s institutions were weak even before the disaster.
To lose, on a 43-point swing, a Senate seat that has been in Democratic hands since 1953 takes some doing, even in the teeth of the worst recession since the 1930s>
Unemployment is stuck at 10%; and if you add to that the number of people who are working part-time because they cannot get a full-time job, as well as those who have simply given up looking, you reach a figure of around 17%. The proportion of long-term unemployed is at its highest since the government started collecting the statistic in 1948.
The terrible fear is that the recovery will be long, slow and jobless. The greatest challenge he now faces is explaining how he plans to tackle these problems without inflating the deficit even more than he already has.
Time for a rethink
One thing, though, is clear. The brief era in which the Democrats felt they could push through anything they wanted, courtesy of their thumping majorities in the House and the Senate and their occupancy of the White House, is over.
Williams said new legislation was being finalised to strengthen the financial services sector, adding that reforms were necessary to add to the confidence the public will have in the economy as well as the sector.
“New legislation was introduced to the Parliament to tighten up some of the loopholes when the CL Financial crisis initially occurred. However, no one can really give protection from any institution or individual that is determined to go around the rules and regulations to defraud investors.
Williams said the ongoing operations of Clico were difficult because the company has been facing problems convincing policyholders to roll over their investments and a decision will soon be taken on the future of the organisation.
“The amount of rollovers have been much lower than we had anticipated and we have contracted a team of consultants to review the business model and possibly make adjustments as we move forward.”
“Good night, One Love, One Aim and One Destiny” announced the newly nominated Prescod as he addressed a hall packed with almost 300 BLP supporters and stalwarts.
“This is a community from which I sprung, this school that I stand in tonight is responsible for making me what I am. So I owe my life to the people of [this constituency] and I want to say thank you for making me who I am”.
Prescod stated “I … will remain consistent to the path of history, I will not allow any diversions to offset me from my objective, my mission. It will always be to ensure that some part of the national cake is given to the poor black masses of this country”.
“We have to have institutions so that we can build the kind of Barbados that would respect the desires of ordinary people … I want to take working class children whose parents don’t have any money, [and give them] the opportunity to go into a pre-primary setting just like the other people of this country can go” continued Prescod.
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That was the suggestion of Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Leader Mia Mottley on Sunday at St Giles Primary School, as she delivered the feature address after the unopposed selection of Trevor Prescod to contest the St Michael East seat in the next general election.
Mottley said Barbadians merited a different type of politics and a new form of Government that moved away from the traditional practice of division in the country.
She charged that rather than concentrating on the aspects of development that had previously worked for the country, Thompson was caught up in the worst practices of traditional politics.
International business is still declining as the report shows and tax receipts from that sector are down by 34.4 percent after the adjustments are made,” she said, adding, “Exports are down by 65 million over the last two years and there is no program to stimulate them or protect what remains.
The receipt from corporation taxes from the domestic companies are down $50 million from two years ago”.
Stating that 4 000 more Barbadians became unemployed last year and their dependent families were plunged into despair by extension, Opposition Leader Mia Mottley said this issue must be addressed with a degree of urgency.
Speaking to the press recently in her office, she noted that Barbadian companies have confirmed that the Employment Stabilization Program as currently construed was not attractive.
The 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday had affected one-third of the nation’s population, left 300,000 homeless and claimed about 50,000 lives, including top UN official in Haiti, Hédi Annabi.
The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that many survivors had sustained serious injuries, including crushed limbs and traumatic wounds, identifying medical support as an immediate need.
World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Emilia Casella said the agency had received US$20 million in donations so far and was aiming to reach the two million people affected by the quake.
The UN reported that food and medical help had started to arrive in Port-au-Prince, but on a very limited scale.
They UN also said said it was committed to ensuring the aid reached people as quickly as possible.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had dispatched his former Special Representative to Haiti and current Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmund Mulet to assume full command of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti and co-ordinate all relief efforts.
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The Central Bank Governor’s report confirms that this is a Government up a creek without a paddle. An aimless Government, directionless and without compass. The economy is on auto-pilot in the middle of a perfect storm.
What is it that the Government is trying to do? They said that they wanted to deal with costs; and they failed. They said one year later that they wanted to deal with jobs; and they failed.
This Government has developed the habit of setting targets; but having no strategy to achieving them.
We need to know what they are doing to protect Barbadian households, Barbadian jobs and Barbadian businesses. The primary purpose of Government is to protect the people. They cannot just say this is what they want to do and hope or wait and see if it will happen by accident.
This government has no growth strategy. In 2008 they increased a range of taxes, rates and fees and compounded the recession. They must now know that you cannot tax your way out of the recession.
The Government is borrowing from National Insurance in an unprecedented manner and quantity and this requires independent assurances that pensioners are not being put at risk.
Prices in Barbados have risen more as a result of domestic actions and policies than the international environment.
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The scale of the disaster is really as a result of Haiti’s continued impoverishment.
I think that it is, time for this hemisphere and the Global community to recognize that it is simply not good enough for us to live in a world where some have so much and others have so little.
In our own backyard we may not be able to offer the level of support in terms of financial resources but our voices must be continued to be heard on the case of Haiti.
It is a moral issue and one that requires our continuous support, not just at the level of Governments but at the level of all Caribbean people.
Clearly, we have across the Region to do whatever we can.
It is not the responsibility of Governments alone and I certainly want to add my voice to a request that all Barbadians (because every Barbadian in respect of their circumstances is considerably better off than persons in Haiti who have been affected by this earthquake) put them in our prayers and also find tangible ways of offering support.
The Barbados Labour Party will play its role in mobilizing people to contribute to the national effort.
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Twelve months ago, the panic sown by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers had pushed financial markets close to collapse. Global economic activity, from industrial production to foreign trade, was falling faster than in the early 1930s.
By mid-year the world’s big, rich economies (with the exception of Britain and Spain) had started to expand again. Only a few laggards, such as Latvia and Ireland, are now likely still to be in recession.
But thanks to the resilience of big, populous economies such as China, India and Indonesia, the emerging world overall fared no worse in this downturn than in the 1991 recession. For many people on the planet, the Great Recession was not all that great.
Fiscal tightening now could kill the rich world’s recovery.
That is why policymakers face huge technical difficulties in getting the exit strategies right.
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Women are wired differently from men, and not just in trivial ways.
They are less aggressive and more consensus-seeking, less competitive and more collaborative, less power-obsessed and more group-oriented. Judy Rosener, of the University of California, Irvine, argues that women excel at “transformational” and “interactive” management.
Peninah Thomson and Jacey Graham, the authors of “A Woman’s Place is in the Boardroom”, assert that women are “better lateral thinkers than men” and “more idealistic” into the bargain.
The recent financial crisis proved that the sort of qualities that men pride themselves on, such as risk-taking and bare-knuckle competition, can lead to disaster.
Women are now outperforming men markedly in school and university. It would be a grave mistake to abandon old-fashioned meritocracy just at the time when it is turning to women’s advantage.
When asked about the policy with respect to undocumented non-CARICOM immigrants, the Minister said the policy "would be" - not is - known at sometime in the future.
He further suggested that the issue with the undocumented non-CARICOM immigrants was "minuscule" by comparison and that most of these individuals had made a significant contribution to the social and economic development of this country anyhow.
According to the impression being given, an undocumented non-CARICOM immigrant is not the same as an undocumented CARICOM immigrant. The latter has broken the laws of Barbados because of the numbers involved, while the former is minuscule in numbers and so has not broken the laws. Therefore, the social and economic contribution of the undocumented non-CARICOM immigrant is sufficient to make him/her legal.
The issue of legality or illegality in relation to the immigration law on undocumented immigrants seems to be based on: (1) the numbers and (2) the ability to contribute socially and/or economically to the country. Is it fair to deduce from the minister's comments on the call-in programme that once an undocumented immigrant meets the social and economic criteria, that his/her fate is sure?
Public policy that is not well thought out and is seeking to correct an unclear mischief has the potential to lack clarity of purpose and certainty of incidence.
That has been the position of Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, and other regulators. It explains why Mr. Bernanke and the Obama administration are pushing Congress to give the Fed more authority over financial firms.
So let’s consider what an empowered Fed might have done during the housing bubble, based on the words of the people who were running it.
In 2004, Alan Greenspan, then the chairman, said the rise in home values was “not enough in our judgment to raise major concerns.” In 2005, Mr. Bernanke — then a Bush administration official — said a housing bubble was “a pretty unlikely possibility.” As late as May 2007, he said that Fed officials “do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy.”
The fact that Mr. Bernanke and other regulators still have not explained why they failed to recognize the last bubble is the weakest link in the Fed’s push for more power. It raises the question: Why should Congress, or anyone else, have faith that future Fed officials will recognize the next bubble?
The Barbados family has had a tough 2009.
We are in the uncustomary position, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, of being forecast as one of the 20 slowest growing economies, out of 192.
In the last year, almost 4000 people have become unemployed, families up and down the country have had to struggle to make ends meet with higher costs and rates.
The government has told us it is all under control, or has promised action once it has “waited and seen”.
Prime Minister Thompson will say much has been done, but whatever has been done, it was undeniably inadequate to stem the inexorable rise of joblessness and despair in 2009.
In the new year, we will continue to give the Prime Minister some more suggestions.
Our future requires leadership and vision today, a vision that has at its centre a growth-strategy not a high-tax strategy, a vision that embraces education not questions it, one that looks for ways to better integrate our economy with the region and the rest of the world, not to anger our trading partners in the hope of cheap political gain at home.
We urge Barbadians to join us in a national conversation that we will launch in 2010 to flesh out the details of such a vision.
Indeed we are most likely to face a further slow-down in major sectors of the economy with the decline in our productive sectors plummeting to double digits.
The national debt continues to increase, apparently financing consumption rather than building productive capacity. Government revenue is decreasing seemingly unable to cover expenditure and many Government Agencies are underperforming. In all of this our youth are the major casualties, being left to fend for themselves when they leave school due to the unavailability of jobs.
We do not come to be the bearers of gloom and doom. We highlight these issues because we recognise that the further our country slips, the worse off all Barbadians will be. This is not a BLP or DLP issue, this is a Barbadian issue.
The Prime Minister’s “wait and see” approach in dealing with this economic crisis is doing our country more damage than good. Let us think carefully and ask the Prime Minister how this approach is helping the 5000 people who lost their jobs last year and the 3000 people the year before.
The Barbados Labour Party and the League of Young Socialists will continue to fight for the rights of all Barbadians throughout this year, we hear your voices and we feel your pain.
We will champion the cause of the people and we shall never surrender until Barbadians can go to sleep at night knowing that their country is strong and resolute.
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No Caribbean country, however strong its domestic finances, is capable of sustaining extraordinary deficits on its Government's accounts, which literally means that the country is borrowing to meet its current expenditure obligations, including the payment of its civil servants.
To address the fiscal crisis, the Government has promised the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its Article IV consultation September 2009, to seek external funding from multilateral institutions and "to implement a strong fiscal adjustment programme in the period ahead". The former has apparently been done.
The minister of finance now needs to explain early in the New Year, what is meant by a strong fiscal adjustment and what is the period ahead?
The explanation becomes more urgent as the Government's finances have deteriorated more than expected in the post-Budget period.
By the Leader of the Opposition of Barbados - The Hon. Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P.,
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LIKE CHRISTIANS the world over, the majority of Barbadians will be celebrating tomorrow the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a special time for us as a nation and as a people.
Amidst the hustle and bustle of preparing for the gathering of family and friends, there may also be moments of quiet reflection, and I hope that we will use these quiet moments to remember that as a nation we are richly blessed.
Despite the economic setback we are currently experiencing, our nation rests on a solid foundation built over centuries on the values of thrift, industry and compassion for our neighbours.
As you meet with your loved ones and look forward to the year ahead, challenging as it may be, I ask you to think on these things. Spare a thought too for those who may not be as fortunate as you and resolve to do whatever you can, no matter how small, to bring comfort to someone else. A smile or a kind word costs nothing but may be invaluable to the recipient.
On behalf of my family, my colleagues in Parliament and the wider Barbados Labour Party family, I wish you and your family our heartfelt thanks for your support and best wishes and offer ours in return.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo, noting the global challenges faced, has expressed optimism about 2010 while emphasising that Government is managing its resources carefully.
He said about 20 million people worldwide lost their homes and another 50 million their jobs.
In the Caribbean region, President Jagdeo mentioned the collapse of CLICO and said the tourism industry is reeling from the impact of the global crisis.
He said, for example, Antigua and Barbuda cannot pay wages and salaries in the public sector and defaulted on its debt.
President Jagdeo said Jamaica has seen its currency depreciate significantly and the country had three of its four alumina plants, that contributed about 58 per cent of merchandise exports, shut down because of the crisis and fall in global demand.
He said, although he only gave two examples, almost every country in the region has some difficulty with meeting payments now, excepting, probably, Trinidad and Tobago, which has significant oil wealth.
Analysts had forecast that today's figure — the final estimate of national output for the third quarter — would show that the economy stopped contracting or even grew.
But while gross domestic product (GDP) contracted at a slower pace than the previous -0.3 per cent reading, the figures confirmed a sixth successive quarter of recession – the country’s longest downturn in history.
Today’s figures will serve as a further embarrassment for the Government, which is facing a general election next year.
America, China, Japan, France and Germany all returned to positive growth in the third quarter while most recently Ireland, which has been suffering from a severe downturn, also revealed it had left recession.
By any measure this is a phenomenal amount for an economy the size of ours.
It means the country has taken a ten percent pay cut, which incidentally is almost equal to the 10.5% decline in long stay visitors recorded for the same period.
As amazing as this revelation was, it was followed by the incredulous, if not idiotic, assertion by the new Chief of the Barbados Tourism Authority that somehow this slide to the back of the pack was not so bad because it could have been worse.
If this is how we are going to approach the marketing and management of our main money earner, then we had all better brace ourselves for a long, lean winter.
Even Guyana recorded an increase in arrivals. All of the others, with the exception of the Bahamas and Antigua are ahead of Barbados in the visitor arrival stakes.
We are fighting it out with less popular destinations like Grenada and St. Vincent & The Grenadines, who do not attract 100, 000 visitors a year for last place.
With this mindset it was no surprise that panic set in with the news that British Airways cabin crew might ground the airline over Christmas with a threatened strike.
Opposition Leader, Mia Mottley, said yesterday that now was the time to share with the needy more than ever.
“I believe that this has been a challenging year, but having said that ... we are a resilient people.
And, to that extent, we will reflect in all that we do, the Christian spirit that requires of us the ability to share, and to share especially with those who are least able to provide for themselves at this time of the year”.
The Opposition Leader added, “If ever there was a time to share, it is now, not just because it is Christmas, but the circumstances of this year have made it difficult for a number of people, who have either been laid off or who are on short week.
And to that extent, I think there’s an obligation for all of us to ensure that what we have is well-shared, such that there is no family who goes completely wanting at this time of year”.
As Barbadians we all need to be particularly aware of the impact of rising sea levels on our coastal environment, but in general each of us needs to take ownership of our environment.
Former Minister of the Environment, Liz Thompson is to be commended for her sterling work in initiating these two projects.
She also signed the Convention on Wetlands in 2006 enabling the designation of the Graeme Hall Swamp as a Ramsar Site and therefore a wetland of international importance.
Under her leadership Barbados was up front at the Bali Conference on Climate Change, pushing for a reduction of carbon emissions which would result in a 1.5 degree temperature increase rather than the 2 degree increase favoured by developed countries like the United States.
Liz’s work, particularly as it relates to climate change, was recognized by the United Nations with the award “Champion of the Earth 2008.
The announcement came as representatives from developing countries walked out of the climate talks in protest, saying that richer nations were not doing enough cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
The move stalled the ongoing negotiations, at least for the moment, as African delegates declared they were “outraged with the lack of transparency and democracy in the process.” “This is all part of the negotiating dynamic, especially as you get close to the end game,” said Jake Schmidt, director of international climate programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council,
The plan announced by Mr. Chu was called the Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative, formulated by an international energy partnership created under the Obama administration’s Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change. The forum brought together the handful of countries that are responsible for more than 85 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in a series of meetings this year.
The 2009 report, ‘Facing a changing world: women, population and climate’, concluded that climate change agreements and national policies are more likely to succeed in the long run if they take into account population dynamics, the relations between the sexes, and women’s well-being and access to services and opportunities.
It said that slower population growth, for example, would help build social resilience to climate change’s impacts and would contribute to a reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the future.
Generally, the 2009 report found that family planning, reproductive health care and gender relations could influence the future course of climate change and affect how humanity adapts to rising seas, worsening storms and severe droughts.
It pointed out that the role of population growth in the increase of greenhouse-gas emissions is far from the only demographic linkage salient to climate change, adding that household composition is one such variable that affects the amount of greenhouse gases thrust into the atmosphere.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking alongside Mr. Brown here at a summit of E.U. heads of state, said that France would contribute some $620 million next year to the so-called fast-start fund, which is designed to run over a three-year period until 2012, and could amount to an European contribution of more than 6 billion euros — or nearly $9 billion — in total.
Overnight in Copenhagen, some of the smallest and most vulnerable countries represented in climate talks — island states facing the prospect of centuries of rising seas in a warming world — fired off a warning shot in the form of a new draft text reducing by 0.5 degrees Celsius the proposed ceiling for global temperature accepted by most nations.
The world’s industrialized countries and emerging economic powers have pledged over the past year to work to limit warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above where temperatures stood in the 1800s — a figure that translates into about a 1.3 degree Fahrenheit warming from today’s global temperature of about 59 degrees.
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“We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth,” Mr. Obama said. “We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes.
There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.”
In a ceremony at Oslo City Hall, Mr. Obama was formally welcomed into the ranks of Nobel laureates who have won the prize, which was established 108 years ago.
He said he accepted the award with “deep gratitude and great humility,” conceding it could be seen as premature.
“We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend,” Mr. Obama said.
“And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it is easy, but when it is hard.”
He explained, “You’re seeing situations where traditionally if someone came for two weeks, perhaps they’re coming for ten days.
You’re seeing situations where guests who would hire a car for two weeks are perhaps saying – not this year.
You’re seeing guests who traditionally would stay in a suite coming this year and staying in a room.
You’re seeing that same guest saying – well what deal can you offer me?”
Senior Vice-president (Ag) at the Barbados Tourism Authority, Averil Byer, responding to a question that asked if the type of visitor to the island was changing noted that Barbados has always had a diverse market, as the island is a destination people aspire to visit.
She did acknowledge that there had been reduced pricing on the island to attract visitors to travel here and stay in hotels they would not have otherwise been able to afford.
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“Even though we have reduced the deluge of job losses to a relative trickle, we are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families who’ve been swept up in the flood,” Mr. Obama said. “There are more than 7 million fewer Americans with jobs today than when this recession began. That’s a staggering figure and one that reflects not only the depths of the hole from which we must ascend, but also a continuing human tragedy.”
The president outlined his proposals in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank not far from the White House. It was the latest in a series of speeches intended to focus attention on what his administration has already done to improve the economic outlook, as well as what it plans to do in 2010, a crucial midterm election year in which the economy will be a central issue.
In addition to proposing a tax cut for small businesses to encourage hiring, he also called for eliminating capital gains on these businesses for one year and suggested money left over from the Trouble Asset Relief Program should be redirected toward small businesses. He also proposed investing new money in roads, bridges and other infrastructure improvements, and offer rebates to people who make homes more energy efficient.
“Small business, infrastructure, clean energy: these are areas in which we can put Americans to work while putting our nation on a sturdier economic footing,” Mr. Obama said. “That foundation for sustained economic growth must be our continuing focus and our ultimate goal.”
About 15,000 delegates from 192 nations are gathering in Copenhagen for two weeks of negotiations on an agreement that would succeed the Kyoto Protocol and go far beyond it in scope.
The political deal reached here could bring deep cuts in CO2 emissions from industrialised nations and a "cap-and-trade" programme that could lead to hundreds of billions of dollars being paid to the developing world.
But the smooth run-up to the conference has been upset by a row over the publication of hundreds of e-mails sent by and to the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia which appear to suggest a deliberate attempt to skew the science of global warming.
In his opening address to the conference, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), mounted a passionate defence of the organisation's integrity and objectivity in the face of the Climategate assault.
In a late-morning speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Mr. Obama is set to deliver his latest speech on the economy and present three key priorities for targeted investment and growth.
The speech, according to a senior administration official, will outline a series of steps to help small businesses grow and hire new staff.
The president also will call for increasing the investment in infrastructure through building and modernizing highways, railways, bridges and tunnels. He also will propose a new program that provides rebates for consumers who retrofit their homes to become more energy efficient.
“We don’t think there is one silver bullet, one plan, one speech or a singular piece of legislation that alone will solve double digit unemployment,” Mr. Obama is expected to say in his remarks, according to a senior administration official.
It is Mr. Obama’s latest effort to draw attention to the economy. In his speech, the president will outline how he intends to jumpstart the job market by spending the excess in government bailout money.
The president also will call for using some of the $200 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program to help pay down the $1.4 trillion budget deficit.
Former energy minister Senator Liz Thompson said she was "deeply horrified" that the two-year-old Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Administration had seemingly scuttled the drilling/exploration programme, which had already earned $20 million and had the potential to transform Barbados' economy in these trying times.
Reacting to Prime Minister David Thompson's statement last week that Barbadians had been misled by the previous Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Government about easily accessible reserves of oil, Thompson called on Government to disclose how much money the country had failed to earn as a result of its delay in signing a contract with international oil company, BHP Billiton.
She told a Press conference at the Opposition's Office yesterday that BHP Billiton, a reputable international company, had won at least one oil bid block, which meant that if BHP had signed the contract, it would immediately have to pay the Government millions of dollars based on a signature bonus.
"And I'm not talking about $10 or $20 million, no figure so small. I'm talking about substantial money," she said. "At a time when we are broke, just signing the contract would have brought upwards of $100 million to the Barbados economy."
"There was no risk to Barbados. The way our programme was set up, all of the costs of drilling and all of the exploratory activity had to be carried by the company, not by the country," she told reporters at the Opposition's office in Bridgetown.
Senator Thompson explained that Barbados had paid for seismic data to be done and had then put out marketing teasers. She added that when various oil companies saw the data, they were "so excited they were willing to pay substantial sums for it".
By October-November 2007, Barbados had already earned over $20 million for the data alone, she stated, while the bids - which were due in March-April this year - would have resulted in companies getting bid blocks, which would have earned money for the country with each company's signature.
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President Bharrat Jagdeo announced Monday in Trinidad and Tobago that Guyana and Papua New Guinea will be co-hosting an event during the summit.
Speaking during a lecture at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Jagdeo disclosed that Guyana has been networking with Suriname, Belize, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and others in the run-up to Copenhagen, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported. “We hope that we can influence what takes place in Copenhagen and this is why our model is getting so much publicity around the world,” the President was quoted as stating.
Jagdeo recalled that Britain’s Prince Charles recently spoke about Guyana’s model and said other countries are using it. In what GINA described as a well-received detailed presentation, he noted that Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) is the only one that has advanced so far.
These areas are: climate change, disaster risk reduction and emergency management; regional integration including trade facilitation; education, including in the fields of science and technology, provision of scholarships and training of diplomats; university co-operation; food security and agricultural co-operation; renewable energy, microfinance; border security and sport, youth and culture. The CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) may also benefit from these resources, according to a statement from the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown.
This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two parties by Secretary-General of CARICOM Mr. Edwin Carrington and the Prime Minister of Australia Mr. Kevin Rudd on Sunday last in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
The meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia was one of four bilateral meetings between CARICOM Leaders and other Commonwealth Heads of Government, all of whom are members of the G20.
CARICOM leaders also met with the Prime Ministers of Canada and the United Kingdom as well as the President of South Africa in pursuit of several objectives.
President Zuma indicated that he would make himself the advocate on this matter with both Organisations. Trade, tourism, climate change, security, air links, establishment and strengthening of ties between universities were viewed as areas in which the two sides could cooperate.
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My fellow Barbadians, in these very challenging economic times, we need to look inside ourselves to find the means of our own liberation.
We must bring a revolutionary approach to how we see ourselves and to the opportunities available to a confident, well-educated and compassionate people.
It will make the difference between being good and being the very best at what we do.
I ask us to reflect on the things that stunt our imagination and strangle our ambition and see how together we can eliminate them from the national landscape as relics of another era long since past.
It is not good enough for us to continue to dwell on what used to be in the Caribbean.
We cannot continue to plan for yesterday nor must we rest smugly on former victories.
It is impossible to build our future on the rubble of yesterday’s outdated ideas, systems and structures or on broken dreams and unrealized expectations.
The world is a far different place from even two years ago, much less 43. As such, I will be inviting you to a series of conversations in the months ahead to hear your ideas on the best way forward and to give you my own.
To all Barbadians everywhere on this Independence Day, be confident, be conscious and be blessed.
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The POS declaration, Rudd added, had now facilitated a breakthrough regarding financing for the most vulnerable states to adapt to and deal with the mitigating effects of climate change. This would be done via an annual “fast start” fund, starting in 2010 and building to a level of resources of $10 billion annually by 2012.
The fund will be known as the Copenhagen Launch Fund. Immediate fast disbursing assistance with a dedicated stream is proposed for small island states and associated low-lying coastal states to the tune of ten per cent of the fund. Leaders met with representatives of such states yesterday. Caribbean states are among small island territories.
What the leaders say:
“What the Commonwealth has done today is throw its full weight behind the process now chaired by the Prime Minister of Denmark,” Rudd said, noting that the situation on the climate change issue had reached something of an impasse previously. Rudd said the leaders’ declaration had recognised the importance of climate change finance in delivering a substantive outcome at Copenhagen.
Canada was fully supportive of the declaration and participation in the fund. Rudd added: “What we’re seeking to do in Copenhagen is to bring about a comprehensive, substantial, operationally-binding agreement in two steps. “The first is the Port-of-Spain Consensus which will lead to a legally-binding document during the course of 2010.”
He made the comment in Port of Spain yesterday, just one day after Prime Minister Patrick Manning declared that this country, which earns most of its revenue from its bread and butter oil and natural gas sectors, is not one of the world’s largest polluters in the world on a per-capita basis.
’Whatever the significance or importance of Trinidad and Tobago, I don’t think Trinidad and Tobago, these two islands, in any way risk upsetting world balance or carbon balance,’ Sarkozy, speaking through an interpreter, said.
Sarkozy also announced that France is willing to support a proposal for a fund to be supported by developed countries worth US$10 billion on an annual basis over the next three years, to assist the world’s poorer countries to combat deforestation, lower their carbon emissions and address the impact of climate change they are suffering.
As he made the comment, Sarkozy said he could not give an answer to a question with regard to Trinidad and Tobago, when asked about comments he made yesterday that India would be subject to financing under the fund because it is one of the world’s lowest polluters on a per capita basis.
“The banks are not doing a good enough job,” Michael S. Barr, Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions, said in an interview Friday. “Some of the firms ought to be embarrassed, and they will be.”
Even as lenders have in recent months accelerated the pace at which they are reducing mortgage payments for borrowers, a vast majority of loans modified through the program remain in a trial stage lasting up to five months, and only a tiny fraction have been made permanent.
From its inception early this year, the Obama administration’s program, called Making Home Affordable, has been dogged by persistent questions about whether it could diminish a swelling wave of foreclosures. Some economists argued that the plan was built for last year’s problem — exotic mortgages whose payments increased — and not for the current menace of soaring joblessness. Lawyers who defend homeowners against foreclosure maintained that mortgage companies collect lucrative fees from long-term delinquency, undercutting their incentive to lower payments to affordable levels.
Last month, an oversight panel created by Congress reported that fewer than 2,000 of the 500,000 loan modifications then in progress had become permanent under Making Home Affordable. When the Treasury releases new numbers next month, it is expected to report a disappointingly small number of permanent loan modifications, with estimates in the tens of thousands out of the more than 650,000 borrowers now in the program.
Given the steady rise in oil prices last year that pushed electricity bills through the roof because of the fuel charge clause and the general rise of prices normally associated with higher oil prices, the imposition of millions of dollars of taxation cannot be described as trivial.
This imposition cannot be trivial in the context of Barbadians having to cope with high food prices, escalating electricity bills, rising water rates, more professional fees, greater insurance costs, increased mortgage payments, higher land taxes and land prices, and growing cost of all services. How could the burdensome taxation be isolated from the circumstances confronting workers, households and businesses?
The economy needed fiscal stimulus since last year. It received fiscal neglect instead, as the Minister of Finance preferred to wait and see, while imposing excess taxation.
Fiscal stimulus comes in two basic forms: (1) reduced taxation and (2) increased expenditure. The choice of one or the other is based on incidence, that is, who is to be affected: the household, the private sector or both.
This choice is driven by the need to expand economic activity primarily to maintain jobs with the understanding that there may be some loss of foreign reserves.
The loss of foreign reserves from enhancing spending in the economy is, however, grossly inflated as the estimate does not take into consideration the multiplier effects of spending a $1 and the high level of local value added to imported goods. The figure of 70 cents out of every $1 being spent on imports is absolute rubbish.
President Obama discussed climate change with the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, when the two met in Beijing on Nov. 16.
China and the United States, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, have been in discussions on options that both nations can take to address the issue of climate change. Both countries are expected to be crucial players in talks next month at international climate meetings in Copenhagen at which nations will negotiate terms for a global post-2012 treaty on reducing emissions, although leaders have said they do not expect to come to an agreement there.
In Copenhagen, Mr. Obama will tell the delegates that the United States intends to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions “in the range of” 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, American officials said Wednesday.
China’s announcement on Thursday of future reductions uses an altogether different benchmark. China will measure its reduction by carbon intensity, or amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of gross domestic product, meaning that emissions would still grow but the rate would slow.
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This advice came from President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Jeremy Rifkin, as he delivered the 34th Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture held under the theme “The Third Industrial Revolution and a New Social Vision for the 21st Century” at the Frank Collymore Hall on Monday night.
He lamented that many regions will be first to feel the adverse effects of climate change in a few decades, the Caribbean region is definitely on the list. He explained that with global warming, a relatively slight increase in temperatures could spell trouble for the island chain, particularly as it relates to hurricane activity.
“For every one degree that the temperature rises on the earth, the atmosphere can absorb seven per cent more precipitation which means more violent rain, long years of drought, the whole water cycle changes and the eco systems of the world can not keep up.”
He added that a move to be environmentally conscious could lead to a boost for Barbados’ tourism product. “You have to make Barbados an eco-sustainable model for the world and the tourists will come and see ...to be part of an experiment like this where you can show across the island is completely post-carbon with all the modern model technology, they will come,” he assured.
And she is basing that confidence on what she cited as a mix of factors ranging from "growing public disaffection" with the David Thompson administration's approach to governing; the impact of the Government economic policies on people's lives; the BLP's vision that would be outlined in the campaign; and its array of candidates facing the electorate.
"I am confident because of the programme we will put to the country for its transformation and the team that will implement it, because there is no use having a programme if it's not capable of implementation," she said.
"There is, in fact, growing public disaffection with the Government. I don't want to frame this issue in terms of winning the next election, simply because people would then feel it's just about being power hungry.
"I really feel we will win not because of a simple power issue, but because the country, in order to maintain the quality of life we have now, needs transformation and that these guys [Democratic Labour Party administration] are not even showing that they are up to the task of maintaining the status quo, far less transforming the country."
"I recognise that historically Barbadians have not changed their government after one term.
"But I think a combination of the deep disappointment of Barbadians in the performance of the Government when compared with the promises they made, combined with us living in a very different world that will not admit of maintaining the status quo (would lead to a change in government)," Mottley said.
He added: "Having taken this unprecedented global action there is another choice: the timing of this withdrawal from that fiscal stimulus.
“Choking off recovery by turning off the life support for our economies prematurely would be fatal to British jobs, British growth and British prosperity for years. So that’s why we will continue with our current plans to support our economy until the private sector recovery is established, and we will ensure that nothing we do will jeopardise that recovery.
“Our strategy has to be to go for growth, now and in the long term, supporting the economy while ensuring sustainable public finances.”
Mr Brown also insisted that European growth was essential to the UK’s domestic prospects, bemoaning the recent focus on “personalities” as the EU picked out its new president and high representative.
He said that the real issue was how to create 10 million new jobs across the continent. “I want to see - in this low inflation environment in Europe - a push for the growth which could involve incentives for new private investment,” he said.
For advanced economies, where debt burdens have grown sharply over the past year, the IMF wants governments to design and communicate plans to get their respective finances back in order. That means ensuring stimulus measures are temporary and putting entitlement programs on a sustainable path. Eventually, more drastic measures will be necessary, Mr Strauss-Kahn said, including spending cuts and -- in some cases - tax increases.
The images will be frequently updated and anyone with internet access will be able to make instant comparisons with historical images and spot destruction of rainforest almost as soon as it happens.
Every four seconds an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is cut or burnt down for timber and paper or to clear land for cattle and plantations.
Rainforest destruction accounts for 17 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than is produced by all the world’s cars, ships and aircraft. Tropical forests cover 15 per cent of the world’s land surface and have a double cooling effect, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and maintaining high levels of evaporation from the canopy.
The armchair detectives will be able to report their findings to an international agency being created to monitor whether countries are meeting their commitments to reduce deforestation. Any state found to have broken its pledge will lose its share of a new global fund established by rich countries to pay nations for leaving their trees standing.
President Jagdeo of Guyana told the seminar that the cheapest way for industrialised countries to reduce carbon emissions was to pay poor countries, such as Guyana, not to fell their trees.
Contributors to the Redd fund will pay about £4 for each tonne of CO2 saved by reducing the rate of deforestation. Fitting carbon capture and storage systems to coal-fired power stations costs more than £50 for each tonne saved.
Norway announced last week that it would demonstrate how Redd could work by paying Guyana up to £150 million over five years to preserve its trees.
Guyana’s forests have been far less logged than in many tropical nations, and under the terms of the new deal with Norway, Guyana could actually be paid for increasing deforestation.
The memorandum states that Norway will compensate Guyana if it does not cut down more than 0.45 per cent of its forests per year, but Guyana is currently felling trees at a far slower rate. The countries contributing to Redd are concerned that their money could disappear into the pockets of corrupt officials in poorly governed countries. There are also fears that payments will result in logging companies switching to unprotected areas, resulting in no net reduction in deforestation.
"I would particularly like to thank President Jagdeo of Guyana. He has shown incredible leadership in all this,” the Prince stated.
The meeting, a few weeks before the important 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark from December 7 to 18, arrived at a consensus which comes in the form of an inter-governmental report produced by the Informal Working Group (IWG) of 35 countries, that was set up after the meeting of the G-20 leaders, convened by The Prince at St James’s Palace in April.
The IWG report outlines a process that would reward rainforest countries for reducing deforestation rates. Payments would be made on a performance basis, and by ensuring that the forests are worth more alive than dead, the financing is aimed at encouraging rainforest countries to pursue more sustainable forms of economic development.
The Prince urged the world’s Governments to deliver new public finance commitments to provide the funding that the IWG has demonstrated is necessary to reduce deforestation by 25% by 2015.
Guyana’s Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), which was launched on June 8 and has gone through a four-month, exhaustive national consultative process, is the first national plan that seeks to combat climate change by preserving forests.
P> “There are no two people who can give the same answer as to what the Government’s plan is to make life easier for them.
“The Prime Minister is so deeply embedded in his wait-and-see approach that he seems unaware of his own waffling on what the Government’s policies are or should be,” Mottley charged.
And according to Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley, people are no closer to paying their bills after listening to Prime Minister David Thompson’s quarterly address to the country last Thursday night.
The opposition leader said that it was clear that the BWA had some “structural difficulties” to resolve before the rates were increased but instead of addressing them the Thompson Administration went ahead and increased water rates.
“No I am not surprised that he is now disappointed with the Water Authority,” she told the Saturday Sun. “That’s because we were all of the view that there are some structural difficulties that we have to address in the Barbados Water Authority. But more importantly to simply carry up the rates before addressing their minds to those structural difficulties is to ask Bajans to pay for the structural inefficiencies of the Authority and to subsidize the Authority instead of the government doing its job first and getting the structure and the inefficiencies dealt with first of all.
“The government seems to have a confused approach to the resolution of problems in the country and it is unfortunate because what the country needs now is certainty and clarity in respect of the kind of leadership the government provides,” she added.
“This government seems obsessed with ascribing blame to everyone else but themselves and it is part of the DNA of opposition politics. That’s why I say they seem not yet to be comfortable with the fact that they are the government of the country and they are required to govern,” she said.
The question we must ask ourselves is “What is the Prime Minister afraid of?” “Don’t Barbadians need a full, free and frank debate on the state of the economy?
Are we not deserving of alternative solutions from the Opposition?” The answers soon became apparent. Having first offered to allow Opposition Leader Mia Mottley the remaining two and a half hours to speak Prime Minister Thompson quickly withdrew the offer once she accepted.
For her part, Miss Mottley called on the Government yet again to create a joint economic committee of Parliament so that all members could make a contribution to finding solutions to our current problems. Yet again the offer was ignored.
This is a strange reaction from a Government that is clearly lacking in ideas and wants Team Barbados to dominate.
It is now abundantly clear that so long as the Democratic Labour Party remains in office that homegrown solutions are a thing of the past. We must steel ourselves against their incompetence and lack of economic imagination in how to deal with the problems we all confront.
Hope still lies in the ability of Mia Mottley and the members of the Barbados Labour Party to provide solutions, which they will continue to do in the interest of us all.
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"You see people doing things out of fear. You find that some workers know they are not supposed to carry out an instruction that is not conforming to the financial rules, and I'm talking about boards, but yet they will go do it out of fear cause they want to keep their jobs. That is bullying in my estimation."
"We talk about Public Sector Reform, we talk about customer charter but the union is experiencing, especially at the level of statutory boards, failure to respond to correspondence and certain departments in the Public Service also," he noted.
"This in itself is a violation of the Public Service Act and we're wondering what is happening.
"Is it an anti-union move? Or is it a situation where people are simply callous about the whole industrial relations process and what should happen?" the general secretary queried.
This attitude did not bode well for good industrial relations and had to be examined, Clarke added.
"I am not going to be distracted therefore by the list of roads called out by the Member for St Philip West or the blame game. In fact, the more I listen to this debate the more I realise that this Government is totally out to sea in respect of how to handle this economic crisis.
"It has been a completely defensive posture. They tried to attack as the best form of defence, but it doesn't matter because attacking on this side does not change the reality of any Barbadian household at 6 o'clock this evening," she said.
Mottley added that attacking the Opposition Barbados Labour Party would not change the reality of any enterprise or business, or "suddenly convert a tale of woe in terms of declines across almost every sector" into growth.
Furthermore, the St Michael North-East MP told the House of Assembly a "better approach" would be for parliamentarians to work together, create a joint committee of economics and finance affairs, so that "we get the benefit of all honourable members in this chamber and in the other chamber to ensure that the economic hole into which Barbados finds itself is not one that we cannot get out of within another year or two."
Speaking in the House of Assembly, Mottley noted that the Government has apparently not realised that the 400 jobs to be created by the capital works for the centre project is a far cry from the 10 000 jobs that needed to be protected in the tourism sector, which continues to decrease across the board.
The Opposition Leader again made the call for Government to defer its Constituency Councils project, noting it would save taxpayers $6 million dollars which could be better used to keep persons employed and help the sectors be more productive.
Until it is recognised by those who lead that the journey becomes more difficult when it is uncharted and that the future of Barbados is not about how quickly it comes out of an economic recession, the current pace of decay stands only to be accelerated by an economic downturn and certainly not halted by a return to economic growth. Though fundamental, the issues are not that easy but need leadership.
The first step in charting the new journey is to understand the potential of the people, remedy their weaknesses and build on their strengths. This is the true test of leadership.
But there must be a vision and a plan
Late Saturday afternoon, November 14, 2009, Opposition Leader Mia Mottley released this statement to the media.
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Yesterday’s news report of a further downgrade from a stable outlook to a negative outlook from Standard & Poors is regrettable but not unexpected.
There have now been two downgrades of our credit rating in two years of this Government.
This government is devaluing our international credit standing at a record pace.
If we are downgraded again we will be one step away from being officially classified as Junk, making borrowing more difficult and the cost more expensive.
We will then have gone from the star credit in the region just a few years ago to Junk Bond Status in two budgets.
This is the cost of this government’s fiscal incompetence and lack of imagination of how to deal with economic problems that are worsening by responses that are plenty of talk and little action.
Barbados cannot afford to be downgraded by international investors twice in two years while the Guyana economy reports this week 2.7% growth for the year so far.
It becomes clearer every day that the Government is at a loss as to how to manage the recession and is so lacking in confidence that it will not come to Barbadians with the truth.
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But under the current circumstances this is understandable and feather in the cap of those who are responsible for the management of the economy as well as the business sector which has continued to show confidence in the national economy.
Of course this positive news will be like poison for few among us but certainly welcome by the vast majority of Guyanese.
Only recently President Jagdeo drew attention to the fact that while many of our regional counterparts have instituted a wage freeze we are still granting wage increases and in this regard he assured that the public sector will receive an increase for this year.
Notably too Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, in a mid-year review tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday said that at the end of the reporting period, the non-sugar economy recorded positive growth, with expansion in output reflected across a broad base of sectors, pointing out that the Guyana economy has withstood challenges from the continuing global economic downturn and modest growth is projected by the end of the year.
This result undoubtedly demonstrated early returns to the government’s efforts at diversification, with the strongest rates of growth achieved in non-traditional agriculture sub-sectors. That notwithstanding, difficulties were encountered in some traditional sectors…on balance, the economy is still projected to achieve positive growth at the end of the year and continued macroeconomic stability is expected to be maintained,” the Finance Minister declared.
S&P attributed the adjustment on the island's outlook to deteriorating public finances, but did not fail to affirm the country's foreign currency ratings - long term at BBB and short-term at A-3 - and the local currency at A-2.
"We believe the timeliness and magnitude of Barbados' fiscal consolidation is uncertain because of a worse-than-anticipated economic recession . . . . The negative outlook reflects the possibility of a downgrade if the authorities fail to consolidate the general government deficit [estimated at 7.1 per cent of GDP in 2009] and to curb the rising debt.
"Results for the first three quarters of 2009 underscore a rapid deterioration in Barbados' public finances, at a faster rate than we had previously assumed, and a sharper economic contraction," the S&P report published yesterday stated.
Moreover, the rating agency projected that net Government debt would reach 52 per cent of GDP in 2009, up from 42 per cent three years ago and altered Barbados' real GDP estimate to negative 4.8 per cent this year from the prior estimate of negative 2.5 per cent and a further slump of one per cent in 2010.
What the CEO did not say is the Medical Intensive Care Unit has been closed for over one year.
The Barbados Labour Party left a plan in place to refurbish and expand the MICU from 6 beds to 12 beds, as a short-term measure, pending the construction of a new hospital. Additional space for the expansion became available after the relocation of the gastrointestinal unit to a spanking new facility in 2007.
Unbelievably, the new management of the QEH made a shortsighted decision last year to house a paediatric clinic in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. This blunder meant that the planned refurbishment of the Medical Intensive Care Unit was put on hold.
As a result, ill patients who would normally be admitted to the Medical Intensive Care Unit are now being accommodated in Accident & Emergency for inordinate lengths of time on monitors, or in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
As a result, the overflow of surgical patients, who would normally be housed in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, are now being monitored in the Recovery Room.
These are the real reasons for the cancellation of numerous elective surgical operations over the past few months at the QEH, as the Recovery Room and the Surgical Intensive Care Unit are almost constantly full, because there is no Medical Intensive Care Unit.
The Government has made a legally binding commitment to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 but has failed to set out how this could be achieved.
The study by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers says that the target, the central plank of Britain’s negotiating position at the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, is “an act of faith” with no grounding in reality.
Britain would need to build the equivalent of 30 nuclear power stations by 2015 to be on course to meet the target, the study says.
Britain’s highest rate of carbon intensity reduction was 2.3 per cent a year in the mid-1990s when several coal-fired power stations were replaced by more efficient gas-fired ones.
In recent years, carbon intensity has been falling by about 1.3 per cent a year.
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The eurozone, comprising the 16 countries that use the euro, reported that gross domestic product (GDP) — a key measure of economic health — grew by 0.4 per cent in the three months to September.
Germany, the zone’s biggest economy, confirmed its recovery, after exiting recession in the second quarter, when it said that GDP increased by 0.7 per cent in the third quarter. France also underlined its recovery, with 0.3 per cent growth.
The IEA, the Paris-based agency, which advises 28 industrialised economies, raised its estimate for global oil demand this year by 210,000 barrels per day, and for next year by 140,000 barrels per day "following stronger-than-expected preliminary data" for North America and "buoyant demand" in Asia and the Middle East.
“Not only that, but oil demand itself would rebound much more slowly were the price rally sustained into 2010,” the agency said, in its monthly report.
Global demand is now well on track for year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, which would be the first rise since the second quarter of 2008.
OPEC raised its 2010 demand forecast slightly but said that fuel consumption may not return to pre-crisis levels, and the IEA predicted less of a rise in 2010 in demand in the United States, the world's largest energy user.
Supporting the vesting of Crown lands in the National Housing Corporation (NHC) at The Ivy yesterday, Clarke said between 1994 and 2007 the former Barbados Labour Party Government helped mortgages grow from $293 million to $1.5 billion, while creating a large number of small contractors and an unprecedented building boom.
"The building boom lasted for over five years, but today it is the opposite, and one out of three persons in the construction industry is finding himself on the breadline," he told the House of Assembly yesterday.
Clarke added that his Government had "taken pains" to lift the building industry, but the current Government was now blaming its decline on the recession.
"Their manifesto promised to maintain the building boom . . . but now only a few contractors are benefiting from the large sums being disbursed," he added.
The review, reporting next month, will consider whether visas should be granted only to foreign students on degree and postgraduate courses and stopped for those seeking to take shorter courses leading to lower-level qualifications.
Mr Brown also announced plans for a reduction of thousands in the number of posts on the Government's shortage occupation list, for which foreign workers can gain access to the UK because of a lack of local people with the skills to do the jobs.
Local workers will be given additional opportunities to secure available jobs, with the extension from two to four weeks of the period for which they must be advertised in JobCentres before employers seek to recruit overseas.
Mr Brown said this would be coupled with a scaling up in training opportunities to ensure that the jobs which become available as Britain emerges from recession go to the resident population rather than a new wave of incomers from abroad.
Yesterday we brought you Part 4 of the vision outlined by the Honourable Leader of the Opposition at her party’s 71st Annual Conference, on October 25th 2009.
Today we are pleased to bring you the fifth and final part
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We must develop ways of helping the country afford better health care so our people can live as long and as well as is possible.
More importantly we must ensure that Barbadians take greater responsibility for their health and wellness through the lifestyle choices that we make. We cannot afford the cost of not doing so.
This is not a trial run, a practice match, a dress rehearsal, this is the real thing and Barbados needs and Barbadians deserve an active, pro-active government with a strategy to put us back on par with the best, not with the rest.
We have arrived at a fork in the road, The DLP has chosen to take the low road, to shrug off the strategic challenges and try to divide the nation and this great party to steal another election.
The nation cannot afford to go further down that road.
Our slow under-performance will entrench problems as we are forced to under invest in our physical, cultural, environmental and human resources.
We must return to the high road, grab the opportunities and truly put our people at the centre of a new development strategy.
Yesterday we brought you Part 3 of the vision outlined by the Honourable Leader of the Opposition at her party’s 71st Annual Conference, on October 25th 2009.
Today we are pleased to bring you Part 4.
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Our people will continue to be our richest resource. But we must invest in that resource and support it, in order for us to maximize what it can achieve. Simply resting on our accomplishments to date will deny us the very real bounty that can be ours.
We must treat always to the legitimate ambitions of our people to want simply to own their own house, to have a job and to ensure that they and their children receive the best education possible.
This must be our constant objective.
Our sportsmen and our athletes with the right support from the public and private sector and civil society can become global citizens influencing millions of young people and earning valuable foreign exchange.
Our young people must be given more opportunities for post-secondary training and tertiary education beyond what exists now but in so doing we must provide mechanisms for our students to be exposed to the outside world by spending a semester or two at other educational institutions across the globe.
Yesterday we brought you Part 2 of the vision outlined by the Honourable Leader of the Opposition at her party’s 71st Annual Conference, on October 25th 2009.
Today we are pleased to bring you Part 3.
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The systems in our government must be more responsive to our citizens irrespective of who they are. Every citizen, rich and poor, employer, employee, pensioner, healthy and sick deserves effective government and that means developing new arrangements where public sector employees can take more responsibility for getting a job done well and done quickly. In none of these categories can we afford to be an also ran.
Our politics must be strategic and less tribal, must not be so conceived as to dismiss 50% of the population in the course of nation building.
Do we have such a surplus of technical experience that new governments should in cavalier fashion dismiss our boards and technocrats whenever they are elected.
Our politics must be less personal so as not to deter men and women who might otherwise be willing to give of their time and talents to political service.
We must actively engage Bajans by birth, descent or choice no matter where in the world they reside to be part of a new virtual population and to use their skills and capital in building out our economy.
Yesterday we brought you Part 1 of the vision outlined by the Honourable Leader of the Opposition at her party’s 71st Annual Conference, on October 25th 2009.
Today we are pleased to bring you Part 2.
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In our last year of office we developed plans for a new Financial Services Commission and a new Financial Services Institute (for which the EU had agreed to make a contribution) that would lead our charge in this area.
This is now more pressing than then, but not a name and a building, properly resourced institutions with a clear developmental strategy for converting foreign skills and jobs into local skills and jobs.
We need to energise our private sector and help them play the critical role in getting us to 5% to 10% growth. Part of that will be encouraging entrepreneurs through a more efficient, clever and e-government. A new class of entrepreneurs will also help to democratize the ownership of capital in Barbados.
Our development strategy needs to be adapted to reflect our reality.
Tourism will face a limit on the basis of our carrying capacity and it is likely that this will be in our lifetime.
Their statement came days after Judicial Managers who were appointed at the company's branches throughout the Caribbean, submitted their reports which revealed, according to the ECCU, troubling facts.
With the liabilities of the branches in the Eastern Caribbean totalling EC$1.05 billion (US$391 million) and nowhere near that amount of money available, liquidation is one option. But the ECCU said that going that route is "unacceptable".
The whole aim of the new strategy is to avoid the BAICO going into liquidation, which would result in policyholders getting as little as 10 cents on every dollar they invested.
The proposed new company would have its headquarters in the Eastern Caribbean and would assume the traditional life insurance, medical insurance and annuity business of British American branches.
It will be capitalized by ECCU Governments, the Government of Trinidad & Tobago, the Government of Barbados, and one or more strategic investors, the ECCU said.
The institute's estimate for past month contributes to an overall 0.4 per cent decline in output in the three months until the end of October, the same level as in the three months to the end of September.
After the surprise 0.4 per cent decline in third quarter GDP, which measures there period between July and September, economists had been confident that Britain would return to growth in the fourth quarter, after six consecutive quarterly declines.
However, there are growing concerns that Britain may have to wait until the first quarter of next year to leave the recession and today’s NIESR figures will do little to remove those doubts.
In January, the Government will restore the VAT rate from 15 per cent to its previous level of 17.5 per cent.
"We know that CLICO General and CLICO Mortgage Finance were sold but those two companies alone would only yield CLICO Holdings Barbados, the parent company, some $30 million; when in truth and in fact, at the end of 2007, the portfolio for life, group, health policies and annuities was $612 million, of which $575 million is the annuity component.
"So that a $30 million from the sale of CLICO Mortgage Finance and from the sale of CLICO General Insurance would not in any way grow to assist Government in the medium term to assure Barbadian policy and annuity holders that they would not lose their money in these entities," she said.
Mottley said that when one looked at the threat that CLICO's situation posed to the economy, it was important that Prime Minister David Thompson addressed the concerns of the policyholders and the annuity holders.
There has been virtually no information whatsoever provided in relation to CLICO Life.
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China’s giant economy is now expected to grow 8.4 percent this year, according to the World Bank’s latest projection, rather than by the 7.2 percent it had forecast in June. It forecasts 8.7 percent growth for next year.
The new 2009 estimate is just shy of the 8.5 percent being projected by the International Monetary Fund, which likewise raised its forecast for China and the rest of Asia last week, and also echoes recent upward revisions by economists at several private-sector banks.
China’s remarkable rebound stems mostly from a massive spending package, of 4 trillion yuan, or $585 billion, which the government announced a year ago. Lower interest rates and vastly increased lending by the country’s state-owned banks also have helped offset the fallout from the collapse in demand in Europe and the United States, which has hit export industries in China — and elsewhere in Asia — hard.
Chinese export growth is likely to resume, helped by strong fundamental competitiveness and the recent depreciation of the nominal effective exchange rate, the World Bank said in its quarterly review of China on Wednesday.
With support building for the cause, MP Teather, a liberal democrat, has been listening to her constituents, and last Friday she sent out a release stating: "Many of my constituents in Brent East will be hit hard by these taxes and I believe the government needs to take action now. It is shocking that people flying to the Caribbean will be charged so much more than those flying to the west coast of America even though it's further away."
"This massive anomaly just shows that arbitrary flying zones are not only unworkable but also unfair," the release further stated.
"It is important that we do more to halt carbon emissions and I am in favour of this. However, airlines should be taxed based on the distance travelled and emissions omitted rather than boundaries drawn up by a government minister.
We should tax planes and not people."
In a speech at the second FSA conference held to discuss his Turner Review on bank regulaton, published in March, he said that banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds had been kept alive by huge injections of government capital because they were seen as too big to let them go bust. He said that a possible answer to this would be to force larger "systemically important banks" to hold larger amounts of capital.
Lord Turner said: "Essentially, such measures amount to a tax on size or on other measures of systemic importance."
The FSA chairman said that there was no one "silver bullet" for addressing the problem of banks becoming too big to fail, but that such a tax and several other key measures would be a better method than drawing up laws to separate investment banks and retail banks.
Alistair Darling is expected to announce tomorrow that Lloyds Banking Group and RBS will be stripped down and various parts sold to new owners, creating as many as three new institutions on the high street.
Mr Darling will argue that this is needed to introduce more competition in the retail banking sector. It comes just a year after the Government agreed to the merger of Lloyds and HBOS to create Britain’s biggest bank.
Northern Rock is likely to be split by the end of the year into a “good bank”, BankCo, which can be sold off, and a “bad bank”, the assets of which will be wound down. “We have what we believe is a viable bank [with Northern Rock], which can be sold with private investment coming back in. The remaining assets, they’re not all bad, some of them, you know. If we could take commercial property for example, it may not be worth that much today, but in time it will come back,” Mr Darling said.
He summoned the key PNM troops who would be leading the party into electoral battle to what was termed a “political strategy” meeting by participants at the Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s. It was attended by most of the 26 MPs and senators, as well as the executives from all 41 constituencies.
Enill confirmed that the PNM was organising to send its foot soldiers back into the communities to conduct what was indeed an election campaign, one he vowed would “leave no stone unturned” as it related to party preparations.
However, while Enill said local government elections would be held as planned next year, he carefully sidled around the question of whether Manning was going to call a snap general election early next year. Enill did not rule that out, but stressed it was Manning’s decision alone to make.
The Cascadia meeting was to launch a street-to-street and house-to-house campaign in all 41 constituencies, with special attention being paid to the 15 held by the Opposition United National Congress (UNC), said Enill.
“REIMAGINING BARBADOS”
Over the course of the next 18 months the BLP will seek to engage communities across Barbados on a wide range of issues affecting every sphere of our lives.
I am satisfied that this engagement is necessary to ensure that we can share our vision in more detail and that we can learn from Barbadians the things they want to see addressed in the next decade.
But I will share with you nevertheless a few thoughts which I have as I seek to re-imagine our future.
In the last few years emerging markets have shifted a couple gears. China and India, once desperately poor countries, now post 10% growth rates per year every year. Last year, a poor year for the global economy, a year when we did not grow at all, some 80 countries grew more than 5%, spread evenly across the world - 25 of these were in Africa.
Today our 3-4% growth remains above par within the Caribbean but is now below par relative to the rest of the world. This means three new things.
It appears that the acceptable scripts for women in powerful public political roles are still rigidly defined and easy to violate—by being too “pushy” or too “soft,” too “strident” or too accommodating, too sexless or too sexual.
It seems all too easy for women leaders to run afoul of their constituents or their colleagues by deviating from the narrowly-defined set of behaviors in which cultural femininity overlaps with leadership.
With the necessity to conform to two, often conflicting, sets of expectations, high-profile women leaders in the United States are relentlessly held to a higher standard than their male counterparts.
If women are to claim their share of leadership positions, and to operate effectively within such positions, women and men must be aware of these differential expectations, know how they affect both leaders and constituents, and understand what responses may be useful.
Given the issues raised so far, it is not surprising to learn that, in order for women to be accepted in leadership roles, they must often have external endorsements.
Particularly in competitive, highly-masculinized contexts, simply having leadership training or task-related expertise does not guarantee a woman’s success unless accompanied by legitimation by another established leader.
The nation’s gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the three months ending in September, a significant spike from a somewhat shrunken base. The economy had contracted at annual rates of 0.7 percent and 6.4 percent in the second and first quarters of this year, respectively.
Much of the growth can be attributed to the billions in federal aid devoted to economic renewal, including policies that encouraged consumer spending on cars and housing.
On the one hand, the poor job market is discouraging Americans from increasing their spending by too much. Consumer spending on nondurable goods like food and clothing, for example, increased 2 percent in the third quarter, compared to a decline of 1.9 percent in the second.
Likewise, stagnant consumer demand and withering consumer confidence have left companies wary of hiring more employees — or, for that matter, taking any expensive risks.
US gross domestic product (GDP), a key measure of a country's economic strength, grew by 3.5 per cent between July and September — at the top end of economists’ forecasts.
America joins Japan, China, Germany and France as the world’s leading economies that have emerged from recession.
Britain, the world’s sixth largest economy according to the World Bank, was widely expected to have recovered in the third quarter.
However, shock figures, released last week, showed that the UK economy contracted between July and September, leaving the country battling the longest recession on record.
Of the world's largest economies, China last week declared that their economy grew at an annual pace of 3.5 per cent in the third quarter, while Japan registered quarterly growth of 0.6 per cent between July and September.
The French and German economies both grew by 0.3 per cent on a quarterly basis.
Where is the official report on Barbados' economic performance in the second quarter?
And what about the reverse tax credit?
Mottley, the Member of Parliament for St Michael North East, asked the questions after Thompson had moved the first reading of two bills intended to make Barbados more attractive to international companies.
Mottley said she had no problem supporting any amendments to legislation that would make Barbados a more attractive jurisdiction, but she was still concerned about the silence from the Government when it came to plans to deal with the current economic situation facing Barbadians.
"We knew we could not reach certain expenditure targets. Changes should be made, and the public informed," she told the Lower Chamber.
"This is a public matter, and I have heard the Prime Minister talk about cuts. Where are those cuts being made, and how?" Mottley asked.
Thompson made the comments while debating the validation of two bills, the Financial Institutions (Miscellaneous Provisions and Validation) Bill 2009, and the International Financial Services (Validation) Bill, 2009.
Claiming that the Government's increase in tax was preventing new companies from entering Barbados' financial services sector, Thompson also noted that this was a huge blow, since such entities provided 60 per cent of the total amount of corporate tax paid into the treasury.
"I don't support the level of taxation," Thompson said. "Over time we have seen how this sector has grown to be a major plank in the Barbados economy as a significant foreign exchange earner, so dealing with it requires very sensitive handling. We simply can't afford to alienate this sector and stifle its activity."
“I trust and hope that the Government, in all sincerity can tell the public of Barbados when they can expect to receive the Income Tax return and the reverse tax credits. We do not want the public of Barbados, and I certainly hope that the Government does not want the public of Barbados to believe, that this is a Government prepared to put in place a regime for holding companies for international businesses, but is not prepared to address the legitimate concerns of ordinary Barbadians in relation to the receipt of income tax returns and reverse tax credits.”
On another note, Mottley said that the pensioners are also worried this week about whether they will get their cheques, because the postal workers were striking, because one of their motorcycles was stolen again.
“The motorcycles they use are not owned by the Government of Barbados, but the postmen and we would have been the ones to put in place an interest free loan because we would have recognised that you should not ask a man to buy his tools of trade...,” she said.
"This party will move forward as a united force, recognising that we have a deeper obligation to the people . . . . We have a duty to put an alternative vision to the people of Barbados, as well as to defend them, and I think that we are all agreed in here that this is what we will do and we will do vigorously," Mottley promised.
Opposition Leader Mia Mottley swept away all doubts about her leadership of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) with a convincing victory at the Roebuck Street, Bridgetown party headquarters last night.
Marshall told the media that "after a full and frank discussion, the parliamentary group has reaffirmed its support of Mottley as political leader and Leader of the Opposition", and that she would lead the BLP into the next general election, constitutionally due in 2013.
“There is no creativity in their approach to economic management, they continue to rely on a failed, one-size-fits-all, IMF type economic prescription while the cold, hard results of their failure stare them in the face.” She said that the Government had no proposals on how to counter job losses and restructure the economy and was expecting to face a jobless recovery from the recession.
Opposition Leader Mia Mottley presented a dismal outlook on the Barbados economy on Sunday, predicting more job losses, a further decline in tourism, and increases to the cost of living. She was also highly critical of Government’s handling of the international business, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors.
Mottley told the BLP membership that Government was facing severe financial constraints with departments shaving expenditure and finding it difficult to make payments to businesses. She cited the Immigration Department as an example, saying that the office had run out of regular passport stock meaning that Bajans were facing difficulty with the issuance of passports.
Noting that Government had to raise revenue, Mottley said, “So do not be surprised for instance if bus fare are not increased to between $2.50 and $3 despite his [Prime Minister David Thompson] telling the IMF that he has no intention of raising bus fares.” She also expected that the price of natural gas to go up in line with the recent increase in water rates and a proposed hike in electricity rates.
The reverend also told the gathering that the BLP "had never been known to be part of this open warfare" and he advised" it must not become part of the party now".
The Barbados Labour (BLP) was yesterday urged to settle any "perceived leadership problems" in the party, if it wants to win the Government again.
The advice was given by Reverend Wayne Kirton during a sermon at the start of the annual BLP conference at the Barbados Community College.
To loud applause from those in attendance, Reverend Kirton let it be known that "the perceived leadership struggle is not going to do this party any good. If the perceived leadership struggle boils over, the Barbados Labour Party will remain in opposition for another term".
He strongly advised the members to support party leader Mia Mottley.
In his address, chairman George Payne also called on the rank and file of the party to rally behind Mottley.
"We have an elected political leader - an undisputed leader. We are rallying behind our leader. They are spreading rumours all over the place that this body wants to take over and this body wants to come back. We don't know anything about that."
“I am not only talking from the perspective of the construction, but part of the extreme difficulty that we had that delayed the project for years, was the whole issue of the fact that the boardwalk was to cross people’s property. And some of the people who are now having the benefit of increased traffic to their properties, and having their properties exposed and beautified by the presence of the boardwalk, gave the greatest resistance to the construction,” she stated.
“We negotiated with some of them for years, and I personally had to go and meet with them and plead with some of the property owners to give it their support. Some of them even threatened to sue the Government, and carry them to court in an effort to stop the project.”
People have no idea what we went through to get that project to thestage where it is today that Barbadians can enjoy it,” she continued.
Opposition Senator Elizabeth Thompson made this disclosure on Wednesday evening during debate in the Upper House of Assembly. She went on to add that people are now able to view and enjoy the boardwalk, but they did not understand how difficult it was to get the project underway and finalised.
The newly constructed boardwalk has enhanced the overall beauty of the South Coast, while also significantly increasing the value of the property along that stretch.
She also revealed that there were also plans in the making for a similar project on the West Coast, but they had encountered even sterner resistance from the owners of the affected properties.
Such an accomplishment would bring several issues into play with respect to the distribution and retail trade in Barbados.
These issues include:
(1) the current sources of food items by the established importers;
(2) the pricing of the imported items; and
(3) the relative quality of imported food items by private and Government agencies. Of course, there are other issues but space does not allow their treatment.
Apparently the Minister of Trade, Industry and Commerce has found by whatever means "that every single time an item was brought in . . . by a state enterprise, the price of the item fell between 40 and 50 per cent". The question is: is it the same item from the same source, with the same taxes applied at the port of entry?
Unfortunately, Mr Minister, the supermarket business is not as simple as import and put on a shelf for sale. There is something called credit on which a supermarket really depends and which the Government must be prepared to offer if it wants to intervene in the market to deliver some food items at 50 per cent lower cost to the consumer.
The success of the initiative by Government depends not only on price but moreso on quality. It is always possible to source an inferior good and sell it at a lower price but the Barbados market is a lot more sophisticated than is being suggested.
“You can’t have two members of one Cabinet bringing two different stories to the people of Barbados,” he continued. “The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and its leadership needs to come clean with the people of Barbados. Either they’re going to build a new hospital or they’re not going to build it, but you cannot be saying two different things at the same time and confusing the people of Barbados. Healthcare is not the DLP’s play toy,” he said. “This is about people’s lives and people’s ability to access healthcare,” he stressed.
Duguid was speaking during a press conference at the Opposition office in Parliament yesterday afternoon. He said the BLP supported the construction of a new hospital, noting the advanced age of the island’s premiere health facility, which meant it was now out of date. To this end, he said the party intended to construct a new hospital whenever it regained control of Government.
“When is the DLP going to take healthcare seriously and really do something about improving healthcare in Barbados?” Duguid asked.
Duguid then characterised the healthcare system in Barbados as being in crisis and a state of confusion, noting that people were having significant difficulty in accessing quality healthcare at the QEH and it was getting worse despite promises from Government to fix the situation.
The plan, for the 25 top earners at seven companies that received exceptional help, will on average cut total compensation this year by about 50 percent. The companies are Citigroup, Bank of America, American International Group, General Motors, Chrysler and the financing arms of the two automakers.
Some executives, like the top traders at A.I.G., will face tight limits on their pay. In addition, the top-paid employees at all the affected companies will face new limits on their perks.
The plan will also change the form of the pay to align the personal interests of the executives with the longer-term financial health of the companies. For instance, the cash portion of the executives’ salaries will be slashed on average by 90 percent, and the rest will be replaced by stock that cannot be sold for years.
But while the plan would pare compensation substantially from what the highest-paid people at the companies might have received under normal circumstances, it would still permit multimillion-dollar pay packages.
Her comments came in the House of Assembly yesterday morning as she made her contribution to the debate.
“I don’t believe that the Government can intervene on every aspect of the responsibilities of a parent relationship, but I am also cognisant and conscious that there are circumstances where a child’s behaviour is such that it requires other forms of intervention.”
That, she explained, is why the Edna Nicholls Centre was formed, because to simply suspend a child, stopping that child from going to school, did not resolve any issue. But, she said by putting that child in a structured environment gave trained professionals the opportunity to find out what it is that caused the initial problem.
However, Mottley explained that it was never intended that the Edna Nicholls Centre would be the end all of the process, because under the Education Act they can only hold the child for three weeks with the possibility of an extension.
As such, she said that they always recognised that Barbados needed another type of institution which she said the former Attorney General and Member of Parliament for St. Joseph, Dale Marshall was working on before they left office.
“You need an institution that allows for parents or ultimately a combination of persons through the courts, not because the child has committed a criminal act yet, but because the child’s behaviour is such that it is so disruptive to a school environment.
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Others pay meteorologists to forecast weather that will affect the price of oil and wheat. And still others hire corporate executives to provide an inside view of companies and industries.
Insider trading, however, can be difficult to prove, said Leslie R. Caldwell, the co-chief of the white-collar crime division at the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
The line between buying legitimate research, trading rumors and gossip, and illegally paying for market-moving information can be complicated.
The S.E.C. has tried to combat insider trading for decades, relying mainly on tips and reports of suspicious trading in a single stock.
Two years ago, the commission began to install sophisticated data-mining software that examines trading records, looking for patterns of trades across stocks that appear suspiciously profitable.
Federal securities laws put limits on the race for information. Corporate executives are not allowed to give investors market-moving tips about their companies.
Companies must disclose critical news, like quarterly earnings, to everyone at the same time.
Investors who try to lock in guaranteed profits by, say, paying to see a news release an hour before a company posts it are engaging in illegal insider trading.
The United States and a number of other major emitting countries have concluded that it is more useful to take incremental but important steps toward a global agreement than to try to jam through a treaty that would be either too weak to address the problem or too onerous to be ratified and enforced.
Instead, representatives at the Copenhagen meeting are likely to announce a number of interim steps and agree to keep talking next year.
Negotiators have accepted that it is all but inevitable that representatives of the 192 nations in the talks will not resolve the outstanding issues in the brief time remaining before the Copenhagen conference opens in mid-December.
o officials are now narrowing expectations and defining the areas where there is agreement, such as the need to halt and then reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, although how and by whom remains the subject of intense dispute.
Negotiators are also discussing what form any declaration that emerges from Copenhagen might take and how to ensure that any promises made there are kept.
Among the chief barriers to a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen is Congress’s apparent inability to enact climate and energy legislation that would set binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Euro-zone governments know they will soon have to start reducing the huge deficits and public debt they incurred to rescue banks, absorb the social cost of recession and stimulate growth.
Otherwise, the European Central Bank will feel obliged to raise interest rates faster and further, crimping economic recovery.
But while Germany’s new center-right coalition is preparing to restore fiscal discipline starting next year, France’s public finances are still heading over a cliff. Italy, Spain, Greece and Ireland all face an alarming rise in their debt levels.
In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has just announced a 2010 budget with a record deficit of 8.5 percent of gross domestic product. On top of that, Mr. Sarkozy plans a big issue of public savings bonds to finance high-tech industrial projects.
Mr. Sarkozy has made some unpopular structural changes, like declining to replace one out of every two retiring civil servants. But all the savings achieved were wiped out by the cost of cutting the value-added tax on restaurants — a populist measure whose benefits have not been fully passed on to consumers.
In answer to another question, he said the American financial regulatory system was “inadequate” at managing the immense inflows of cheap money from China and other countries that had huge trade surpluses.
In his prepared remarks, Mr. Bernanke acknowledged that trade imbalances had declined sharply as a result of the crisis, mainly because trade itself plunged, but he warned that American foreign indebtedness would aggravate the imbalances once again unless the United States reduced its soaring federal budget deficit.
“The United States must increase its national saving rate,” he said. “The most effective way to accomplish this goal is by establishing a sustainable fiscal trajectory, anchored by a clear commitment to substantially reduce federal deficits over time.”
Speaking at a conference of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Mr. Bernanke said Asian countries had bounced back from the global recession faster than the rest of the world and had become the engine of the global economic recovery.
The Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations (CTUSAB) has appealed for a change in policy, calling the decision not to renew the contracts of Nigerian nurses "ill-advised" and pointing out that the pass rate of nurses from the Barbados Community College was low.
It said that while it supported the idea of giving priority to Barbadian and other Caribbean nurses in the recruitment programme, the QEH had benefited from hiring Nigerian nurses.
"CTUSAB is satisfied that the recruitmentof specialist nurses from Nigeria and general nurses from St Vincent and the Grenadines was a step in the right direction towards solving the issue of a nursing shortage at the QEH," the statement, signed by general secretary Dennis DePeiza, said.
"The Congress believes that having not stabilised the number of nurses required to provide the expected quality health care, that the decisionnot to renew the contracts of the approximately 48 Nigerian nurses by successive Ministers of Health was ill-advised.
"The Congress holds the view that the decision has served to exacerbate an already critical situation."
The authorities needed to ensure that patient care was not compromised in the short term by having a well-planned and managed system for the phasing out of the Nigerian and other non-Barbadian nurses from the system, CTUSAB argued.
The average employee in its high-risk investment banking arm is likely to take home £240,000, with the top 20 staff in line for payments of between £1m and £5m.
The payouts by the investment banking division — from a total pay and bonus pot of £4 billion — would top the deals awarded at the peak of the financial boom in 2007 and are 66% higher than those paid last year.
RBS, then headed by Sir Fred Goodwin, had to be rescued from collapse by the Treasury last October with an initial injection of £20 billion. The taxpayer now has a 70% stake in the bank.
Any suggestion of bumper bonuses will put RBS on a collision course with UK Financial Investments, which oversees taxpayers’ investments in banks. It would have to approve the payments.
The RBS plans are the latest sign that the bonus culture is returning to the City just a year after the financial system was saved from collapse.
The banks that have survived the financial crisis are now making huge profits in areas such as debt and currency trading, where instability in the global economy has created opportunities.
Some traders in specialised areas are making bigger profits than before because of the chaos created by the collapse. After a series of forced mergers, there are also fewer competitors in a number of areas, allowing the banks to charge clients higher fees.
RBS is expected to lobby hard to be allowed to make the payments, claiming that dozens of its top performing executives have been poached by rivals offering even bigger pay deals.
Almost a third of the bank’s wealth management staff in Singapore walked out last week over fears they would receive lower than expected bonuses.
That's according to Peter Phillips, spokesperson on transport for the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
His comments followed a recent visit to the Fairchild Street Bus Terminal by Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley and other party officials.
"The travelling public will be greatly disadvantaged by this move as they will be forced to adjust their travel schedule," said Phillips.
"This action will undoubtedly affect people, especially those working split shifts in the hotel industry.
Pensioners, in particular, will feel it and generally, Barbadians will now spend longer hours on the road commuting from one point to another in order to transact their business.
Phillips noted that while new arrangements for schoolchildren introduced by Government were welcomed, it was clear the administration could not afford them.
"The travelling public must now be justifiably upset," he said. "We welcome the announcement by the PSVs that they will not be cutting back their services and will pick up any slack on the routes, even though they have had to contend with increased costs.
This afternoon I am going to discuss some of the implications of Moody’s Investor Service most recent rating of Barbados.
It is with mounting concern that the people of Barbados learnt this week of yet another downgrade of the Barbados economy, this time by Moody’s Investor Services. We are now one level away from losing investment grade status.
Were this to happen, it would be more difficult and more expensive for our country and our companies to borrow funds on the international capital markets. This will in turn have a negative affect on our debt profile and the short-term expansion of growth in the economy.
It is now clear that the Barbadian economy is in serious difficulty as it continues down the slippery slope from prosperity to crisis. Unfortunately, we are yet to see any clear leadership by the Government to stabilize the economy.
It is also clear that not enough is being done to protect jobs, to keep prices down, or most importantly to rescue existing businesses, large and small, during this turbulent period.
Our leader has already said that the Barbados Labour Party stands ready to play its part. I reiterate her call to the Government during the Budget debate for the appointment of a Joint Select Committee of Parliament to assist in tackling the problems facing our country.
A Breakfast Meeting, which is yet to be convened, cannot replace the national mobilization required to bring our country back from the brink.
I wish to repeat that the Barbados Labour Party stands ready to play its part, as what is at stake is the future welfare of our dear country and our people.
In his speaking notes, presented on Tuesday to the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce's (JCC's) economic forum, he said the "time has come" to commence negotiations with the London Club of creditors.
At stake is "a restructuring deal with private holders of Jamaican foreign debt which accounts for approximately 60 per cent of total external public debt", according to Livshits, while he expects "the same procedure could be considered with relation to sovereign creditors - both multilateral and bilateral".
"I am aware that Jamaica already has an experience of dealing with the Paris Club of sovereign creditors having signed seven restructuring agreements between 1984 and 1993 for a total US$1.1 billion in sovereign debt," stated Livshits.
The London Club is an informal group of international private creditors while the Paris Club is a group of public lenders that negotiate over sovereign debt.
In 2000, the London Club agreed to write off 36.5 per cent of Russia's US$32-billion, Soviet-era debt and reschedule payments over 30 years following a seven-year grace period. Then, Russia's debt-to-GDP ratio was 100 per cent.
Jamaica's debt ratio stood at 115.8 per cent on April 1.
At the end of July 2009, Jamaica's external debt stock stood at US$6.28 billion ($559.3 billion), or approximately 44 per cent of its total debt.
This year? Dilly-dallying, even waiting just a few days, could carry a steep price. Fares, though still lower now than at this time last year, are rising each day, a trajectory that began more than a month ago.
A JetBlue flight to Orlando that was $524 on Sept. 24 was $614 on Thursday, and a Continental flight from Newark to San Francisco that was $504 on Sept. 18 was $770.
In recent weeks, some flights have risen even more. From New York, a round-trip American Airlines flight to Chicago that cost $354 on Sept. 14 was $540 on Thursday, a 52 percent jump, according to Yapta.com, which tracks fares.
Airlines now have an advantage in the endless game of cat-and-mouse with travelers. Because of the recession, they have been grounding planes. Fewer seats for sale gives them more power to set prices, since they are less desperate to get even modest fares to help fill up planes.
The number of domestic seats for sale is down 5 percent this month, compared with October last year, and they are down 21 percent from October 2000, according to OAG, an aviation-data firm.
It is with great regret that the people of Barbados have learnt of yet another downgrade of the Barbados economy, this time by Moody’s Investor Services.
We are now one level away from losing investment grade status. Were this to happen, it would be more difficult and more expensive for our country and our companies to borrow funds on the international capital markets.
It is clear that the Barbadian economy is in serious difficulty and we are yet to see any clear leadership by the Government to stabalise the economy. It is also clear that there is not enough being done to protect jobs, neither to keep prices down nor to rescue the existing companies during this turbulent period.
The Prime Minister and his Ministers must now remain on the ground and work around the clock utilizing the skills and energy of ALL Barbadians to stop this economic free fall. The Barbados Labour Party stands ready to play its part, as what is at stake is the future welfare of our dear country and our people.
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Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Barbados' Government bond ratings following several years of deterioration in credit metrics.
The Baa2 foreign currency Government bond rating and the A3 local currency Government bond rating were downgraded to Baa3 and Baa2, respectively.
The resulting one-notch differential between the local and foreign currency ratings is based on the depth of the local financial market, which makes the hypothetical risk of a default slightly lower in local currency than in foreign currency. The outlook is stable.
Moodys has also downgraded Barbados' country ceiling for foreign-currency bonds to A3 from A1 and the country ceiling for foreign-currency bank deposits to Baa3 from Baa2. Both ratings have a stable outlook.
Since the last rating change in 2000, Barbados' Central Government debt stock has more than doubled and is expected to well exceed 100 per cent of GDP by the end of this year, from 65 per cent in 1999.
Relative to revenues, the debt burden has increased significantly and is well above the average for the same rating category.
In its World Economic Outlook released this month, the IMF projected Jamaica's economic growth at only 2.1 per cent in 2014, which comparatively is the fourth worst among the 32 developing nations in the western hemisphere.
Venezuela is expected to have the lowest growth rate at 0.4 per cent whilst Panama is expected to have the highest growth rate at 6.5 per cent in that year.
Jamaica's low growth will cause it to drop from sixth to the fifth worst among the 32-nation group between 2009 and 2010. Interestingly, Jamaica's growth in 2014 is expected to be half the average growth of the 32-nation group at four per cent.
The IMF noted that developing economies are showing signs of recovery from the global downturn.
"Emerging and developing economies are further ahead on the road to recovery, led by a resurgence in Asia - in general, emerging economies have withstood the financial turmoil much better than expected based on past experience, which reflects improved policy frameworks. However, gains in activity are now being seen more broadly, including in the major advanced economies. Financial market sentiment and risk appetite have rebounded, banks have raised capital and wholesale funding markets have reopened, and emerging market risks have eased," said a joint note by Jose Vinals and Olivier Blanchard of the IMF.
"The triggers for this rebound are strong public policies across advanced and emerging economies that, together with measures deployed by the IMF at the international level, have allayed concerns about systemic financial collapse, supported demand, and all but eliminated fears of a global depression credit supply is even more bank-dependent.
The consequences of our failure to engage in an export push to diversify our economy when the world economy was strong should now be clear for all to see.
There will, of course, be severe challenges in implementing such an export push in the midst of the worst international financial and economic crisis since the great depression, when even the exports of the so-called Asian Tigers have suffered from falling global demand.
Nevertheless, we maintain that a country which had a current account deficit of over 20 per cent of GDP in 2008, and that doesn't produce a drop of oil, has no choice. It is only through growing our exports of goods and services in the international market that we can grow our economy fast enough to escape our current debt trap.
We therefore believe that the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce's first National Economic Forum, which takes place today and tomorrow, is extremely timely.
Air Passenger Duty (APD) doubled on 1 February. Some passengers are having to pay extra despite buying their tickets previously.
Some airlines have said passengers cannot fly unless they have paid the extra cost in advance while others are meeting the charges themselves. Others are letting people pay on arrival at the airport.
Why has this come about?
Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in his pre-budget statement on 6 December that duty on passengers flying out of British airports after 1 February 2007 was to double.
Most airlines raised their flight fares once his announcement was made.
Why has the government raised the duty and given less than two months' notice?
The Treasury says the aviation industry is not meeting its environmental costs so a decision was taken to introduce the duty increase swiftly.
A spokesman said the chancellor had taken into account economic and social as well as environmental factors.
He said the Air Passenger Duty was not a tax on passengers but a tax on airlines for the number of passengers they carry. It was up to the airline to decide whether they pass that levy on to passengers.
BBC NEWS/UK/ 1 February 2007
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When I was a boy growing up in St. Lucy there were hundreds of people from St. Andrew, St. Lucy, St. Peter and northern St. James who had never seen Bridgetown. Speightstown was their city because they could not afford the bus fare to travel to Bridgetown. For the most part they lived and worked where they were born.
What is particularly puzzling about the reduction in service is that this decision was made before the Transport Authority has become operational.
For a Government to condone such a move outside of the ambit of a national transportation plan smacks of either ignorance or recklessness. But once again this Government has chosen to put the cart before the horse.
This ad hoc approach to the management of our affairs might be appealing to some in the short term, but it is doing untold damage to our economic stability. Furthermore, it boggles the mind that the government would seek to dispense new entitlements like free transportation without the means to pay for it.
It has not escaped our attention that the IMF has recommended, once again, an increase in bus fares. This latest move to reduce operating costs by reducing service to the public is therefore nothing short of sleight of hand on the part of the Government.
What you must ask yourselves is how long the $1.50 fare will hold?
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The planned action by the Transport Board for certain routes being serviced every two hours, announced last weekend, will cause unnecessary stress and hardship to the travelling public.
The travelling public will be greatly disadvantaged by this move as they will be forced to adjust their travel schedule. They are already complaints about the affected the irregularity of buses in many communities.
This action will undoubtedly affect people, especially those working split shifts in the hotel industry. Pensioners in particular will feel it and generally Barbadians will now spend longer hours on the road commuting from one point to another in order to transact their business.
This Government must stop asking the people of Barbados who can barely make ends meet – to be on the frontline of the Government’s adjustments. It is wrong.
We therefore urge the DLP not to listen to the dictates of the IMF and refrain from imposing similar pain on the people of Barbados, as it did between 1991 and 1994.
"Well if that is the case, go straight to George Street and stay there. Our address is 111 Roebuck Street. We have a tradition of how we do things in this party . . . ,"
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But the Opposition spokesman on justice senator AJ Nicholson says he is disappointed that the Prime Minister’s comment has come only after criticisms by Britain’s Supreme Court president Lord Nicholas Phillips.
More than a week ago, Lord Phillips said too many of Britain’s top Privy Council judges were being bogged down with cases from CARICOM countries.
Senator Nicholson says the Opposition remains committed to advancing the CCJ as Jamaica’s final appellate court since some local matters are not consistent with ideologies in the United Kingdom
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In addition to the economists working on the proposal, some heavyweights support the concept, including the Nobel laureate Edmund S. Phelps, Dani Rodrik of Harvard and former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich.
One version of the approach, to be unveiled next week by the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research organization, would give employers a two-year tax credit if they increased the size of their work force or added significant hours of work (for example, making a part-time worker full time).
In addition to the economists working on the proposal, some heavyweights support the concept, including the Nobel laureate Edmund S. Phelps, Dani Rodrik of Harvard and former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich.
One of a number of ideas being discussed, the policy is intended to encourage companies to start hiring again by making it cheaper to add new workers. It has raised concerns, though, that employers might try to exploit the system.
The International Energy Agency made that prediction in a report Tuesday on global greenhouse gas emissions. Because of slower economic growth, the agency slashed, by 5 percent, its estimate of how much greenhouse gas emissions will be produced in 2020.
But the energy agency also cautioned against complacency, stressing that reaching a deal in climate talks to be held in Copenhagen at the end of the year is crucial to limiting the rise in global temperatures.
Another reason for cautious optimism, the report said, is that China will be able to slow the growth of its emissions much faster than commonly assumed because of its rising investment in wind and nuclear energy and its newfound emphasis on energy efficiency.
But avoiding some of the worst consequences of climate change will still require significant and rapid investments in clean technology, and more meaningful cuts in carbon emissions, the report said.
“This gives us a chance to make real progress toward a clean-energy future, but only if the right policies are put in place promptly,” said the agency’s executive director, Nobuo Tanaka.
As a result of the economic slump, global emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, are expected to decline by 3 percent this year, the steepest drop in the 45 years according to figures compiled by the agency.
That compares with an average growth of 3 percent a year over the last decade.
Their decision follows publication of the OFT’s latest study into the £8 billion market, which highlighted three problem areas: lack of clarity over charges, difficulty in switching banks and concern over the way banks charged for unauthorised overdrafts. The OFT said the existing system did not work well for consumers.
To improve clarity over their charges banks have undertaken to provide an annual summary of the cost of their account for each customer. This is designed to help customers work out if they are getting value for money.
Banks have also agreed to make charges prominent on monthly statements, provide average credit and debit balances, which will help consumers to assess the possible benefits of switching banks, and provide a range of illustrative overdraft charges for different scenarios.
In order to smooth the switching process banks will be acting to minimise any problems arising from transfer of direct debits. They are also putting together a new consumer guide and website to improve awareness of the automatic switching process.
He made the suggestion last night during a town hall meeting at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
At present only Barbados and Guyana use the CCJ as their final appeals court.
The Bruce Golding Administration had consistently opposed a similar move.
While making no direct reference to Jamaica's negotiations with the fund, the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) yesterday released a discussion paper in which it argues that 31 of 41 of countries with current IMF agreements have been subjected to harmful monetary and fiscal policies.
That has been a fear of many Jamaicans since the Government announced plans to resume a borrowing relationship with the IMF.
However, Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Finance Minister Audley Shaw have sought to allay the fears by arguing that the IMF has changed since its 'one size fits all' stance of the 1970s and 1980s.
Golding and Shaw have further argued that the IMF no longer 'prescribes the pills' but allows countries to develop their 'individual prescriptions' to cure their ills.
Jamaica's letter of intent should be with the fund before the end of this month with an agreement expected to be in place by November.
The Reserve Bank of Australia, in a move that came earlier than many economists had expected and reflected the relative strength of the nation’s economy, raised its main cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 3.25 percent. The action reverses some of the series of rapid-fire cuts that the bank had made to the cost of borrowing in a bid to shelter the economy since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers’ collapse set off the global credit crisis.
Those aggressive cuts, by a combined 4.25 percentage points to a level last seen in 1960, plus a set of government stimulus measures, were widely credited with helping Australia become one of the few industrialized countries to avoid a major slump over the past year.
Yet a sobering reckoning of some sorts seems inevitable; and it is difficult to see how both can be winners.
And that is the paradox. China holds approaching $3 trillion in dollar assets, so she cannot afford to see the dollar collapse. Longer term, China does want to become less reliant on the dollar as a place to keep its savings.
Yet the financial tectonic plates are shifting – fast. Yesterday the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, articulated what must be weighing on the minds of many Western policy-makers. A legacy of the current crisis "may be a recognition of changed economic power relations".
In other words, the recession has accelerated the rise of China. The brutal truth is that for most of the next decade China's economy will grow by more than 10 per cent a year; America's by less than 2 per cent.
China will soon be the world's largest economy, and largest creditor nation, a position enjoyed by a pre-eminent America in the 1950s. China will also be the largest consumer of oil, which will help push trading in it and other commodities towards a "basket" of currencies.
Now America is the world's greatest debtor, she can no longer sustain her role as protector of the world's only reserve currency in the long term.
It is not hard to see the motivation for oil exporters to move away from the dollar. The value of the US currency has fallen sharply since last year's meltdown. And fears are growing, in the light of a spiralling US government deficit, that a further depreciation is likely. They do not want to sell their wares in return for a currency with an uncertain future.
China too stands to make a significant loss if the value of the dollar falls. For China, however, the timing is much more sensitive. Beijing needs to reduce its dollar holdings, but if it does so too quickly it will bring about the very devaluation it fears. This explains why Chinese officials appear to want this transition to take place gradually over the next decade.
The financial crisis has left it hobbled with significant government and household debts and sharply reduced prospects for growth. Developing nations such as China, Brazil and India, on the other hand, have weathered the economic storm significantly better. So while this latest proposal is born of financial calculation, it is also a reflection of a new economic world order.
"We are concerned about the number of people who are commenting publicly that the size of the deficit is $6.2 billion. The true size of the deficit is 8.7 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or $94.5 billion," the party's spokesman on finance Dr Omar Davies told a press conference at the PNP's headquarters in Kingston on Friday.'
Davies, a former finance minister, said he was not suggesting that anyone was deliberately understating the size of the deficit, but said it was important "that we clearly express the full amount so that everyone can appreciate the seriousness of the situation which we are facing."
He said the estimates and revenue budget presented in April were predicated on the premise "that everything that could go right would go right" with the divestment process, but the worsening economic situation had blown the estimates out of whack.
Meanwhile, Davies has again called for the Government to outline the conditions being asked of Jamaica by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said although he knows of the conditions he did not learn them from the Government, as mostly generalities have been presented.
It is a blatant and absolute untruth to state that this was ever a policy contemplated by the Barbados Labour Party or myself.
To do so would be to bring us in conflict with our human rights obligations and by extension our Constitution (given the Caribbean Court of Justice decision in Boyce and Joseph).
In addition, it would have been an act of economic sabotage against the Barbados economy given its heavy reliance on tourism and foreign investment – one that would have had worse consequences than the British Travel Tax that Prime Minister Thompson has now gone to the United Kingdom to fight.
Indeed, the only initiative ever undertaken by the BLP Government at that time was to implement an Advanced Passenger Information System that allowed for pre-screening of all passengers against the databases of Interpol and the American Government, as was stated last week by Mr. Dale Marshall.
Caught in a vise of shrinking revenue and stubbornly high public spending, the Caymans averted a fiscal crisis this week by securing a $60 million overseas loan.
But the Foreign and Commonwealth office in Britain, which oversees the Caymans and can veto foreign lending requests, has delivered an ultimatum: The rest of the $284 million the Cayman government says it needs will not be forthcoming until this offshore financial center imposes spending cuts and considers some form of direct taxation on businesses here and its 57,000 residents.
For a tropical paradise that has never taxed income, property, corporate earnings, retail sales or capital gains, such a suggestion borders on heresy.
The Caymans have built their prosperity less on tourism, like most other Caribbean islands, and more on serving as a tax-free home for 9,253 hedge funds and many more banks and companies that pay small fees to establish the Caymans as their official domicile while operating mostly elsewhere around the world.
With the explosion of global finance, the Cayman model flourished, and fees from financial institutions, together with tourism, made up as much as half of government revenue. Duties on imported goods accounted for the other half.
In June, the full effect of the financial crisis touched shore with the effect of a hurricane. A drop in financial and tourism revenue transformed a projected surplus into a deficit of about $100 million — a huge gap for an annual budget of some $800 million — and the leader of the Cayman government, W. McKeeva Bush, warned of a fiscal crisis.
However, the chancellor, attending the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Istanbul, warned of practical difficulties and said such a tax would be rejected if it worked to Britain’s disadvantage.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s managing director, aims to bring forward proposals for a worldwide bank tax. He told the meetings that a “Tobin tax” on financial transactions, favoured by Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, was not practicable.
A broader bank tax, with proceeds paid into a fund for international development and to be used to mitigate the effects of future crises, could work, he said. A team under John Lipsky, an IMF deputy managing director, is to work on it.
The chancellor also said that the G7, the group of leading advanced economies, would still have a role, despite the rise of the G20 as a larger rival body. He dismissed the idea of a smaller G4 to represent America, China, Japan and Europe.
Speaking to Congress, Mr Bernanke said: “All federal financial supervisors and regulators — not just the Federal Reserve — should be directed and empowered to take account of risks to the broader financial system as part of their normal oversight responsibilities.
“An oversight council made up of the agencies involved in financial supervision and regulation should be established.”
The council could work to identify risks to financial stability, address gaps in regulation and co-ordinate efforts to protect the financial system.
Mr Bernanke said that the Fed was “well suited” to supervising financial institutions whose failure could damage the economy but said the broader task of monitoring and assessing systemic risks might “exceed the capacity of any individual supervisor”.
Mr Bernanke’s comments suggested a change in tone. Economists said this might be calculated to reduce opposition in Congress to the Obama Administration’s proposal to give the Fed a pivotal role in policing the economy. The proposal is part of a broader financial regulation reform plan.
It must be noted that a comprehensive tax reform is part of Government's strategy to substantially reduce the fiscal deficit over the medium term. A fiscal deficit is reduced in two basic ways: 1) increase taxes and 2) lower expenditure; of course they can occur together which is the intention of the Government.
Therefore the Prime Minister must be aware that increasing taxes may result from increasing the rate of tax or broadening the base of the tax.
Whatever the nature of the comprehensive overhaul of the tax system, it has one clear objective, to increase the amount of taxes collected by the Barbados Government.
As stated last week, there is one way out of a recession - growth. In fact an economy goes into official recession after two quarters of economic decline and comes out of recession officially when it experiences two consecutive quarters of economic growth; so logically the only way out of recession is economic growth.
The scholarship winner, who celebrated her 21st birthday in July, received her primary education at Hillaby/Turners Hall Primary School.
She subsequently attended Queen's College and the Cave Hill Law Faculty from September 2006 where she graduated with Upper Second Class Honours in the LLB programme at the end of the 2008/09 academic year.
The scholarship winner, who celebrated her 21st birthday in July, received her primary education at Hillaby/Turners Hall Primary School.
What's more, only a third of existing public sector debt will see any significant reduction in interest costs going into the next fiscal year, which begins April 1, 2009, which means that government expenditure on interest payments, which will total $178 billion this year, at best, can be slashed by $20 billion for the next fiscal year.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said that "new wage settlements for teachers and nurses add a further $16 billion annually to the public sector wage bill not including retroactive payments".
The wage bill for the current fiscal year is expected to reach $125 billion, or 54 per cent of non-debt expenditure.
In April, Prime Minister Bruce Golding in defence of the public sector wage freeze equated each additional $1.5 billion needed for salaries to the laying off of 1,000 workers, implying that over 10,000 jobs would have to be made redundant to meet the additional salary requirement for teachers and nurses.
"Will the process lead to job cuts? That can hardly be avoided," Golding said of the public sector modernisation plan he says will be implemented next year.
There are currently 117,000 paid government workers, of which 41,353 are registered on the Civil Service Establishment order.
The latest snapshot of the nation’s job market released by the Labor Department on Friday amplified the notion that the recession has probably ended, as a technical matter.
Though the job market continued to worsen, the pace of deterioration remained markedly slower than earlier in the year, when roughly 700,000 jobs a month were disappearing.
Yet the report added to the sentiment that the economic expansion, which is probably under way, will be weak and tentative, with scarce paychecks and anxiety remaining prominent features of American life well into next year.
The continuing hard times in the job market seems likely to increase pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to consider another dose of federal stimulus spending, even as the government grapples with deficits projected by some economists to exceed $10 trillion over the next decade.
Nettleford chaired the Committee of Advisers on Government Structure which produced its report in 1992.
The report proposed that the size of the Cabinet be cut to 11 core functions and that a new structure of government seek to maximise the benefits of interaction between the state, private sector and civil society.
"It is still relevant," Nettleford said of the recommendations in the report.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding told Parliament, during his contribution to the debate on the First Supplementary Estimates early yesterday morning that job cuts were coming for the public sector, and that reports on how to rationalise the government operations would be utilised in this process.
Declaring that it is time for Jamaica to make a paradigm shift, Prime Minister Bruce Golding early this morning outlined his administration's plan for changes in the size and function of government that, he said, will lead to greater efficiency and reduced costs.
The plan, Golding told a marathon sitting of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament, will involve job cuts, including positions in the Cabinet. However, he did not say how many of the public sector's 117,000 positions would be affected.
He pointed out that the total cost of the government establishment is $157 billion, but said that that doesn't include the cost of providing services.
Golding, though, was clear that the public sector "wage bill burden cannot be sustained" and as such the administration had no choice but to trim the size of Government.
He gave as justification for this proposal the fact that functions are duplicated in some government departments and added that many of the forms that are now required to do business with the Government will be consolidated.
The finance minister also announced an increase in departure tax from $1,000 to $1,800.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has given the clearest signal that the axe will swing through the public sector, chopping many jobs.
"We will have to trim the size of government," Golding told Parliament early this morning.
He said the cost of government is too huge and that the state cannot afford to keep paying its 117,000 employers and remain viable.
"Cutting jobs by themselves will not lead to efficiency," Golding said.
The final cut of figures for US GDP, published by the US Commerce Department, showed that, during the second quarter, the world's biggest economy contracted by 0.7 per cent.
This was a lower rate of contraction than the 1 per cent previously reported and was also better than the 1.2 per cent contraction which Wall Street had expected.
The improvement was due, the Commerce Department said, due to improved consumer and business spending - both of which helped make up for a record decline in the amount of stock held by US companies.
In its Global Financial Stability Report, an assessment that has brought widespread praise from economists as a thorough analysis of the system’s health, the I.M.F. praised the mixture of bank rescue and stimulus packages. But it said the policies had not changed the fundamental dynamic by which debt-burdened banks and consumers present a drag on economic growth.
To head off a new chapter in the crisis, the I.M.F. called on governments to adopt regulations to strengthen bank capital and establish effective policies to clear bad loans off bank balance sheets. It also called for “great care” in winding down crisis-driven rescue policies to avoid bringing on a new crisis.
Broadly speaking, the I.M.F. said, the global economy still suffered from a shortage of credit, thanks to the crisis at the heart of the Western financial system, which stemmed initially from huge losses linked to the U.S. mortgage market. Now, loan write-offs linked to a grinding recession are amplifying the problem.
Even though banks are returning to profitability, the I.M.F. said, incoming cash will not be enough to compensate for the losses.
Asked for her remedy, she said: "The problem is that there is too little economic information coming from the Government.
We have asked the Government to establish a parliamentary committee on finance and economic affairs because it is only when we have access to information that we can be constructive.
She further said small businesses in Barbados were "catching hell at keeping people employed" - a point she raised during her more than 70-minute address during which she told the audience that small businesses were in trouble and whereas they were "springing up all over the place" in previous years they were now "shutting down".
"A year ago we told the Government that they should have issued a stabilisation bond to be able to take up some of the excess money they had in the economy from the sale of the BS& T and RBTT shares, they didn't do it then, now they're having hell being able to borrow money. . . . This is a Government being driven by misplaced priorities," Mottley stressed.
LAST WEEK I wrote that "having failed to adopt an aggressive growth strategy early in 2008 to counter the obvious negative economic signs at the time, the government is now virtually locked into an IMF-type austerity programme that would be accompanied by job losses, heavy foreign borrowing, renewed inflation
in 2010 and a significant loss of foreign reserves".
The Barbados economy is obviously in a deep hole as its overseers stand over it wondering "what is the way out".
In times of recession, the ability to earn foreign exchange is compromised by weaker international demand, and the overseers must be able to spot this reality and act accordingly.
It must be recalled that the Government was encouraged to borrow from foreign sources immediately after assuming office and the public response was expected. The IMF is now encouraging the same Government to borrow some $600 million this fiscal year and $500 million the following year.
This is to provide the balance of payments support that is required when there is a deliberate strategy to fuel growth by domestic demand and, of course, to meet foreign debt repayment, which peaks in 2010. All of this was known for several years!
Earlier this month I indicated to Barbadians that I would be starting a monthly address to the country to address issues of significant national import. I have taken this step as we recognize there are too few opportunities for the alternative views of the Opposition to be heard by the people of Barbados.
Today I will address the latest IMF Article IV Report and its implications for Barbadians.
After determining that the Barbados economy is in deep recession, there were seven recommendations which are put by the IMF as potential options for the Government of Barbados to execute a medium-term fiscal consolidation, in other words consolidate Government’s position in relation to its expenditure and its revenue.
It must be made clear at the outset that the Government of Barbados is at liberty to reject each and every one of these recommendations. However, what is incontrovertible is that the measures are dire because the underlying situation is dire.
What is clear is that even these measures are rejected, the Prime Minister must outline to the country alternative measures to stabalize this economy if we are not to jeopardize the vast gains of the recent decade in terms of the quality of life of Barbadians.
The Barbados economy is one shock away from tipping point. You will only have these kinds of measures being recommended to the country, if the situation was drastic.
"There is going to have be some increase in borrowing," Finance Minister Audley Shaw told journalists at yesterday's post-Cabinet press briefing.
"$24-25 billion will have to be raised," he added.
The finance minister said he did not have a choice but to resort to the market.
Shaw conceded that the Government had failed to realise its projected $16.8-billion Budget cut, saying it was only able to reduce its expenditure by just over $10 billion.
Financial analysts have reacted with surprise that the Government planned to spend $561.4 billion instead of the projected $555 billion, after repeatedly promising to slash the expenditure budget.
Shaw said a reduction in revenues had triggered a two percentage points increase in the fiscal deficit, moving it from 6.6 to 8.6 per cent.
He said following this week's trip by a local team to Washington, an IMF contingent is scheduled to arrive in Jamaica in the middle of October.
"They will be coming to Jamaica to dot the i's and cross the t's, after which the Government will put together the letter of intent," Shaw asserted.
The MP for St Michael North East said that now Arthur has had time to rest, he would start operating fully in relation to the entire team of the BLP for the 2013 elections.
According to Mottley, the Government has a vested interest in diverting attention from the dire economic issues facing the country now by trying to talk about the BLP.
But in addressing a fund-raising event in Toronto, Canada, last Saturday evening, Prime Minister David Thompson yesterday warned the Opposition Leader not to attempt to speak for the former Prime Minister.
"Only Owen Arthur knows what is in his head, and what his intentions are," Thompson said.
"As a person who has been down that road before, I would caution Miss Mottley to prepare for the worst case scenario of having to meet her political maker across the battlefield," the Prime Minister added. (BA)
If they could summon at least half of Obama's passion - if not eloquence - to inspire public confidence, then we would probably witness pessimism giving way to a new hope for the transformation of CARICOM into a seamless regional economy, despite today's worsening economic gloom.
It is, essentially, a shared responsibility of the CARICOM members to use their information agencies and communication facilities to help sensitise the public on policies, programmes and decisions to which they had committed.
Of course, the Community at 36, struggles along in a situation where, for example: meetings of cabinet ministers responsible for information and communication no longer take place; CARICOM's Bureau of Management remains a poor mechansim for advancing decisions between ministerial councils and heads of government; the quasi-cabinet system that was expediently established to forestall the creation of a high-level empowered administrative structure, seems to be in urgent need of revamping, if not abolition.
In the absence of a standing governance mechanism, vested with executive authority, to drive the process of implementation and provide guidance for the heads of government, CARICOM will continue to drift in a sea of uncertainties about the future of its single economy project, needed more now than ever, at this time of global economic crisis.
Though differences persist, administration officials said a rough consensus had been reached on broad lessons from the crisis. The firmest area of agreement at the two-day meeting this Thursday and Friday is likely to be on the need for higher capital reserve requirements at banks and other financial institutions.
Requirements on capital reserves — safety cushions against losses — are at the heart of the risk-taking behavior of financial institutions. Higher reserve requirements mean that institutions have less latitude to leverage their investments with large amounts of borrowed money.
The third and most difficult area of discussion involves how to prevent the kind of huge global economic imbalances that many analysts believe were central to the bubble-and-bust cycles of the last several years.
The biggest imbalance of the past decade has been the gap between the soaring indebtedness of the United States, with its consumer economy, and the mounting surpluses of China and other countries whose growth has relied on exports.
Export-dependent countries plowed trillions in surplus profits back into the United States over the decade, supplying a flood of cheap money that kept interest rates low and aggravated the huge speculative bubble in American home prices.
Britain is warming to the proposal on the grounds that it will help financial institutions to divert more cash into building capital reserves.
This month Gordon Brown blocked a proposal by President Sarkozy of France to cap individual bonuses, arguing that it would be unenforce-able. However, the Prime Minister is supporting a compromise solution to set a maximum percentage of profits that banks and other financial institutions can spend on bonuses.
The details are being finalised by the Financial Stability Board, which was established at the London G20 in April, and will be presented at the Pittsburgh summit on Friday. Three new pan-European supervisory bodies, which would be responsible for the day-to-day supervision and enforcement of the common rulebook, are proposed.
British officials confirmed yesterday that Mr Brown would present detailed proposals on a crisis insurance scheme in Pittsburgh. A leaked G20 document also called on the IMF to play a significant role in overseeing policies to rebalance the world economy.
“We understand the gravity of the climate threat,” Mr. Obama said, but noted that the push for change comes in the midst of a global recession. “And so all of us will face doubts and difficulties in our own capitals as we try to reach a lasting solution to the climate challenge.”
Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations secretary general, appealed to the leaders to set aside their national interests and think about the future of the globe.
“Instead of demanding concessions from others, let us ask how we can contribute to the greater good,” he said, describing the talks as moving at “glacial” speed. “The world’s glaciers are now melting faster than human progress to protect them—and us.”
Industrialized nations, while agreeing on cutting emissions in the long term — by 2050 — have failed to agree on a crucial midterm target for carbon emissions cuts by 2020. They have pledged to roughly go halfway toward meeting the ambitious target set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a 25 percent to 40 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2020 — which environmental advocates say is not enough.
Developing powerhouses like China and India have agreed on the need to trim emissions, but reject mandatory limits, and demand financial and technical support in exchange.
Having failed to adopt an aggressive growth strategy early in 2008 to counter the obvious negative economic signs at the time, the Government is now virtually locked into an IMF-type austerity programme that would be accompanied by job losses, heavy foreign borrowing, renewed inflation in 2010 and a significant loss of foreign reserves.
But even if the Government raises some of the money, Barbadians can anticipate some austere fiscal measures that would include, though not be limited to, (1) raising the VAT rate to 17 per cent, (2) increasing prices for utilities and other public services, (3) selling Government assets and (4) cutting capital projects.
The real danger comes when the Government seeks to "commit early to decisive fiscal measures particularly in the area of expenditure restraint", especially if it is unable to raise $600 million in foreign borrowing this fiscal year and $500 million the following fiscal year. The foreign borrowing is to come principally from the multilateral institutions.
Opposition Leader Mia Mottley told the media yesterday that the local economy was “one shock away from tipping point” with 4 200 jobs lost between January and June this year and the same period last year alone, while the island’s international reserves fell by a worrying $691 million between June last year and this year.
“The Prime Minister announced in July that he would be drawing down $90 million of our Special Drawing Rights and what that signalled to us immediately was that Barbados was running out of options and that the next stage after that could well be an IMF programme,” Mottley said.
Quoting from the IMF document, she said there were seven key fiscal recommendations that if implemented could have severe negative consequences on the local economy and, more importantly, individual Barbadians and businesses because they called for many millions of dollars to be cut.
These recommendations included raising value added tax by one to two percentage points, reducing Government’s wage bill, cutting spending on goods and services, and adjusting prices of utilities and other public services.
There is “absolutely” no power struggle in the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
Opposition Leader Mia Mottley said yesterday that the apparent re-emergence of former Prime Minister Owen Arthur as a major voice in national affairs was welcomed by her and the BLP.
Speaking to the media during a news conference at the Opposition’s Office in Parliament’s West Wing, Mottley dismissed talk of a possible leader tussle between herself and Arthur as merely an attempt by the ruling Democratic Labour Party government to distract Barbadians from the “dire” situation facing the local economy.
“We welcome the fact that Mr. Arthur has indicated that he is running again, we also welcome the fact that he will be a key and integral part of the Team and I have said so from day one,” she said.
“I think it can only enhance the Barbados Labour Party’s Team effort, I think it can only make a positive difference in the country rec-ognising that it had a government that was working, it will have a government again that is working and that would be a substitute for a government” that is not working, she said.
Britain is clocking up debt at a rate of £6,017 per second as the Government struggles to balance the books. With tax receipts plummeting because of the recession, state borrowing grew by £16.1 billion last month — almost twice the entire budget for the 2012 Olympics.
Net borrowing for the first five months of the financial year stood at £65.3 billion, compared with £26.1 billion at the same stage last year. Total borrowing soared past the £800 billion mark for the first time and total state debt as a proportion of national output reached 57.5 per cent.
Just to pay the interest on its ballooning debts the Government must find more than £30 billion a year — about £500 for every man, woman and child in the country.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that tax receipts in August dived by 9 per cent compared with August 2008, while public spending rose by almost 3 per cent.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Balls detailed more than £2 billion of cost savings worth 5% of the total schools budget.
The schools spending blueprint, which Balls revealed days after the prime minister first admitted that cuts needed to be made, will put pressure on other cabinet ministers to give details of savings in their departments.
“It is going to be tougher on spending over the next few years,” said Balls. The squeeze will begin after 2011.
Warning of post-election pay curbs, he added: “If we are going to keep teachers and teaching assistants on the front line, that means we are going to have to be disciplined on public sector pay, including in education.”
Teachers’ salaries have risen by 19% in real terms since 1997. Balls said that while teachers’ pay was set by an independent body, he was keen to ensure wage rises in the next three-year deal starting in 2011 were kept low.
Why does Minister Chris Sinckler think he is immune from following accepted restructuring procedures in the termination of public officers from the UDC, while his boss, Prime Minister David Thompson goes all out to save jobs at LIME? Could it be that a political agenda is in play at the UDC?
For a Government agency to offer non-pensionable workers four weeks pay and now, an ex gratia payment of two and a half weeks pay per year, both contrary to the Statutory Boards Pensions Act of six weeks for each year of service - is further proof that something untoward is afoot.
But rather than the Minister being chastened by the public outcry, he displayed a level of arrogance and insensitivity at a DLP branch meeting last weekend that indicates the lengths to which he is prepared to go to get his own way at the UDC.
To comment publicly on an ongoing dispute is something that surely even he must recognize is against best practices in industrial relations.
It said that the island's output is contracting, as the global financial crisis has "depressed tourism, brought Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to a sudden stop, and weakened public finances".
"Consequently, unemployment has risen to double-digit level," the Washington-based financial institution said.
"While the underlying balance of payments is expected to remain weak, international reserves are expected to increase marginally in 2009, on account of the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) allocations and the large government bond issue abroad," it added.
The IMF said while various indicators suggest that the actual exchange rate is close to its equilibrium level, the current global shocks have put strains on the country's economy.
Fiscal adjustment plan
The IMF called on the Barbados government to "commit early on to decisive fiscal measures," particularly in expenditure restraint, adding that it would also be important to develop contingency plans, "in the event that the economic recovery was delayed and fiscal pressures persisted".
It lauded the administration for moving ahead with implementing the recommendations of the 2008 Financial Sector Assessment Program Update..
“From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point,” he said, adding that “it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time, as many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was.”
The cautiously optimistic assessment came at the conclusion of a speech by Mr. Bernanke at the Brookings Institution marking the anniversary of the market crisis that was precipitated by the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers.
Mr. Bernanke said the consensus of forecasters was for moderate growth for the rest of this year and next, particularly as credit markets thaw, consumer confidence takes time to heal, and the federal government begins to unwind a series of federal spending and lending programs intended to mend the economy.
Mr. Bernanke and other top officials, including the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, have warned that winding down the programs too early could lead to another round of problems.
Historians now generally agree that, during the Great Depression, the early withdrawal of government programs in the 1930s led to deeper economic problems throughout that decade.
On the other hand, waiting too long could fuel significant price increases and lead to a return of corrosive levels of inflation.
The airline said today that it hopes that further voluntary schemes, including urging workers to go part time, will be sufficient.
British Airways has told its temporary cabin crew that their contracts will be terminated at the end of next month as the airline steps up its cost-cutting drive.
A total of 125 non-permanent staff were e-mailed yesterday and told that they would cease to be employed from October 31.
A further 140 full-time cabin crew have accepted voluntary redundancy and will leave the company at the same time.
BA has been negotiating the job cuts and new contracts with trade unions since before the summer but the talks have failed to reach a resolution.
The International Air Transport Association revised a June forecast of a $9 billion industry-wide loss in 2009 and said the pain would continue into next year, with an expected loss of $3.8 billion in 2010.
“The global economic storm may be abating, but airlines have not yet found a safe harbor,” said Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of the association, which includes 230 of the world’s largest carriers. “The crisis continues.”
The news came as Japan Airlines announced plans to cut 6,800 jobs, trim routes and quickly secure emergency funds from an overseas carrier, stepping up restructuring efforts amid mounting losses that threaten to pull the flag carrier under.
Global revenue is set to drop by 15 percent to $455 billion, though it is expected to stabilize by next year as airlines continue to park aircraft and reduce flight frequencies in order to keep seats filled.
Still, the association warned that it could take at least three years before revenue returns to the peak of $535 billion seen in 2008.
“Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we are still recovering, they are choosing to ignore them,” Mr. Obama said in a speech at Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan. “They do so not just at their own peril, but at our nation’s.”
“I want everybody here to hear my words,” Mr. Obama said. “We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses. Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall.”
It was one year ago that Mr. McCain declared “the fundamentals of our economy are strong,” a remark Mr. Obama instantly seized upon to portray his Republican rival as out of touch with hardships facing Americans. The argument helped Mr. Obama win the White House, where he inherited an economic crisis. Now, he fully owns it.
Opposition Leader, Mia Mottley, on Saturday, September 12, 2009 - announced several new initiatives to step up its activities and strengthen the Barbados Labour Party’s voice on issues of national and topical concern.
In addition to the recent appointment of Arthur Holder to the Shadow Cabinet, Miss Mottley has announced the appointment of national spokespersons in four new groupings on the Economy, Governance, the Social Sector and Physical Development & the Environment to supplement the work of the existing Shadow Cabinet. A member of the Shadow Cabinet will coordinate each of these four groups.
“I have asked Noel Lynch, Indar Weir and Ian Gooding-Edghill to also speak on the Economic Sectors,” she said, “Rev. Joseph Atherley and Desmond Sands on Governance.
Dr. Jerome Walcott, Trevor Prescod and Santia Bradshaw on Social Issues and Roger Smith and Peter Philips on Physical Development and the Environment.
These spokespersons will also be using the BLP’s weekly address on VOB to raise and discuss issues of national concern to Barbadians.
And I will be addressing the country each month on radio as the difficulties facing our people must be articulated and solutions found,” she said.
Miss Mottley revealed that the Party would, from October, be taking its message on the road directly to Barbadians in a series of local outdoor meetings titled “Live and Direct”.
In a Press release yesterday, the BLP leader said the party would be stepping up its activities and strengthening the BLP's voice on issues such as the economy, governance, the social sector, physical development and the environment.
She said the appointment of spokespersons in these areas would supplement the work of the existing Shadow Cabinet.
"I have asked Noel Lynch, Indar Weir and Ian Gooding-Edghill to also speak on the economic sectors; Rev. Joseph Atherley and Desmond Sands on governance; Dr Jerome Walcott, Trevor Prescod and Santia Bradshaw on social issues; and Roger Smith and Peter Philips on physical development and the environment.
The Opposition Leader said the spokespersons would also be using the BLP's weekly VOB address to raise and discuss issues of national concern to Barbadians.
She said she would be addressing the country each month on radio to articulate the difficulties facing people and seeking to find solutions.
The persistent stories of long waits for attention in the Accident & Emergency Department in spite of pledges that this would be fixed are disheartening.
However, the delay in making a decision on whether to refurbish the existing hospital or build a new one has gone on for too long, particularly when Prime Minister David Thompson made an unequivocal statement on this matter in his first Budget last July. He said then that Cabinet had "agreed to the expansion of the QEH on its present site, estimated to cost over $400 million, and we have begun to identify funding for this upgrade and expansion".
He noted that his Government had taken the decision to sell its shares in the Barbados National Bank and the Insurance Corporation of Barbados, then worth about $200 million, and "the proceeds of these sales will be used to fund part of the upgrading and expansion of the QEH". Added to this, investors had "offered to raise philanthropic capital contributions for this upgrade and expansion of the QEH".
The next word on this matter came from then Minister of Health Dr David Estwick. He said: "The plan is for a new purpose-built facility that would give us state-of-the art health care for the next 30 or 40 years, with few or no problems."
He said, too, that Cabinet was to decide "very, very, very soon", as expansion at the QEH site had been ruled out by climate and engineering experts because of its unstable substructure and high level of risk to flooding and earthquakes.
This apparent contradiction on whether the QEH was going to be refurbished or a new hospital built was later clarified by Thompson. He said the QEH would be expanded at its present site. Estwick was later replaced by Donville Inniss in a Cabinet reshuffle.
"It will take a while to get through this, and it will take us longer because we're going to do it right," Mr. Geithner said during an afternoon hearing of the Congressional Oversight Panel that monitors the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Mr. Geithner projected an upbeat tone, saying that the administration's handling of TARP, originally established under the George W. Bush administration, helped pull the economy "back from the edge of the abyss."
Panel member Rep. Jeb Hensarling, Texas Republican, a strong TARP critic, said the program was intended to bail out troubled financial institutions, not failing Michigan automakers.
Mr. Geithner added that the administration is starting to unwind a number of the transactions with bailed-out financial institutions first implemented last autumn in the wake of the financial crisis and expects to receive a further $50 billion in repayments from banks over the next 18 months.
Instead, the focus at the organisation's meeting in Vienna was to be on persuading members not to sell more oil than their quotas permit.
Kuwait's Oil Minister, Sheik Ahmed Al Abullah Al Sabah, said OPEC's markets monitoring committee would suggest to the 12-country group that oil output targets be held steady at the organisation's meeting Wednesday in Vienna.
The recommendation offers further indication that ministers from the bloc - supplier of roughly 35 percent of the world's crude - are turning their aim toward encouraging member discipline. Compliance with the output limits, which are designed to support prices, has been waning.
United States benchmark light sweet crude for October delivery was hovering at around $71 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The level is well within the range that OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, and others, have said it would like to see.
The central bank also left its £175 billion, or $290 billion, program of buying bonds intact, following an agreement by finance ministers of the Group of 20 last weekend to leave such stimulus measures in place until there is broad evidence that the global economy is well on its way to recovery.
“The U.K. is a very long way away from withdrawing stimulus,” said Howard Archer, an economist at IHS Global Insight in London. “There are still very significant obstacles to long-term growth. The recovery will be slow and prone to relapses.”
Indeed, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said earlier this month that Britain’s economy had started growing again, and the British Chambers of Commerce raised its forecast for economic growth next year to 1.1 percent from 0.6 percent. It also cut its estimate for unemployment as the government’s stimulus packages start taking effect.
Consumer confidence rose to the highest in more than a year in August and services expanded at the fastest pace since September 2007 that month. But while Germany and France have already returned to growth, Britain’s economy is held back by a still weak housing market, rising unemployment and banks that remain reluctant to lend despite government pressure, because they are grappling with rising loan losses and higher capital requirements.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding said the move will help small businesses, especially those that have demonstrated a history and a culture of meeting their obligations. He said that the bill was part of a broader effort by Government to address some of the systemic institutional challenges to the establishment and growth of small businesses in Jamaica.
The prime minister said he had instructed the minister of finance to make the bill cover credit history going back up to seven years before the bill becomes law.
This, he said, will allow persons and businesses who are paying their debts on time to use a good credit history as collateral without their having to start from scratch when the bill goes into effect. He said the bill will seek to establish assets other than traditional real estate, as viable collateral for those seeking loans. These other forms of capital could include moveable assets as well as intellectual property, Golding said.
Ticket prices should rise steadily over time to deter air travel and ensure that carbon dioxide emissions from aviation fall back to 2005 levels, the Committee on Climate Change says. It believes that airlines should be forced to share the burden of meeting Britain’s commitment to an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050.
Industry estimates suggest that the average passenger would pay less than £10 extra per return ticket when aviation joins the EU emissions trading scheme in 2012. This would depend on the price of allowances to emit CO2, which is expected to rise over time.
In a letter to the Government published today, the committee says that an increase in global temperatures is inevitable and that developed countries must pay for the consequences. It says that the EU trading scheme does not go far enough and could result in airlines making windfall profits.
Under the scheme, airlines will be given free carbon permits covering 85 per cent of their emissions and will have to buy permits for the remaining 15 per cent. The committee says that they should have to pay for all their emissions. This would more than double the cost to passengers.
The Greenskies Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups, estimates that the EU scheme would add £4 to the cost of a return ticket from London to Madrid and £18 for a round trip from London to Los Angeles. These would rise to £10 and £40 if the committee’s proposal was accepted.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the value of British exports rose 5 per cent on the month to £19.187 billion - its fastest increase since January 2008. The weak pound bolstered sales of goods to both non-EU and EU markets.
But analysts said that the figures gave further hope that the economy was picking-up. Today's trade figures follow a report from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, one of the foremost independent economic forecasters, which indicated the British recession was over.
The group estimated that Britain had climbed out of the slump to enjoy economic growth in the three months to August.
A further boost came today when Moody's, the rating agency, announced that Britain's top-notch triple-A credit rating is unlikely to be downgraded if the Government cuts public spending.
It said that Britain — and the US — continued to be "resilient".
Ross Walker, economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "There are signs of underlying improvement and the fact that both exports and imports are picking up is indicative of the global recovery beginning to gain a bit of traction."
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said that the underlying data "provided support to mounting hopes and expectations that the economy will return to growth in the third quarter".
A more than 10% increase in the price of diesel, kerosene and gasoline at this time is unconscionable.
It is another example of poor and insensitive leadership destined to put more pressure on the economy and on Barbadians.”
This was how the Opposition Leader and Political Leader of the Barbados Labour Party, Mia Amor Mottley described the most recent increases in the price of petroleum products taking effect from midnight last night.
Miss Mottley renewed her attack against the automatic flow through mechanism for prices given the extremely difficult economic conditions facing the country.
She stated, “Imposing a 10% increase at this time on top of all of the other increases that households and businesses have had to face recently times can only lead to further price increases and more jobs going being lost.
The National Union of Public Workers NUPW) has given the Urban Development Commission (UDC) until tomorrow to respondto its concerns over staff layoffs or face enhanced industrial action.
Not only is the union seeking reinstatement of severed workers, but it also wants negotiations to continue with a spreadsheet of the workers affected by planned layoffs.
If the UDC failed to return to the negotiating table or failed to provide the exact number of workers affected with their names in writing, Clarke said, there would be action before the end of the week. However, he did not reveal what kind.
This as Tesheira presented her second budget in as many years. It lasted three hours and seven minutes in the Parliament Chamber, Red House, Port-of-Spain. During her presentation, Opposition MPs, including Subhas Panday, were heard saying the budget did not contain any new initiatives. Prime Minister Patrick Manning was seen putting his finger on his lips, advising Opposition MPs to remain silent and listen.
The budget, in which the Government projects it will spend $44.3 billion from October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2010, was predicated on a “conservative” oil price of US$55 a barrel, and a natural gas price of US$2.75 per million cubic feet.
Minister Tesheira said the projected deficit was $7.7 billion, or 5.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. Confirming an $11.5 billion budget shortfall in last year’s package, Tesheira said that was caused not only by the decline in oil and gas prices, but also reduced prices of other petrochemicals.
According to industry sources, Jamaica could support 50,000 hotel rooms, some 20,000 more than the current total inventory. Bartlett agreed with the figure, but said without double-digit growth in stopover visitors, such an ambitious offering could not be supported.
Bartlett said the goal his ministry was pursuing was to reach five million stopover visitors and US$5 billion in foreign exchange earnings from the sector by 2020. Current growth levels would only result in three million tourist visits by 2015, however, he noted, only a million more than current annual visits.
The question as to how many rooms the market can support is central to a coordinated approach to tourism planning, acknowledged Bartlett, and will have far-reaching implications for the development of the economy generally as the productive and service sectors that serve tourism operators need to be aware of what future demand will look like in order to make investments to build capacity.
"You need to determine optimal earnings and arrival levels to address unemployment and to quantify and coordinate linkages," said Bartlett.
The relative party standing remains unchanged since Johnson's survey findings published in June last year. Furthermore, neither party has increased its support among potential voters during the past 14 months.
Johnson found that the JLP and the PNP have each gained only one percentage point on their electability, well within the poll's plus or minus three per cent margin of error.
In no mood for election
Despite its lead in the recent polls, the Portia Simpson-led PNP may have to wait longer before popping champagne bottles, because the electorate is in no mood for a general election at this time.
Fifty per cent of the 1,008 persons interviewed by Johnson's polling team during the first two weeks in August did not agree with the suggestion that Prime Minister Bruce Golding should call an early general election. Thirty-nine per cent agreed, while 10 per cent did not offer an opinion.
If, indeed, a general election were called, it would perhaps be a close fight -as in 2007 when the JLP won by a four-seat margin - because respondents see hardly any difference between the parties in several respects.
“Deficits are inevitable in a recession, because revenues received are lower, as well as you need to spend more into targeted sectors of the economy to get the biggest impact on growth, poverty-reduction and business activity.
Targeting the budget deficit at low-income earners and the social safety net will not be enough to get the economy going, say financial analysts.
More effort must be placed at improving confidence of higher-income earners and getting people to begin spending and rebuilding the economy, they are saying.
“Low-income earners are much more frugal than policy-makers think, and we need to get confidence levels up for higher-income earners and corporate customers to purchase cars and invest in factory and stock to generate growth and demand,” said head of Securities and Asset Management at CMMB, Brent Salvary.
“I don’t think targeting the stimulus at low-level income earners will help much, because consumers need to start spending on larger commodities, such as on their homes, factory construction, or real estate asset repairs, which will generate employment, economic activity and provide the infrastructure for future productivity and growth.”
The finance ministers of the world’s richest countries are backing the UK’s plans for global economic recovery.
A draft proposal outlining a system of deferred bonuses for bankers and continued public spending was agreed at today’s meeting in London.
The agreement is a victory for Gordon Brown and chancellor Alistair Darling who have been resisting calls, led by France, to cap bonuses, claiming they were unenforceable.
In the proposals bankers will be rewarded for long-term success with deferred payments, instead of upfront bonuses.
Speaking at the summit this morning Brown pledged an end to the system of payouts, which reward failure and encourage risk, saying they were ‘an offence’ to the taxpayer.
The G20 ministers’ draft communiqué has also adopted Brown’s calls to continue fiscal stimulus, despite forecasts of positive growth.
Some countries, including France and Germany, are already emerging from recession, and want to implement "exit strategies" to scale back the spending introduced to combat the downturn.
Brown heralded the tentative recovery, but warned world leaders that withdrawing measures too early would be an ‘error of historic proportions’.
He claimed the fiscal stimulus programmes of increased public spending and tax cuts had prevented the world’s economies plunging into depression on the scale of the 1930s and must be sustained into 2010.
THE VIEW THAT an opposition party has every right to criticise Government policies without preparing alternative policies is one that I never shared.
This does not mean that the alternative policies have to be shared with Government, especially given the adversarial nature of local politics, but on becoming the Government, it should be clear that there was preparation for governance.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Labour Party seems to be woefully unprepared for the tasks at hand.
Since 2007, there was clear evidence that the world economy was heading for recession, yet Barbados recorded its lowest unemployment rate ever. I can still recall conversations with Owen Arthur about the need to start repositioning the economy to meet the challenges in 2008 and beyond.
Notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence that was around for over two years, I repeat that "the Government seems to have found confused ways of resolving clear problems; increase taxes to increase spending power; more taxes to lower prices; borrow more to reduce the national debt and fire people to lower unemployment".
Voicing her strong support for Opposition Leader Mia Mottley, Thompson was highly critical of the performance of Government in its first 20 months, especially in terms of cost of living, housing, and its treatment of the public sector.
The Senator cited a reshuffle of Cabinet in less than a year and the frequent shake-ups of boards of management at statutory corporations, like the Barbados Tourism Authority, the Urban and Rural Development Commissions, and the Sanitation Service Authority, as signs that all was not well in the administration.
Thompson also said that under the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) the price of food went up by 18 per cent in the first year, and that people were being surprised at the cashier when they saw how expensive food was.
The former St. James South Member of Parliament then said that the DLP was producing a lot of “sweet talk” on the issue of housing, but was not building houses that were affordable by poor people, and was failing to deliver them at anywhere near the pace they had pledged.
The latest audit of T&T’s natural gas reserves, announced yesterday, noted that the country’s reserves declined by just under ten per cent or from 1,623 billion cubic feet (bcf) to 15,374 (bcf).
This translates to proven reserves of just over ten years, with probable and possible reserves extending commercial production to 20 years into the future under current production levels.
The gas survey completed by the Houston-based gas consultancy firm Ryder Scott LP showed that this decline topped nearly a decade of decline as proven reserves fell more than 25 per cent since 2002.
Responding to the results and the need to increase gas supplies for future demand, Energy Minister Conrad Enill said six blocks were expected to be offered for competitive bidding in 2010 and exploration soon after.
“The new proposals in the new tax regime can be expected to inform bid rounds that are currently being planned,” he said. “In this regard, four blocks in the north coast marine area and two blocks on the east coast are to be offered for competitive bidding in the first fiscal quarter of 2010.”
The Shadow Chancellor accused Mr. Brown of being in "complete denial" over the mounting bill of the financial rescue packages, and agreed with Britain's neighbours that it was time to look for an exit strategy.
Britain has been irritated by calls from Germany and France to start reducing the amount of support as their economies have shown signs of an economic upturn.
Britain's own economy has not been doing so well, and today a respected international economic body warned that Britain would lag behind the rest of the world in coming out of recession.
This prediction, and the dissonant voices in the EU, come at an awkward time for Mr. Brown, who has been striving to present a united front with Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy before EU finance ministers meet in London tomorrow to prepare for the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in three weeks' time.
The three leaders have publicly put their names to a joint letter that says: "The crisis is not over and the labour markets will suffer... over the months to come. Together we must send a message from Pittsburgh that we are fully and firmly resolved to implement our stimulus plans."
But furious rows continue behind the scenes over how and when to start tightening fiscal and monetary policies as countries recover at different rates.
Alistair Darling warned against prematurely scaling back the bailout in an interview. The Chancellor said: "My view is the biggest single risk to recovery is that people think the job is done."
Speaking to an auditorium filled with party stalwarts including Opposition Leader Mia Mottley, Member of Parliament (MP) for St. Thomas, Cynthia Forde, Senator Elizabeth Thompson, and former BLP MP for the constituency Rudolph “Cappy” Greenidge, Weir, who was unopposed, said entering into political life was a difficult decision.
However, he voiced a commitment to fighting political victimisation, which he said had people running scared.
However, he supported the policies of the Opposition Leader, specifically the practice of early nominations, which he argued allowed new candidates time to prepare their campaigns and generate support in their constituencies.
In terms of plans for the constituency, Weir, who born and resides in the parish of St. Philip, said he wanted to see a transformation of the King George V Memorial Park into an entertainment and sporting arena.
He also said the people of St. Philip had a need for housing and that he was interested in seeing the development more projects that will benefit its residents
The allocation, equivalent to $250 billion, was made on August 28 and will be followed by an additional, albeit much smaller, allocation of $33 billion on September 9. With the two allocations totaling roughly $283 billion, the outstanding stock of SDRs would increase nearly ten-fold to total about $316 billion.
There are no notes or coins denominated in SDRs, nonetheless the SDR does play a role as an interest-bearing international reserve asset. The allocation of SDRs by the IMF boosts member countries’ reserves because SDRs can be turned into usable currencies.
Once the SDRs have been added to a member country’s official reserves, the country can voluntarily exchange its SDRs for hard currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, euro, yen, or pound sterling, through voluntary trading arrangements with other IMF member countries.
Some countries have already volunteered to set up trading arrangements that will facilitate the buying and selling of SDRs.
SDR allocations respond to G-20’s call
It was at its April summit in London that the Group of Twenty (G-20) industrial and emerging market countries called for an SDR allocation of $250 billion. The proposed general allocation was approved by the IMF’s Board of Governors on August 7, 2009, and came into effect on August 28. The allocation is based on a long-term global need to supplement IMF members’ existing reserve assets and it provides liquidity to the global economic system.
The G-20 had also called for urgent ratification of a long-pending amendment to the IMF’s Articles of Agreement. This so-called Fourth Amendment was proposed to enable all Fund members to participate in the SDR system on an equitable basis and correct for the fact that countries that joined the Fund after 1981—now more than one-fifth of the current IMF membership—have never received an SDR allocation.
"We are hoping that this show here this morning would say to the authorities: 'Let us get serious about what we're doing and let us sit down and negotiate this thing in good faith.'
The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) took its fight with the Urban Development Commission (UDC) to the streets yesterday.
General secretary Dennis Clarke and president Walter Maloney joined about 18 employees of the UDC and members of the NUPW council in a one-hour protest from 9 a.m. in front of the UDC's Roebuck Street, Bridgetown offices.
Carrying placards with slogans like UDC Is A Law Unto Itself, UDC Workers To Starve and A Broken Promise Of No Layoffs, the protesters sang several battle songs as they walked the sidewalk in the morning heat.
Clarke said he hoped the action would force the UDC to sit back down and negotiate. Failure to do so, he added, would result in stepped-up action.
To cheering, singing and even some dancing, the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) named businessman Indar Weir as its St Philip North representative.
He was nominated unopposed last Sunday evening during a meeting of the BLP's St Philip North branch at Hilda Skeene Primary School, Ruby, St Philip.
Party members and supporters danced and sang along to Red Plastic Bag's recording Something's Happening when the 48-year head of Indar Weir Travel Centre was selected at 6:37 p.m.
Weir listed disaster preparedness, an upgrade of the effectiveness of the branch and seeking a better housing deal for constituents among is priorities.
He added that "in this day and age political victimisation should not still have our people running scared".
This is how Opposition Senator Elizabeth Thompson has described Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Government ministers.
She lambasted the DLP on Sunday, during a meeting of the Barbados Labour Party's St Philip North constituency branch at Hilda Skeene Primary School.
She charged that "a lot" of the DLP ministers had "changed their cellphone numbers" and constituents "can't get them anymore".
At the same time, the DLP was falling far short of its promises to voters in the 2008 election, she told the gathering.
The profits, collected from eight of the biggest banks that have fully repaid their obligations to the government, come to about $4 billion, or the equivalent of about 15 percent annually, according to calculations compiled for The New York Times.
These early returns are by no means a full accounting of the huge financial rescue undertaken by the federal government last year to stabilize teetering banks and other companies.
The government still faces potentially huge long-term losses from its bailouts of the insurance giant American International Group, the mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the automakers General Motors and Chrysler. The Treasury Department could also take a hit from its guarantees on billions of dollars of toxic mortgages.
But the mere hint of bailout profits for the nearly year-old Troubled Asset Relief Program has been received as a welcome surprise. It has also spurred hopes that the government could soon get out of the banking business.
The government has taken profits of about $1.4 billion on its investment in Goldman Sachs, $1.3 billion on Morgan Stanley and $414 million on American Express. The five other banks that repaid the government — Northern Trust, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street, U.S. Bancorp and BB&T — each brought in $100 million to $334 million in profit.
The figure does not include the roughly $35 million the government has earned from 14 smaller banks that have paid back their loans. The government bought shares in these and many other financial companies last fall, when sinking confidence among investors pushed down many bank stocks to just a few dollars a share.
"Everybody knows that there is nobody in the Caribbean who has attacked the IMF like me. Historically, the IMF is an institution which has 'one size fits all' and what happens with many countries in the region when they go to the IMF, the IMF would say 'operation successful, patient dead'. So I have all reasons to be critical of them, but some changes are occurring with the IMF," Gonsalves said.
His remarks came at the launch of a series of public consultations on a proposed economic union for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) on Friday.
"It doesn't make the IMF vastly different than what it was before but on the margin you are beginning to see changes and you see opportunities where small countries, if they are in difficulties, can get some help.
"And they have a facility called the exogenous draw facility - that is, if I lose export earnings say, for instance, in tourism I can get 45 per cent of my special drawing rights with no conditions. I can get it at 0.5 per cent interest for 10 years with five years grace period.
"Now I would be a complete crazy man if I did not take that money," Gonsalves added.
The Barbados Labour Party strongly supports the demonstration being planned by the National Union of Public Workers on Monday 31st August, 2009 in defence of the workers of the Urban Development Commission who are being targeted for dismissal under the guise of restructuring.
This proposed restructuring is nothing but a veiled attempt to get rid of workers whose only sin was to have been appointed prior to January 2008. That 17 persons could have been hired by the UDC since January 2009 to perform the same functions as many of those who are being removed is the strongest evidence of this victimization. This arbitrary cleansing is against everything we Barbadians stand for as a people.
What is even more appalling is the action taken in the last two days to include in the hit list a shop steward of the NUPW, who was promoted only in January of this year from a clerical officer to a research officer. Her only unusual action was to have attended the meeting convened between the NUPW and the workers facing dismissal.
The Government must be aware that under the Statutory Boards Pensions Act persons having more than three years service but not the ten years required to qualify for a pension are entitled to six weeks pay for each completed year. In other words, a person serving nine years would be entitled to 54 weeks pay instead of the 4 weeks that is being offered.
We call on Prime Minister Thompson, Minister Sinckler and the Urban Development Commission to immediately reverse these decisions that will not only affect these workers and their families but also that would be in breach of the laws of Barbados.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 0.7 per cent between April and June, less than first estimates of a 0.8 per cent drop. The annual decline in GDP was revised up from 5.6 per cent to 5.5 per cent in the second quarter, but this still marked the biggest contraction in the economy since records began in 1955.
The British economy is performing worse than the German, French and Japanese economies — all of which have already emerged from recession — but economists said that UK GDP was likely to rise between July and September, marking the end of five quarters of recession. Official third-quarter figures are due in November.
Karen Ward, UK economist at HSBC, said: “We are forecasting a fairly robust turnaround in GDP, with a 0.5 per cent quarterly rise in the third quarter and 0.7 per cent growth in the fourth quarter as underlying demand firms and the pace of de-stocking slows further, contributing to stronger growth rates going forward.”
The decline in consumer spending also slowed, falling by 0.7 per cent in the second quarter compared with a 1.3 per cent drop in the first. But this still came as a surprise after official retail sales figures painted a more positive picture of consumer spending.
Investors took heart from the better figures than expected, with the FTSE 100 index rising by 0.8 per cent to close at 4,908.90, which was 1.2 per cent up on the week. The pound ended nearly a week of declines against the dollar to recover by 0.3 per cent to £1.6310. Despite this bounce, sterling was on track to post its steepest monthly fall this year against the dollar, dropping by nearly eight cents.
Given that consumer spending has in recent years accounted for 70 percent of the nation’s economic activity, a marginal shrinking could significantly depress demand for goods and services, discouraging businesses from hiring more workers.
Millions of Americans spent years tapping credit cards, stock portfolios and once-rising home values to spend in excess of their incomes and now lack the wherewithal to carry on. Those who still have the means feel pressure to conserve, fearful about layoffs, the stock market and real estate prices.
“We’re at an inflection point with respect to the American consumer,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy .com, who correctly forecast a dip in spending heading into the recession, and who provided data supporting sustained weakness.
“Lower-income households can’t borrow, and higher-income households no longer feel wealthy,” Mr. Zandi added. “There’s still a lot of debt out there. It throws a pall over the potential for a strong recovery. The economy is going to struggle.”
In recent weeks, spending has risen slightly because of exuberant car buying, fueled by the cash-for-clunkers program. On Friday, the Commerce Department said spending rose 0.2 percent in July from the previous month. But most economists see this activity as short-lived, pointing out that incomes did not rise. Some suggest the recession has endured so long and spread pain so broadly that it has seeped into the culture, downgrading expectations, clouding assumptions about the future and eroding the impulse to buy.
The Great Depression imbued American life with an enduring spirit of thrift. The current recession has perhaps proven wrenching enough to alter consumer tastes, putting value in vogue.
In December, Ms. Nelson was laid off from her six-figure job as a patent attorney at a local software firm. Self-assured, she exudes confidence she will land another high-paying position.
But even if her spending power is restored, Ms. Nelson says her inclination to buy has been permanently diminished. Through nine months of joblessness, she has learned to forgo the impulse buys that used to provide momentary pleasure — $4 lattes at Starbucks, lip gloss, mints. She has found she can survive without the pedicures and chocolate martinis that once filled regular evenings at the spa. Before punishing heat and drought turned much of central Texas brown, she subsisted primarily on vegetables harvested from her plot at a community garden, where only one oasis of flowers remains.
President of CLICO Barbados Terrence Thornhill said while it was disheartening to learn that LIAT wants an immediate repayment of the funds, the insurance company would cooperate with the Antigua-based airline.
"One of the bases for disappointment is that over the past few months we've been, I think, very effective at communicating with our policy holders and certainly in terms of convincing them about the desirability of the company and we've been getting tremendous support, from both large and small policy holders," Thornhill told a local radio station.
LIAT's acting CEO, Brian Challenger, in a memo, advised staff that the airline has written to the insurance company.
Challenger said that after the meeting with officials from the insurance company, discussions were held with senior representatives of the shareholder governments and that the Barbados government had given a written commitment guaranteeing the security of the pension fund.
The airline had initially informed staff that it had no intention of removing the funds from CLICO, but reviewed the situation after getting expert advice on matters relating to pension funds.
"Acting on the advice of these experts LIAT has now written to CLICO informing the company of the LIAT's request that all funds paid over to CLICO be immediately returned to the pension fund.
The proposal reflects a complete lack of understanding of how the retail business works and offers opportunities for several persons to prosper, not including the consumers.
The first issue relates to whether the Government intends to be a retailer or a distributor. If it decides to retail, it would have to establish several outlets across the country to make the cheaper goods available to the Barbadian consumers.
There is a limit to how many supermarkets can profitably operate in a given market size and this is why supermarkets go and come over time. Of course, an economy may get bigger and purchasing power may increase to accommodate some growth, but for the most part the growth comes in the form of variety in the products available.
People value variety, which normally comes with a willingness to pay higher prices to obtain it. However, the Government's proposal is intended to offer lower prices and not necessarily more variety. So how would it be achieved?
Logic dictates that if the Government intends to source goods at lower prices, then the value would have to be lower. If the Government is able to source the same products that are currently available in the market and sell them at lower prices, then it would be a success story and some supermarkets would have to die in the circumstances.
But she said her own score was notable - and against a number of odds.
Forty-nine per cent of the people interviewed favoured Arthur to lead the party, against the 35 per cent support for Mottley.
"I'm not surprised at the level of support for Owen Arthur," Mottley told the DAILY NATION. "A prime minister for 15 years - and a successful one at that - would bring back nostalgia, especially in the face of the pathetic leadership from the David Thompson administration.
"In my own instance, it is interesting that in 18 months in the face of little or no access to television, or in the absence of my being able to outline our economic and social policies as yet that I still increased my support by 100 per cent."
"I cannot speak to the integrity of the poll overall as we have seen neither the raw data nor the boxes from which the samples were taken and those will have a significant impact on the results," Mottley said.
"But what I can tell you is this: the Barbados Labour Party will not allow the Democratic Labour Party to destabilise us, as is their wish, given the extremely poor performance of the Government and their failure to deliver on the promises which they went to the people with."
A medium-term programme, outlining the country's fiscal projections and measures to achieve these targets, is also being prepared to accompany the Letter.
"Without an IMF agreement and without access to the balance of payment support, our Net International Reserves (NIR) could deplete to as much as $800 million, which could put you down to about six weeks of imports, which is not considered ideal," Shaw reiterated at the briefing.
The administration is also anticipating receiving a US$320-million liquidity grant from the IMF by mid-September. This facility represents a non-refundable allocation as an entitlement to deserving countries in
good standing.
In nominating Mr. Bernanke on Tuesday, Mr. Obama praised the Fed chairman for his “bold action and out-of-the-box thinking,” saying it had helped avoid a repeat of the Great Depression.
But most of those bold actions — lending hundreds of billions of dollars to banks and businesses, slashing overnight interest rates to nearly zero, having the Fed almost single-handedly finance the mortgage market — will have to be reversed or rolled back over the next few years.
If the Fed shifts too quickly from the role of savior to that of strict disciplinarian, it risks aborting the recovery and tipping the nation back into a recession, essentially repeating mistakes made in 1937 after the economy had begun to rebound.
If the Fed moves too slowly, it risks the kind of intractable inflation it experienced in the 1970s and fueling another bubble.
Compounding the problem is the government’s fiscal woes, made clear by an announcement on Tuesday that the budget deficit would be greater than previously projected.
But as business activity picks up around the world, the competition among debt issuers is likely to increase and interest rates could rise. Clashing priorities are not hard to imagine.
The Obama White House might want to lift a sluggish recovery by keeping interest rates low. And the Bernanke Fed may want to head off inflation — before it is too late.
The Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget raised its 10-year tally of deficits expected through 2019 to $9.05 trillion, nearly $2 trillion more than it projected in February. That would represent 5.1 percent of the economy’s estimated gross domestic product for the decade, a higher level than is generally considered healthy.
The Congressional Budget Office, which unlike the administration did not account for the president’s policy proposals in its latest report, increased its projection of deficits over the next decade. Absent any changes in law, it said the deficit would rise to $7.1 trillion, from $4.4 trillion in March.
The C.B.O. did analyze the president’s budget in June and concluded his proposed tax cuts and spending would push deficits through 2019 above $9 trillion. While the administration now agrees with that figure, technical data in the new C.B.O. report suggests that if it were to review the Obama budget now, it would project deficits through 2019 above $10 trillion, analysts speculated.
Anticipating that the deficit figures will stoke the debate over the costs of Mr. Obama’s effort to overhaul health care, the administration was quick to say that much of the projected deficit was a legacy of the Bush administration and that the Obama administration was committed to restoring budget discipline when the economy recovers.
“Over all, it underscores the dire fiscal situation that we inherited and the need for serious steps to put our nation back on a sustainable fiscal path,” Peter R. Orszag, the president’s budget director, wrote on his agency’s Web site.
When Mr. Obama took office, his budget office projected it had inherited a deficit for 2009 of $1.3 trillion; the C.B.O. estimated $1.2 trillion.
Since then, the administration and Democratic-controlled Congress have enacted a $787 billion stimulus package, though less than half of that will be disbursed this fiscal year, as well as supplemental spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bailouts for two automakers.
Also, the recession has reduced anticipated revenue from taxpayers, and increased spending for safety-net programs like jobless benefits and food stamps.
In times of recession, the Government must not see leisure as an alternative to work under the guise that the recession is externally driven. Indeed, the greatest current concern from a policy perspective is that the Government seems to think that Barbados' economic recovery rests squarely on the fortunes of the world's major economies.
This perspective is tantamount to suggesting that since the Barbados dollar is tied to the United States dollar, there is no need for domestic policy initiatives, which is obviously ridiculous.
The failure to understand that the fundamental economic issue for the Government to focus on is the work/leisure choice betrays the importance of tax policy, labour market policy and even monetary policy in influencing the choice.
The matrix of policies influences the workers' efforts, the employers' ability to hire workers and the Government's capacity to govern. In the circumstances, regardless of the state of the economy, the Government cannot abandon its policy options in the hope that other economies would improve and rescue the Barbados economy.
The country's economy is in recession but it is no excuse for the Government to choose leisure over work, and for the future it must be recognised that Crop-Over, camps and such things require a sound economy to thrive. It is time to appreciate the difference between work and leisure in a way that respects work over leisure.
Don't fire and ask others to hire!
In a release from chairman of the BLP, George Payne, yesterday, the Opposition party said it was alarmed that a poll commissioned by Government for the clear purpose of raising morale among its party faithful going into its annual general conference, would be published to create an impression it was an independent poll.
"We have absolutely no problem with the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) commissioning an internal poll to determine the public's approval or disapproval of its performance. However, we will have a problem if the taxpayers are asked to underwrite the cost of this poll," Payne said in the release.
He said it was unacceptable that the public be asked to pay for a poll designed to bolster the image of a political party.
The BLP observed that according to the poll, in the area of leadership approval, Thompson's rating is 63 per cent and Mottley's 52 per cent, which, when also compared to Thompson's rating of 6.6 and Mottley's of 5.6, that the public perceives the Opposition Leader to be a capable leader, and Prime Ministerial material.
Payne said that in a mere 18 months after winning a Government with well over 50 per cent of the vote, the DLP's support is now at 44 per cent, with only 43 per cent of those polled saying there should be no change of Government, with those not giving a committed answer, at 43 per cent.
The BLP wants Prime Minister David Thompson to come out and clearly state who will pay for the poll, the release added.
"In circumstances where a police complaint was made about the conduct of his senior political advisor . . . I am calling on the Prime Minister to dismiss Mr Henry forthwith. Failure to do so will result in the Prime Minister being deemed complicit in his behaviour," she said.
"At the end of the day, freedom of the Press is one of the key cornerstones of our democracy," Mottley said
“The prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good,” declared Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, offering optimism both about the United States and the worldwide outlook.
Though the Fed chairman repeated his warning that the economic recovery here was likely to be slow and arduous and that unemployment would remain high for another year, he went beyond the central bank’s most recent statement that economic activity was “leveling out.”
Speaking to central bankers and economists at the Fed’s annual retreat here in the Grand Tetons, Mr. Bernanke echoed the growing relief among European and Asian central bankers that their own economies had already started to rebound.
Even as they indulged in a bit of self-congratulation over what had been achieved since the financial crisis of last year, these central bankers were beginning to focus quietly on another big task, how they will unwind the vast emergency measures they put in place to fight the crisis.
At almost the same time that Mr. Bernanke spoke, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes jumped 7.2 percent in July — the biggest monthly increase in more than a decade and much bigger than analysts had expected.
Investors reacted ebulliently to both the housing news and to the Fed chairman’s remarks. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped as soon as the markets opened and ended the day up 155.91 points, or 1.67 percent, at 9505.96. Though stock prices are far below their record highs, the Dow has risen 45 percent from March and is at its highest point this year.
Shares
According to a Caricom press release the date was set after the Fifth Regular Board Meeting approved the regulations and procedures which will govern the CDF operations. Among the governance rules and procedures approved were the Appraisal and Disbursement Procedures and Guidelines and the Procurement Procedures. Both of these define the rules related to the CDF’s consideration of requests for grant or loan funding and related procurement activities, the release said.
In determining the targets and ratios that will condition disbursement, the board considered the current level of the CDF capital fund which now stands at US$77.7M.
The threat came from Hartley Henry, senior political advisor to Prime Minister David Thompson.
Just before 2 p.m. Henry called Martindale to warn her that the results of the poll conducted for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and released on Saturday get the same Front Page treatment as polls done on behalf of this newspaper.
Henry expressed annoyance with the publication of the past several SUNDAY SUN editions, charging they were geared towards publicising and enhancing the image of Opposition Leader Mia Mottley.
He said: “For the last couple of months the SUNDAY SUN has become the mouthpiece of Mia Mottley. If the story [referring to reports of the CARDES Poll] is not played the right way, I would turn Barbados against you,” he told a shocked Martindale.
He also mentioned to her about “doing the right thing”.
Another editor, who was close by, was also privy to a part of the telephone conversation.
THE NATION has sent an official complaint to Prime Minister David Thompson and has also lodged complaints with the Inter-American Press Association and the World Press Freedom Committee and copied these letters to the Barbados Association of Journalists.
The budget cuts come on the eve of the International Monetary Fund's consideration of a US$1.2-billion stand-by arrangement for Jamaica, which has been hit hard by a fallout in revenue and drop in foreign exchange following the collapse of the bauxite industry, drop in remittances and decrease in tourism income because of the global recession.
Golding, who was speaking at the official opening of the Scotiabank Group financial centre on Constant Spring Road in Kingston Thursday, said permanent secretaries have been given one week to comb through their budgets to determine how to effect the cuts.
Permanent secretaries, he added, know the workings of their ministries and the programmes which can be downscaled as well as those which are vital to maintain service delivery.
The prime minister explained that he has made it very clear to the permanent secretaries the extent to which the cuts can be made. On the recurrent side of the budget, which is where the bulk of the expenditure is, $125 billion must be set aside for public sector wages including current wages and retroactive payments, Golding said.
The central bank, which only accepts assets with a triple A rating, indicated that, where a bank or building society’s assets were downgraded, it would conduct its own investigations.
The move was welcomed by lenders, who have criticised ratings agencies for being too pessimistic.
In May this year Moody’s came under fire from Lord Myners, the City Minister, after making downgrades across the building society sector.
Lord Myners said that Moody’s misunderstood the way in which mutuals operated and asserted that it should have tried harder to engage with the societies before cutting their ratings.
Moody’s move was followed by Fitch, which also downgraded nine mutuals.
The Bank has been critical of agencies in the past.
Speaking in front of the Treasury Select Committee earlier this year, Mervyn King, the Bank’s Governor, highlighted the ratings’ agencies role in the financial crisis.
“The credit rating agencies did move into areas where they did not have appropriate expertise and there were conflicts of interest,” he said.
“There is a good deal to be said for downplaying the role of credit ratings in its entirety.”
This move comes after managers and agents of those same branches were abruptly locked out of those same branches last Friday. Signs posted on the doors of the offices said they would be closed until further notice.
About 70 managers and agents from the St Clair, St James and Valpark branches resigned with immediate effect on Monday, citing abuse from depositors and customers who wanted to surrender their insurance policies, and neglect from Clico’s head office in Port-of-Spain.
The changes in these three branches are part of Clico’s restructuring strategy which will result in a smaller more competitive insurance company.
On Tuesday, Claude Musaib-Ali, managing director of Clico, said the company does not have immediate plans to lay off workers or agents, but he expected some resignations as changes in the market place and generous offers by competitors will take its toll on the company’s agency force.
Gerard Barnes, promotions manager, said agents will be focusing on rebuilding their business and regaining market share that would have been lost during the restructuring process. Barnes was unable to provide an estimate of Clico’s current market share. He said its market share had contracted from seven months ago and the agent salesforce has dropped from more than 600 at the start of the year to about 500.
"Barbados is going down rapidly," he told a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) branch meeting at Roland Edwards Primary School, St Peter, last Sunday night.
Charging that lack of planning, given the current economic climate, was the nucleus of Government's failings, the Member of Parliament for St Peter said the situation required "intellectual militancy".
"We do not have a programme for the growth of the country. We do not have a programme before you to stabilise the country . . . to stabilise job markets to stimulate jobs.
"Let us test the ingenuity of the people of Barbados and let us create the conditions for growth outside of the IMF format . . . . You cannot build prosperity through austerity. Job No. 1 should be jobs."
"The Government, the private sector and the civil society have to work together on what will be necessary to put in place now, to make that recovery come about when it comes about."
Arthur, who led Barbados for 14 years, stressed it would take a collaborative effort to keep the country moving forward.
Close to 70 agents and managers of three top performing branches of the cash-strapped insurance giant resigned with immediate effect yesterday. They said they have faced six months of abuse by depositors and customers who wanted to surrender their insurance policies. They also endured half a year of what they described as neglect by CLICO, the Port of Spain-based subsidiary of the once mighty CL Financial conglomerate.
Agents and managers were abruptly locked out of the Valpark, St Clair and St James offices last Friday. Signs posted on the doors of the offices said they would be closed until further notice. The three were among the more profitable of CLICO's more than 30 branches spread across the country and generate millions of dollars in annual revenue.
After they were locked out of their offices and the codes for their electronic card keys changed, the majority of agents refused to attend a meeting with CLICO chief executive Claude Musaib-Ali yesterday morning.
The company, once the flagship company of the CL Financial empire, melted down late last year, after it could not repay hundreds of millions of dollars owed to depositors and pensioners.
One agent told the Express that a client in his sixties who had a small surrender amount of $200,000 could not get his money from CLICO even though he needed the funds for eye surgery. The customer therefore borrowed money from a relative and is still waiting on CLICO, the agent said.
Holder, who was recently chosen as the BLP's candidate for St Michael Central, told the SUNDAY SUN: "I am honoured by the confidence reposed in me by this great party and by my leader, who have elected me to be their representative in the Senate.
"I am also humbled to be afforded this opportunity to speak on behalf of the ordinary man and woman in the street, whose standard of living and way of life have been adversely affected by the policies of this Government over the last 18 months."
He said he would continue to work on behalf of the disadvantaged and the ordinary working-class citizens in this country.
"I will do it with passion and fervour and I will do it out of a genuine commitment to the poor people of this country," he said.
"I can understand their needs because of my humble beginnings. I was born poor."
Holder said the BLP "has always championed the cause of the poor" and was a party "rooted in and born out of the 1937 upheavals".
He will be sworn in on Wednesday and will shadow the portfolio of Industry, Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Small Business.
The chancellor has signalled that he will change the law to ensure executive bonuses are not paid to employees whose transactions put banks at risk.
The new rules would cover the whole British banking system rather than just those institutions that have been partly nationalised, such as the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds.
The move follows evidence that lavish rewards are returning to the City less than a year after the banking system almost collapsed, with predictions that bonuses will reach £4 billion this year. Goldman Sachs employees are in line for pay and bonuses averaging £430,000, and one new banker at RBS will get a guaranteed £7m bonus.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Darling warned that the bonus culture had had “disastrous consequences” and acknowledged that the public was no longer prepared to see huge sums being awarded to people who threatened economic stability.
“If we need to change the law and toughen things up, we can do that. I’m quite clear that some of the problems we have today were caused by the fact that some traders were incentivised to take risks which neither they nor their bosses fully understood,” he said.
The announcement follows an outcry about the failure of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to take a tougher stance on City bonuses. The City watchdog dropped plans to stipulate that bonuses should be based on overall performance of a company, including it in the new code only as “guidance”.
This was the stance of Shadow Minister for the Ministry of Social Care, Dr. William Duguid, as he pointed to a list of qualifications for the thirteen staff members facing dismissal from the Urban Development Commission (UDC).
They are qualified and they are competent!
Speaking to the media yesterday in the Conference Room of the Opposition Leader’s Office at Parliament, he indicated that several of these individuals possessed undergraduate degrees and multiple ‘A’ and ‘O’ Levels.
“We have another person, who has multiple CXCs, and who has more qualifications than are required in the average public sector,” he said, while questioning Government’s motives for dismissing “highly qualified” staff members, who in several cases had been in their respective posts for many years.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Thompson responded to allegations made by Opposition Leader Mia Mottley about the restructuring exercise and at the time pointed to the need to ensure the facility provided the best service possible in a cost-effective manner.
Duguid therefore questioned, “What is Mr. Thompson saying? Is he saying that cost effectiveness means send home workers? Is that the message that he wants to send to Barbados at this time?”
During a hastily-called press conference at the BLP offices in the Parliament buildings yesterday, Duguid circulated a list showing a range of qualifications for 13 UDC officers whom he said were "scheduled to be dismissed".
"We feel that the casual way in which the government is purporting to have some lawful authority to dismiss people who are appointed to pensionable posts in the service... must not be tolerated, and Barbadians must not lose their sense of outrage on this matter" an upset Duguid told the Press..
"How can the DLP put people on the breadline at this time" the BLP Shadow Minister asked.
Word of possible retrenchment at the UDC came from Opposition leader Mia Mottley, who told a Press Conference last Wednesday that a letter had been sent to the trade unions proposing the dismissal of at least 13 members of the National Union of Public Workers, and at least seven others.
This was the argument of Member of Parliament for Christ Church West, Dr. William Duguid, who said yesterday that early in the Democratic Labour Party administration a “decapitation policy” was observed, whereby heads of almost all statutory boards were dismissed. He continued, “And now we are seeing on top of it, after having completed their decapitation policy, now the body blows are coming.”
Duguid explained that having removed the heads of institutions in the first six months, 12 months later general workers and other staff were being dismissed, meaning the institutional knowledge and ability of the institutions to function was being severely compromised. He said this practice affected morale and the ability of the remaining staff to do their work.
“Because you have now brought in new people to head the institution and new people to carry-out the mandate of the institution who now have to go through a new learning curve, a new understanding what their job is ... and it paralyses the institution.”
Mottley said that the BLP had pledged that it would not conduct business in this manner and had not interfered with people’s employment when they last gained political office in 1994. She explained that the BLP had “committed itself to moving away from this very unfortunate part of our governance and political experience that sees the rinsing out of people at the bottom of their positions, or those who are at the head – CEOs, directors of statutory corporations – immediately upon the change of a Government.”
The Opposition Leader said it was "scandalous" that the first act of the new UDC director Derek Alleyne, who is on secondment from the National Union of Public Workers, was the laying off of workers.
According to Opposition Leader Mia Mottley the young woman is one of the 20 people to be dismissed from the Urban Development Commission (UDC).
"One of them is one of the victims from the Arch Cot tragedy that the Government continues to cry false tears about, but is now prepared to send one of the persons who suffered under that tragedy on the breadline. Such that she would not be able to pay her rent. And for what purpose, simply because a Government wants to get in its own people.
This is unacceptable," Mottley told a Press conference at her office yesterday.
She said eight of those to be affected had young children, eight were the sole bread winners in their households and half were responsible for mortgages.
She said if the proposed measures were allowed to go through, 40 of the 53 staff at the UDC would be on the breadline.
"The organisation cannot be allowed to function in that way," she cautioned.
An attempt to dismiss at least 13 staff members at the Urban Development Commission (UDC) has been condemned by Opposition Leader Mia Mottley.
She said the proposed layoffs were being undertaken under the guise of restructuring, but noted there was no evidence to suggest the performance of the staff merited dismissal, arguing that the only crime of the staff was that they were hired during the BLP administration.
Accusing Government of practicing “political victimisation” Mottley said many of the affected staff were at the organisation for more than ten years and entitled to pensions under the Statutory Boards Pension Act.
However, according to the letter, the UDC planned to offer only one month’s salary and one month’s notice was offered, as well as outstanding vacation pay.
The Opposition Leader criticised Government of seeking to layoff people during this time of economic hardship when it had asked the private sector not to do so. She was also disappointed at the decision to advertise for new people to fill these positions before the staff knew their fate, citing an advertisement that appeared last Sunday in another section of the Press. This was especially because there had been no direct contact between the staff and UDC management on the issue.
“I want Mr Manning to come clean with the real figures because he has repeatedly refused to do so,” Panday said. The UNC leader recalled that when the United States first began to experience a downturn in its economy, the Government insisted that Trinidad and Tobago was not experiencing a similar slowdown.
“The Prime Minister told the nation some months ago to tighten their belts. Now he is saying loosen that belt. I think what we have to do is concentrate on the very serious implications of what he is saying and the message his Cabinet is sending, which leaves the average citizen in a state of financial limbo,” he declared.
Noting Williams’ observation that the 2010 Budget will be difficult to configure, Panday urged Government to “redirect its expenditure from prestige and concentrate on spending money so that every home can have water, watercourses are cleared, hospitals have beds, roads are rehabilitated and on proper crime fighting methods. The Budget is due in mid to late September.
Dookeran, a former Central Bank Governor, described Williams’ comments on the state of the economy as “confusing and giving a feeling of contradiction.” He said while Williams stressed that the country was not in a recession, the data he provided seemed to tell a different story. Dookeran agreed that putting together the 2010 Budget will be a challenge and said Government’s entire industrialisation investment programme could be at risk since it no longer has “excess revenues to play with.”
Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams said yesterday preliminary financial data showed a "sharp slowdown" in economic activity in Trinidad and Tobago, particularly in the first few months of 2009.
He said, however, it did not suggest things had reached recession or "crisis proportions".
But "as of now, there are no signs that things are beginning to turn around", he said, during a media conference at the Central Bank tower in Port of Spain.
What this means is that Government will have difficult choices to make in its upcoming national budget because large subsidies have become embedded in the budget, and several large ongoing projects need to be completed, Williams said.
Short-term economic prospects point to what Williams described as a "slowdown that has accelerated" in an economy that was already in decline at the end of 2008.
In the first six months of this year, the economy has continued to degenerate rapidly.
Citizens could also continue to pay high prices for food as international price reversals could keep inflation above the targeted six per cent, Williams told reporters.
"Lagging consumer and business confidence could make for a slow recovery in private sector credit demand," he added.
The downturn may also result in a fiscal deficit, the second for the country in consecutive years, he said.
Mr. Obama predicted that he would be successful but acknowledged the challenges, saying, “I’ve got a lot on my plate.” He added that there would almost certainly be “demagogues out there who try to suggest that any form or pathway for legalization for those who are already in the United States is unacceptable.”
But in the most detailed outline yet of his timetable, the president said that he expected Congress, after completing work on health care, energy and financial regulation, to draft immigration bills this year. He said he would begin work on getting the measures passed in 2010.
“Now, am I going to be able to snap my fingers and get this done? No,” the president said. “But ultimately, I think the American people want fairness. And we can create a system in which you have strong border security and an orderly process for people to come in. But we’re also giving an opportunity for those who are already in the United States to be able to achieve a pathway to citizenship so they don’t have to live in the shadows.”
The president’s comments came during a news conference at the end of a summit meeting of North American leaders aimed at increasing cooperation in the region and resolving some of the issues that have long strained trilateral relations among the countries, whose people and economies depend heavily on one another.
During the meetings, which began Sunday afternoon, Mr. Obama, President Felipe Calderón of Mexico and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada discussed climate change and clean energy, swine flu, immigration, trade and organized crime. While it was clear at the news conference that the three leaders had not reached any significant new agreements, they expressed understanding for one another’s positions and vowed to keep working to resolve outstanding disputes.
New Jersey-based AM Best downgraded CLICO to C (weak) from B (fair) in a rating action on Friday.
The ratings remain under review with “negative implications”, AM Best said in a statement from its US offices.
“These rating actions reflect the continuing uncertainty over the future of CLICO’s fundamental life insurance and annuity businesses, as well as its ability to publish its financial results since the actions taken by the Central Bank in January,” the agency said.
Audited financial statements have not been filed for 2008 for CLICO and its parent CL Financial, AM Best noted, adding that CLICO maintained a high concentration in related party assets, including large holdings in the banking, financial services, energy and manufacturing sectors.
Messrs Golding, Manning and Jagdeo may still be polishing up ideas, or have presented to the community a full menu of strategies for jointly tackling the recession. But in so far as the public is aware, the leaders emerged from last Monday's summit without a single proposal.
"A group of heads (of government)," Mr Jagdeo told reporters, "will go collectively to meet with the heads of the multilateral financial institutions to argue that middle-income countries, with the peculiar vulnerability that we have in this region, must be eligible for multilateral debt relief."
The CARICOM delegation will also press for reflows to the region for debt already paid.
This, if it is all that there is, is not precisely earth-shattering stuff - at least, not to have taken so long to arrive at, and to have engaged so much brainpower.
Indeed, the community's response to the global crisis, which has delivered a walloping to regional economies, is symptomatic of what is wrong with the CARICOM grouping and has caused so many people to question what ought to be the unassailable logic of conglomeration.
It has been almost two years since the global economy began to unravel, and nearly one year since its intensification, with the collapse of Wall Street banks. Since then, there have been huddles among leaders - G-20 and G8 summit and several global initiatives - to respond to the meltdown. CARICOM, on the other hand, has been in a crawl, which is not to suggest that the community has not been exercised by the crisis.
Our advice to the leaders who are to talk to the multilaterals is to be clear on what is saleable and possible before they talk.
Such climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions, say the analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies who for the first time are taking a serious look at the national security implications of climate change.
Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia, will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change that could demand an American humanitarian relief or military response.
An exercise last December at the National Defense University, an educational institute that is overseen by the military, explored the potential impact of a destructive flood in Bangladesh that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming into neighboring India, touching off religious conflict, the spread of contagious diseases and vast damage to infrastructure. “It gets real complicated real quickly,” said Amanda J. Dory, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy, who is working with a Pentagon group assigned to incorporate climate change into national security strategy planning.
Much of the public and political debate on global warming has focused on finding substitutes for fossil fuels, reducing emissions that contribute to greenhouse gases and furthering negotiations toward an international climate treaty — not potential security challenges.
But a growing number of policy makers say that the world’s rising temperatures, surging seas and melting glaciers are a direct threat to the national interest.
If the United States does not lead the world in reducing fossil-fuel consumption and thus emissions of global warming gases, proponents of this view say, a series of global environmental, social, political and possibly military crises loom that the nation will urgently have to address.
Just look at the record. Washington may be in the process of proving that it can halt an economic crisis. But it utterly failed to keep that crisis from occurring
It is clearly too soon to know for sure. But the evidence is now pointing pretty strongly in one direction: history books may conclude that the financial crisis of 2008 turned out to be far less bad than it could have been and that Washington deserved much of the credit.
The Labor Department announced Friday that the economy lost fewer jobs in July than in any month since before Lehman Brothers collapsed last fall. Credit markets no longer look anything like they did after Lehman’s collapse and are in considerably better shape than just a few months ago. Stocks are up almost 50 percent from their March low. “It’s over,” the economists at Barclays Capital declared Friday, referring to the Great Recession.
The news has been good enough that the Obama administration spent Friday trumpeting its record. More telling, however, is the fact that even Nouriel Roubini, the prophetically pessimistic economist who saw the crisis coming (and doesn’t think the recession has yet ended), is now praising policy makers. He recently urged that Mr. Bernanke be reappointed as Federal Reserve chairman, saying he helped avert a “near depression that seemed highly likely after the financial collapse last fall.”
As for the stimulus, economies in countries that enacted relatively large programs, like the United States, China and Australia, have survived fairly well this year, relative to forecasts. Countries that enacted smaller programs, like France, Italy and India, have not done as well, as Christina Romer, a top Obama adviser, pointed out this week.
The Contempt of Court proceedings came as a result an injunction filed by the Opposition People’s Action Movement against the Attorney General and the Constituency Boundaries Commission, barring them from using a Report by the Commission recommending changes to the electoral boundaries in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Hours after the Court dismissed an application filed by the Attorney General to set aside the injunction, the Report was tabled in Parliament, and the following day a Proclamation based on it was debated and passed, and then signed by the Governor General.
Lead Counsel for the PAM’s local team Ms Constance Mitcham told WINN FM Friday, that it was a very serious matter for an Officer of the Court to be found guilty of contempt.
“The Court has found that that whole process of laying the Commission Boundaries Report in Parliament and passing that Proclamation, that whole proceeding was based on contempt of the Court’s injunction, and that the Attorney General knew that the Court had ruled against it and that he still in the circumstances advised the Prime Minister that he had a constitutional duty to go ahead and pass the Proclamation.”
In his testimony before the court the Prime Minister admitted that he told his supporters in a public meeting on Sunday 26th that he was advised by his Attorney General when he defied the order of the court and laid the Report of the Boundaries Committee in parliament.
At issue in the case are several Constitutional questions in reference to the proper conduct and function of the Boundaries Commission, the preparation of the controversial Boundaries Committee Report, procedural fairness as well as fundamental questions of natural justice.
The facts up to this point including the issuing of two injunctions which remain in force, the laying of the Report in parliament and the consequent preparation and passing of the proclamation that will effect the new boundaries once parliament is prorogued have given rise to contempt proceedings against the Attorney General and the Parliamentary Representative for Constituency #8 that have gripped the nation.
The Labour Government has so muddied the waters about this case that the judge has had to make a point of stating basic law into the record in reference to the fact that the Attorney General is always named in lawsuits against the government so that the government is enjoined by the current injunctions.
The substantive matter is yet to be heard and will likely require the appointment of another judge.
However, the people of the Federation have received one consolation as they endure an extended and difficult silly season; Denzil Douglas has met his match.
CHANGE is on the horizon
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"There is no doubt that there will be some amount of pain to be felt by the Jamaican people after this agreement is finalised," the official said. "The standard of living of Jamaicans may be affected during the life of the agreement. However, we can't say how tough things will be, or even give an indication. We have a duty to protect social spending and we will insist upon that. The objective and goals of the agreement are still being hammered out, so we can't say what the conditions under which the loan will be granted will be."
As far as meeting the September deadline for the loan approval, as is hoped by Jamaica, the official said that it was possible, but many things needed to be done.
"It's realistic, but they [Jamaican Government] still have work to do, as the process takes a while," he said. "If it was a case of dire emergency, then a loan package could be approved in less than two weeks. But Jamaica is not melting down, that's not the case, so there is no mad rush. I understand the anxiety, but these negotiations have their own rhythm.
"The IMF looks at the needs of the country at the time and adds some security measurements. There are some parameters that a country uses to assess its vulnerability. The IMF will look, for example, at a country's international reserves and determine how many months of imports they represent. Obviously, the more reserves a country has, it would be in a better position," he said.
"We have not discussed conditionalities yet with the Jamaica Government, because we don't know for sure what the Government wants," added the IMF official. "The Government has more work to do, and right now their technical people are hammering out the details. When that is completed, we will outline the conditionalities. At this point we can't say to the Government that in order to get the loan, you will have to cut back on this programme or that programme."
There was speculation from Prime Minister Golding that among the first casualty under the IMF agreement would be the chopping of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), a programme under which each member of parliament is allotted $40 million to spend on projects in his/her constituency.
According to the IMF's mission statement, its job is to promote a stable international monetary system, in which member countries can achieve high rates of employment, low inflation and sustainable economic growth.
The country was in a recession then, as now, and the professionals who had just lost their jobs met weekly at a local job center to network and trade advice. Despite the national economic problems, they remained confident that they would not only find work but would also be compensated as they had been in the past.
Eight years later, however, most of the people who formed the core of Mr. Dettman’s group have not made it back to their old income levels, even if they eventually landed jobs.
Taken together, their struggles are stark illustration that it can take years for a worker’s earnings to bounce back after a layoff, and that it can take even longer for a layoff during a recession. Economists, in fact, say income losses for workers who are let go in a recession can persist for as long as two decades, a depressing prognosis for the several-million people who have lost their jobs in the current recession.
“On average, most workers do not recover their old annual earnings,” said Till von Wachter, an economics professor at Columbia University, who recently completed a working paper with two other economists that examined the long-term earnings of workers who lost their jobs in the recession of the early 1980s.
The largest wage losses are typically for workers who had long tenures at their previous companies. The stability often allows them to build up skills specific to their employers or their industries and to accrue corresponding wage increases, but those skills can be worth less to other companies.
Older workers’ wages usually slide more than those of younger workers. Those with college degrees do slightly better than those without.
During the period October 2008 to March 2009 the country's economic growth fell by more than four per cent.
The first quarter of 2009 showed a -3.3 decline in real GDP while the last quarter of 2008 showed a 1.1 per cent dip.
The statistics for the second quarter of 2009 have not yet been released.
A recession, according to the definition accepted by most economists, is when there are two successive quarters of economic decline in a country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) advises that a broader number of indicators be used to ascertain whether or not a country is facing a recession.
Last week Prime Minister Patrick Manning, during a breakfast meeting at La Romaine, advised the population to "release" their belts and breathe a little by taking advantage of existing opportunities in the financial sector, Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams said recently that available data showed that the Trinidad and Tobago economy was decelerating faster than anticipated and the country would likely register zero, or even negative GDP growth this year.
He maintained that the country's economy was not in recession but in "stagnation".
Government sources said this move was made in an effort to have construction completed in time for the new school term.
The Education Facilities Company Limited (EFCL) officially terminated the tenure of the main contractor effective Monday. According to subcontractor Marlon Simon of Marlon Simon Construction Limited, the remaining workers of subcontractor Elvis and Don Construction Limited, were asked on Monday by EFCL officials, to vacate the premises by 5 pm.
He said while construction was almost complete, the Chinese workers were brought in yesterday morning to speed up the process.
According to the EFCL construction began by Uniform Building Contractors Limited on August 27, 2007 at a sum of approximately $39 million, with completion of the building by November 27, 2008. According to EFCL 60 percent of the building was completed and the main contractor was paid for 58 percent of the completed work.
But BAICO's health insurance policyholders will continue to receive medical cover after the Official Receiver moves in to liquidate the company.
The Argus Group has agreed in principle to take on BAICO's health insurance clients, who will in the short term — before the transition to Argus is completed over the coming weeks — have their claims met by Government.
Financial regulator the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) announced yesterday it had applied to the Supreme Court to wind up BAICO's Bermuda branch to protect its customers in light of "the continuing severe financial difficulties" faced by BAICO and its parent company, CL Financial Group of Trinidad and Tobago (CL). CL was taken over by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in February this year after running into financial trouble.
"It is apparent that as a result of the financial difficulties faced by BAICO, policyholders, particularly those with investment or savings products, will very likely face a potential shortfall," read a statement from the BMA yesterday.
The "liquidity facility" provided by Government will enable all claims for periodic and ongoing medical care to be paid in the short-term under the existing terms of the policies, the statement added.
Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Paula Cox said: "The BMA and the Government of Bermuda are very grateful to the domestic insurance companies who have worked hard to find this solution and in particular to the Argus Group for their efforts to assist BAICO Bermuda branch's health policyholders during this difficult time.
"It is our hope that solutions for the non-health policyholders also will be identified as we work through the transition for the health insurance policies."
Labour’s deputy leader and Equality Minister angered John Prescott by asking whether it was wise to have an all-male leadership team and suggesting it would never happen again.
“I don’t agree with all-male leaderships,” she said, in remarks that will be seen as an attempt to remain at the top table in the event of a leadership contest after the next election. “Men cannot be left to run things on their own. I think it’s a thoroughly bad thing to have men-only leadership.”
She even made a sly dig at Mr Prescott. Saying she inherited his office in Whitehall, she added: “That’s why it’s so big.” This irritated Mr Prescott, who reported on his blog that she of all people should know “you can’t dictate equality”, because she beat four men to become deputy leader because of her talent, not because of her gender.
Lynne Franks, a PR consultant who campaigns on women’s issues, said that the existence of a gender balance in leadership made “good sense”. She said: “It’s not a question of talent. Women and men have different attributes that are better used together. On the whole, women are better at relationship-building and men are more linear.”
Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat women’s spokeswoman, said that Ms Harman’s sentiment was right, but her solution was wrong. “I think there’s a danger of us couching this as ‘no to men’ and stopping talented men, when it should be about recognising talented women are being put off going into politics.”
Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister who was one of “Blair’s babes” in the early days of new Labour, said that women voters expected to be more fairly represented. “I doubt that policy changes affecting childcare and flexible working hours would have been given such priority if there were still more MPs in Parliament called John than all the women put together, as there was when I joined.”
“Six months ago, when the president took office, we were talking about whether recession would become depression,” Lawrence H. Summers, the White House’s top economic adviser, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Today, we are talking about when recession is going to end.”
Timothy F. Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, gave a similar rosy analysis on ABC’s “This Week,” after George Stephanopoulos, the host, reeled of a list of hopeful indicators, including an 11 percent spike in homes sale in June, a 1.5 percent reduction in jobless claims and a second-quarter drop in the G.D.P. of only 1 percent. Mr. Geithner said that there is a broad consensus among private-sector economists that the economy should see “positive growth” in the second half of the year.
“There are signs that the recession is easing,” he said.
He pointed out that American confidence is marred by unemployment that is still very high — at almost 10 percent. Nevertheless, he said, growth in production should mean that the pace of job losses should slow further. He said that the administration is considering asking Congress for an extension of unemployment benefits as 1.5 million jobless Americans exhaust their benefits in coming months.
Because of emergency extensions already enacted by Congress, laid-off workers in nearly half the states can collect benefits for up to 79 weeks, the longest period since the unemployment insurance program was created in the 1930s. But unemployment in this recession has proved to be especially tenacious, and a wave of job-seekers is using up even this prolonged aid.
Tens of thousands of workers have already used up their benefits, and the numbers are expected to soar in the months to come, reaching half a million by the end of September and 1.5 million by the end of the year, according to new projections by the National Employment Law Project, a private research group.
Unemployment insurance is now a lifeline for nine million Americans, with payments averaging just over $300 per week, varying by state and work history. While many recipients find new jobs before exhausting their benefits, large numbers in the current recession have been unable to find work for a year or more.
Calls are rising for Congress to pass yet another extension this fall, possibly adding 13 more weeks of coverage in states with especially high unemployment. As of June, the national unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, reaching 15.2 percent in Michigan. Even if the recession begins to ease, economists say, jobs will remain scarce for some time to come.
“If more help is not on the way, by September a huge wave of workers will start running out of their critical extended benefits, and many will have nothing left to get by on even as work keeps getting harder to find,” said Maurice Emsellem, a policy director of the employment law project.
In ordinary times, employers pay into a state insurance fund, and workers who lose jobs draw benefits for up to 26 weeks. During recessions, Congress has often paid for extended coverage for an extra 13 or even 20 weeks.
In 2008, as the recession deepened, Congress provided 33 extra weeks of benefits. Earlier this year, President Obama’s stimulus plan offered an additional 20 weeks in states where unemployment surpassed 8 percent, if they adopted new federally recommended rules governing these extra weeks. (South Carolina did not make the changes, and benefits there are running out more quickly.)
Currently, people can draw benefits for up to 79 weeks in 24 states and from 46 weeks to 72 weeks in others.
The stimulus law also, through the end of the year, provided an extra $25 a week to all recipients, exempted a portion of benefits from federal income tax and subsidized Cobra health payments for the unemployed.
BARBADOS' UNEMPLOYMENT RATE has reached double digits in the face of the current economic recession and on the evidence, 2010 may be an even tougher year and unemployment is expected to rise.
This trend has serious implications for the health of the Unemployment Benefit Fund which is currently paying out more in benefits than it is receiving in contributions.
As of July 2008, the payments out of the fund have been consistently and significantly higher than the contributions on a monthly basis.
In the difficult year of 1991, the contribution rate moved from one per cent to 5.5 per cent between October and December; by 1994 the rate was reduced and a further reduction in September of 1998 brought the rate down to 1.5 per cent, which is what it is today.
Given the rise in unemployment in the last year-and-a-half, the fund will have to be replenished within the next six months. This replenishment will come in the form of an increase in the contribution rate. And if the period of benefit is extended from 26 to 40 weeks as was said in public, then the rate increase would have to be very significant indeed.
Imagine on top of the road taxes, the food prices, the professional fees, the water rate, the pending hike in electricity rates, among others, that Barbadians may be called upon to pay a higher unemployment contribution rate by the beginning of next year. Just imagine the pain!
It is impossible to ignore the comments about increasing the period of benefits from 26 to 40 weeks in an environment of economic recession and diminishing financial resources among the public and by extension the Government.
The House shoved other business out of the way on its last day before the August recess to rush through a measure to address the cash shortage of the car program. The vote was 316 to 109, with significant support from Republicans as well as Democrats.
Earlier Friday, Robert Gibbs, the chief White House spokesman, offered assurances that the administration was looking for ways to continue the popular new program, which offers $3,500 to $4,500 for people who trade in an old car for a new one with higher fuel economy.
The $2 billion infusion approved by the House would come from money already set aside for an Energy Department’s loan guarantee program and give it to the rebate program.
The panel’s ranking Republican, Jerry Lewis of California, complained that Democrats, who have a 256-to-178 majority in the House, were rushing the measure through with too little thought, — “shoveling another $2 billion out the door,” in his words.
But in the end, there was enough support from Republican in states that rely on the auto industry to push the measure through. Over all, 239 Democrats and 77 Republicans voted in favor, while 14 Democrats and 95 Republicans voted against the measure.
Before the House vote, Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said it was not clear how long funds for the program would last, “so people should go to their car dealers now if they want to take advantage of the program.
The House shoved other business out of the way on its last day before the August recess to rush through a measure to address the cash shortage of the car program. The vote was 316 to 109, with significant support from Republicans as well as Democrats.
Earlier Friday, Robert Gibbs, the chief White House spokesman, offered assurances that the administration was looking for ways to continue the popular new program, which offers $3,500 to $4,500 for people who trade in an old car for a new one with higher fuel economy.
The $2 billion infusion approved by the House would come from money already set aside for an Energy Department’s loan guarantee program and give it to the rebate program.
The panel’s ranking Republican, Jerry Lewis of California, complained that Democrats, who have a 256-to-178 majority in the House, were rushing the measure through with too little thought, — “shoveling another $2 billion out the door,” in his words.
But in the end, there was enough support from Republican in states that rely on the auto industry to push the measure through. Over all, 239 Democrats and 77 Republicans voted in favor, while 14 Democrats and 95 Republicans voted against the measure.
Before the House vote, Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said it was not clear how long funds for the program would last, “so people should go to their car dealers now if they want to take advantage of the program.
In a statement, she drew attention to Press reports that LIME, the telephone service provider, would lay off 150 employees and Dacosta Mannings Inc., 81.
"Barbadian workers need the protection of their Government now!" Mottley said.
The statement was released ahead of Prime Minister David Thompson's Press conference on Tuesday, July 28th, that will deal with economic and other issues, and Central Bank of Barbados Governor Dr Marion Williams' Press conference also tomorrow on the state of the economy for the first six months of this year.
Mottley said news of the impending layoffs only served to reinforce the "dire challenges" facing the Barbados economy.
When this is coupled with the recent request by the Central Bankof Barbados to four insurance entities to repatriate 50 per cent of their foreign reserves held overseas by March 2010, "we know that the Barbados economy's position is still deteriorating", she charged.
Prescod was on his way to Central Police Station to give a statement regarding the events of July 6 when he visited the Elsie Payne Complex.
The group comprised mainly of foundation members, but also included parliamentary representative for St Thomas, Cynthia Forde, as well as one of Prescod's attorneys, David Comissiong.
Prescod told the DAILY NATION he and foundation artistic director Cheryl Hunte would give their side of what happened in compliance with the police's request.
Comissiong said he hoped the situation was not an example of Government using the police force to enforce partisan politics.
"That would be unfortunate and retrogressive. I had an experience of that 17 years ago and I would not like to see it inflicted on any other citizen of Barbados," he said.
On July 6, Prescod went to the Ministry of Youth to find out what had gone wrong with lunch arrangements for the foundation's Camp Kuumba as part of the Government's national summer camp programme.
The fragility of children makes them very susceptible to heatstrokes, and so every effort should be made to keep them cool this summer.
1 Allowing them to wear little clothing at home. If they have to be fully dressed, make sure it is in clothes made from cotton. Also make sure their attire is not too clingy.
2 Increase their fluid intake to keep them cool within. If possible get them their own water bottle that is accessible so that they can have some water whenever they are thirsty. Also stock up on fruit juices so they will always have something to drink.
3 If they have heat rash, allow them to sleep with a fan on or turn on the air conditioning or else they will be bothered and cry often. Heat rash is caused by excessive exposure to heat so try not to have them outdoors too often.
5 Under no circumstances should you leave your child in a car alone, and especially now when the time is hot. Children who are left unattended in parked cars are at greater risk of having heatstrokes and even death.
Now, think of a request for a tax waiver, the desired amount being so huge it could nearly run the Ministry of Tourism for one year or take care of recurrent expenses for the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports, leaving ample change.
That is the height to which the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (Petrojam), the country's oil refinery, has allowed its tax and custom-duty liabilities to climb.
A forensic audit of the company has revealed that it owes approximately $4.9 billion in taxes and duties. At the same time, it has asked that the Ministry of Finance not to collect $2.61 billion of the taxes and duties it owes.
The amount being sought as waiver ($2.61 billion) is just under the Ministry of Tourism's allocation in this year's Budget to pay recurrent expenses ($2.77 billion) and far above that which has been given to the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports ($2.2 billion) for its housekeeping bills.
With the national purse in need of every penny, Operation Vapour has advised the minister that "the Revenue Department should immediately commence collection procedure in respect of the $2.61 billion, while the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service assess the situation regarding the waivable amount of $2.32 billion".
When Barbados became independent in 1966, the country wasn't on the map, Mottley started out saying, before adding that by 1994, "we were the country that told the IMF to go home".
Mottley acknowledged that the process of democratization was far easier in Barbados than in Jamaica due to its small size, the access of its citizenry to the country's institutions, and social cohesion.
One of the central factors Mottley said contributed to the economic stability of Barbados was the country's progressive legislation on the titling of land.
The fact that that Barbadian government moved long before independence to formalise land rights and title land at a minimal cost allowed Barbadians access to credit, she maintained.
She said that land and home ownership also had a positive effect on keeping crime rates low, suggesting homeowners have less of a propensity to engage in unlawful activities.
"The notion that the underdog should be protected means our commitment to social capital doesn't stop at secondary and tertiary education," she said, before adding that the country's social safety net has served to create social and economic stability.
"The IMF has been doing financial sector assessment programmes on all the countries of the world but still didn't see this crisis coming. As a result of that, the IMF itself has had to do some self-examination and has softened some of its conditions," said the eminent Caribbean economist.
In the second part of Dr Worrell's interview with Caribbean Business Report, he speaks on the economic future of the region and a single regional currency.
The governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Derick Latibeaudiere, has dismissed the idea of a single regional currency as impractical because most of the islands employ different monetary policies. There are many who believe a single currency is the best way to foster greater regionalism and add greater potency to both Caricom and the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). Dr Worrell said he understands some of Latibeaudiere's objections because if it is not properly formulated it would be a disaster for the English-speaking Caribbean, particularly if it is done as an average of the existing currencies.
"There is only one way to do it and that is introduce an entirely new currency which is on par with the United States dollar and backed by a currency board. My sense is that Derick Latibeaudiere does not think there is much likelihood of achieving that. I disagree with him because I think people would appreciate a single regional currency. It would take the exchange rate regime off the table and allow us to have our own currency for intra-Caribbean business and transactions."
Dr Worrell is of the view that Caricom does better than people realise and that its demise is not imminent. He sees the value of Caricom in the institutional links that it has set up. The various meetings and summits mean that heads of state speak with each other and there is ongoing dialogue and a will to resolve issues. "I think we focus too much on trying to get unrealistic consensus.
The currency issue, food security and freedom of movement are the things that really matter. In the financial sector, for instance, banks and finance houses have spread their wings across the entire Caribbean, but this poses challenges for us in terms of the regulatory framework that we have to catch up and deal with. The same goes with migrations, yet we do not have a regime in place although people are on the move.
The $631 million comprises payments of TT$250 million and US$60 million (TT$381), which came from mainly the Executive Flexible Premium Annuity plan, an insurance product that gave high interest and annuity rates.
Of the $250 million worth of policies surrendered, approximately $100 million came from Clico’s Valpark branch, a well- placed source said. Many of them had surrendered their policies within hours of the bailout, sources indicated. Policies surrendered during the early years of ownership were likely to have a reduced cash value, it was noted.
The cancellation of policies came after the Government and the Central Bank rescued the financial powerhouse last January 30, in return for an immediate injection of $1.3 billion to protect the company’s depositors and policyholders and a commitment to ensure that all interest on existing policies and deposits would be paid by the State.
Clico, the largest insurance company in the region, with more than 100,000 policyholders, offered a variety of insurance plans for its clients.
At a meeting on Thursday at Clico’s head office on St Vincent Street in Port-of-Spain, conservation unit team members, Tommy Ramjattan and Mona Browne, met with its customer care workers to advise how to treat with the influx of policyholders to their various branches this week. They are expected to receive cheques that would have to be cashed at local banks. Faced with a total of $350 million in surrendered policies initially, the conservation unit, a source said, was able to influence several policyholders not to cancel $100 million-plus worth in policies.
Khan, CLICO's chief executive officer, Claude Musaib-Ali, and other board members delivered a presentation to the Cabinet so the company could formalise a commitment it made in the Government's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with its parent company, CL Financial, to provide an initial $1.3 billion bail out.
After the presentation, the Cabinet decided to formalise the commitment to CLICO during a special meeting at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair.
In an interview with the Express last evening, Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira said while the Government did not agree to any additional funding for CLICO, its presentation was vital to any future assistance it could end up receiving from the State.
"The board made presentation to the Cabinet to give us a sense of what they had accomplished thus far, where were they going and what would be the outlook going forward, and that was to ensure that when the Government made any further commitment and any fiscal, any further injection, that we are comfortable that this was a situation that was, you know, presenting itself in a very positive sense," she said.
The Cabinet made the decision although Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams is still awaiting the results of a forensic audit of the company's operations and that of CL Financial subsidiary CLICO Investment Bank (CIB).
Following is the Central Bank’s repo rate report: “Headline inflation recent inflation data released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) indicate a marked deceleration in the rate of inflation in June 2009.
Headline Inflation, measured by the 12-month increase in the Index of Retail prices, fell sharply to 8.4 per cent in June 2009 from 10.3 per cent in May. This is the first time in 12 months that the rate has reached a single-digit figure.
Food inflation, the main driver of the headline rate, decelerated to 16.5 per cent in the 12 months to June 2009 from close to 20 per cent in May. Core inflation, which excludes the food inflation impact, slowed to 4.5 per cent (year-on-year) in June from 5.8 per cent in May. The June figure was the lowest rate for the last 17 months.
While the continued deceleration in inflation is quite encouraging, there are several downside risks to the inflation outlook. Firstly, it is not yet certain whether inflation expectations have been fully reversed.
Secondly, there is always a risk that domestic agricultural prices could increase in the coming months in the face of inclement weather.
Thirdly, the balance between fiscal and monetary policy needs to be adjusted. At the current moment, credit expansion is at a low level.
The official, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center on Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said she “strongly recommended” giving the drug only to people already seriously ill, or to their family members who are pregnant, have asthma or have other conditions that could be life-threatening if they caught the flu.
Giving the drug to healthy people wastes the world’s limited supplies of Tamiflu and increases the chances of drug-resistant strains developing, Dr. Schuchat said, and the disease centers are working with camp associations and local health departments to discourage the practice.
Dozens of camps have had swine flu outbreaks this summer. Some closed, others set up infirmaries, and some have had camp doctors write Tamiflu prescriptions or asked parents to send children with the drug.
The practice is controversial because public health authorities consider it selfish and dangerous. Although there is a national stockpile of 50 million courses of Tamiflu, it will not last into the coming flu season if many healthy Americans start taking the drug.
Isolation in the close quarters of camps is almost impossible, Dr. Siegel said, and he gave his own family as an example for a reason to use prophylaxis. His son’s bunkmates had flu, he said; if his son had caught it, he might have brought it home to his 4-year old brother, who has asthma.
Household domestics with a Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) will be added from next year to an already nine categories of skilled migrant workers eligible for freedom of movement.
A recurring issue of contention, at least among a few governments of the 15-member Community, has been the extent to which there should be commitment to “contingent rights” for immediate family members (spouse and children) of approved categories of skilled CARICOM nationals.
The movement of skilled Community nationals and ideas for the introduction, regionally, of “guest workers” programmes to meet specific needs in various sectors, including, construction, agriculture and tourism – are issues to be viewed within the context of managed migration and respect for the fundamental rights of immigrants, consistent with local and international law.
In Barbados, the former Barbados Labour Party (BLP)Government of then Prime Minister Owen Arthur had completed a draft document on a Guest Workers’ Policy which, according to the party’s leader, Mia Mottley, was shared with local trade unions for comment.
Three officials of the CDF were here Monday and Tuesday on what was described as a successful two-day consultative mission, a news release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.
The CDF was established to deliver technical and financial assistance to disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and is mobilizing US$250 million for disbursement to the eight disadvantaged countries over the next four years.
According to the release, the objectives of the consultation were to introduce and promote the CDF to stakeholders and potential beneficiaries as well as to identify possible needs arising from the effects of the implementation of the CSME and to help determine ways of making the organization more responsive than traditional sources of development finance.
But simmering grievances about how countries should share the burden of cutting greenhouse gases abruptly changed the mood. No sooner had Mrs. Clinton marveled at the building’s environmentally friendly features — like windows that flood rooms with light but keep out heat — than her hosts vented frustration at American pressure on India to cut its emissions.
In a meeting with Mrs. Clinton, India’s environment and forests minister, Jairam Ramesh, said there was “no case” for the West to push India to reduce carbon dioxide emissions when it already had among the lowest levels of emissions on a per capita basis. “If this pressure is not enough,” he said, “we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours.”
Mrs. Clinton, in the first visit to India by a top Obama administration official, offered reassurances that the United States had no intention of forcing India into an economically crippling deal.
“No one wants to, in any way, stall or undermine economic growth that is necessary to lift millions more people out of poverty,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference. “The United States does not, and will not, do anything that would limit India’s economic progress.”
India’s refusal to accept mandatory national cuts in emissions is neither new nor unique. China also opposes a deal with compulsory targets. Both countries say their economic growth should not be constrained when the West never faced such restrictions during its industrialization.
After the nomination votes were cast and seconded, Holder took the floor and addressed constituents on his commitment to the constituency as well as on a number of topical issues, advising those gathered that the “warning signs are on the horizon” and that they must throw their full support behind the BLP to rectify the situation.
He spoke of a “commitment to the people of this country at large and a commitment to the people of St. Michael Central to ensure that when the next election is called that the BLP will regain its rightful place”.
“My entry into politics is a repayment to what this country has done for me” insisted Arthur, while holding that the task before him is not an easy one. “I am also fully cognisant of the fact that St. Michael Central is pivotal to the BLP,” Arthur stated as he advised constituents “it therefore tells you what we have to do”.
Speaking on the issue of the 60 per cent hike in water rates, Holder held that water shows “inelastic demand” explaining that “regardless of the increase in price, the consumer will still use the same amount”.
Highlighting cases where Government allegedly bailed out corporate companies, Arthur queried whether “the Prime Minister [can] explain why it is impossible to write off 15.6 million of poor people’s debts”.
“Fully cognisant that education is an avenue to progress, I intend to give this constituency as part of my developmental programme for it to assist the young people of this country, a number of things,” stated Arthur, suggesting that the first is a commitment of 75 scholarships a year for persons who left secondary school without O-levels, stating: “I will give them an opportunity to obtain some certification and move on in life”.
Arguing that the school a person goes to does have a significance, Holder’s second promise was that he “will assist 75 parents to ensure that their children get extra tuition for the Common Entrance Examina-tions”, noting that this would be done out of a desire to ensure that they are marketable. The candidate also pledged that as an Attorney, he “will set aside a fund from all monies obtained from legal aid to assist poor people in St. Michael Central”.
The halt on salary hikes—possibly for three years— comes as a result of the economic environment, according to the SRC. However, some “nominal” increases for transportation, housing, subsistence, etc, have been recommended by the SRC for office holders. The recommendations are contained in the SRC’s 89th report which was laid in the House of Representatives yesterday.
The report outlined a general review of the salaries and other terms and conditions of service of offices within the purview of the SRC.
Government intends to debate the report in Parliament next week Tuesday or Wednesday and adopt the report immediately, Government (House) Leader Colm Imbert said yesterday.
Once adopted, the SRC’s recommendations would come into effect, he confirmed. Information Minister Neil Parsanlal, speaking about the report in Parliament, said: “The SRC has proposed and Cabinet has accepted that there will be no salary increases for holders of office within the purview of the SRC, including members of the House of Representatives at this time.”
Parsanlal added, “The SRC has recommended instead that consideration be given to a review of these remuneration arrangements before the usual three-year interval should there be a reversal of the current downward trend in the economic environment.
The Information Minister said, “Notwithstanding its recommendations with regard to salary increases, the SRC considered it appropriate to review the benefits currently payable to office holders within their purview that are based on actual costs eg—ransportation, housing , subsistence—and have recommended some nominal increases in those areas.”
The SRC indicated some exceptions to its recommendations with respect to salaries only for certain offices in the judicial/legal system.
A political party born into a philosophy of democratic socialism rejects the use of subsidies in the pricing of energy products but relieves businesses of millions of dollars of debt owed to the Government. Oil and diesel prices are now rising every month; water rates are increased significantly without reference to the poor; food prices increase without Government intervention and electricity rates are about to rise.
Admidst an economic recession with rising prices and unemployment, declining investment, tourist arrivals and foreign reserves, the crisis in West Indies cricket adds to the misery of West Indians at home and abroad.
Instead of addressing the real fundamental issues affecting the Caribbean at the regional level, the issue of concern is that of illegal immigration. What a smoke screen it is! At this rate, the region is set to become poorer economically and socially and in time to come there may not be enough to share among nationals, far less CARICOM nationals. Unfortunately, the Guyanese may be blamed!
At the level of CARICOM, it must be recognised that leadership is not about seeking to apportion blame in a community but rather finding solutions to problems that will arise, with the hope of doing better.
In the past, the ideological leadership came from the more developed countries in the region not only because they were more abundantly endowed with resources but they were also led by men of conviction, belief and purpose. As a result, the leaders were able to persuade their populations of the merits of regional integration and as such did not have to react to issues purely on the basis of populism.
Lower external demand led to a 30% value and 7% volume fall in exports during the first quarter of this year with regard to the same period in 2008. Remittances also dropped (5%-10% between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009).
Foreign direct investment flows are expected to decrease 40% this year due to the general deterioration of family and business expectations, which negatively affected consumer and investment decisions in the private sector.
A current account deficit equivalent to 2.3% of GDP is expected for 2009, compared to the 0.6% of GDP deficit obtained in 2008. The terms of trade will also fall 10.8% this year, from a 3.0% increase in 2008.
All of this has impacted the labour market. From early 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, over a million people have lost their jobs in urban areas, an inter-annual rise in unemployment of 0.6%. The unemployment rate is expected to increase from 7.4% in 2008 to about 9% this year, leaving an additional three million people without work. This will be accompanied by greater labour informality, which will aggravate poverty levels and make compliance of the Millennium Development Goals more difficult.
This year's Economic Survey includes an analysis of the institutional framework for labour in the region, in order to assess countries' capabilities to address the structural challenges in the labour market and those arising from the current crisis.
The agents who gathered complained that they had not received their full commissions since January and that no explanation had been given.
They also stated their displeasure at the way they had been treated by senior management of the company, who they charged had dealt with them very disrespectfully, and who have not even properly acknowledged that the clients the company had were primarily because of their efforts.
“Our commission slip says one thing and we get paid another amount,” one agent who gave her name as Ms Telford said. Another agent Philip Chance explained that whenever this issue was raised with Singh-Knight and other members of CLICO management, no explanation was given.
One agent told this newspaper that after the agents were instructed to leave the premises, he was prevented from re-entering the compound the following week. He said that following this incident, he went to the Ministry of Labour, where a senior official at the ministry contacted the management of the insurance company, and some settlement was arrived at.
The company fell on hard times when its US$34 million investment in CLICO (Bahamas) was found to be tied up in real estate in Florida. CLICO (Guyana) was placed under judicial management on February 25 after CLICO (Bahamas) was put into liquidation.
The sum of money invested by CLICO (Guyana) in the Bahamian company represented 53% of the local company’s assets, which put CLICO (Guyana’s) liquidity under enormous strain. Guyana is currently trying to retrieve this investment from CLICO (Bahamas).
This came after nearly two and half hours at an extraordinary general meeting at the Republic Bank stand at the Queen’s Park Oval where shareholders cast their votes in a resolution to give effect to a revised June 12 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between CL Financial and the Government, to keep the company afloat.
The memorandum was signed with the Government as part of the billion dollar bailout deal to save the debt-ridden company, and which saw Lawrence Duprey stepping down as chairman.
The Government had said it has already secured 67 per cent of CL Financial shareholders for yesterday’s meeting but needed the rest of the votes to give the board the power it needed to go ahead.
In an interview following the meeting chaired by CL Financial chairman Shafeek Sultan-Khan, Sultan-Khan said the board got 98 per cent of the shareholders’ vote.
He noted that the Government was also holding talks with other Caribbean states where CL had business interests, but could not say for certain what course of action the Trinidad and Tobago Government would take with those investments.
Sultan-Khan said he had spoken to St Vincent Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves and looking at a way to provide assistance. He noted the Government was also holding talks with officials from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) islands
He noted that while agriculture and manufacturing will remain important for the regional economy, for many of the CARICOM member states the services sector is the future.
“Tourism and financial services have been our traditional export services. But the non-traditional sub-sectors provide new opportunities for further services exports within the Region and extra-regionally. We therefore have to make the services sector work for us. . . .,” Spencer said.
Health officials confirmed that a further nine people in England had died after contracting the swine flu virus, following the deaths of a six-year-old schoolgirl and a family doctor. There were unconfirmed reports tonight that another young child — a boy from Kent — may be among the latest victims.
The reports came as Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, presented the latest NHS plans for coping with the pandemic. The recommendations, based on 30 per cent of the population falling ill, were issued as latest figures showed that about 55,000 people reported flu symptoms last week.
Tower Hamlets, in East London, is the area with the highest proportion of GP visits, with 759 consultations about flu-like illness per 100,000 of the population. Other badly affected areas of London include Hackney in the east, Islington in the north and Lewisham in the south. “Some of these will have the worried well among them,” Sir Liam said, adding that not all real cases would be swine flu.
Cherie Blair, the wife of the former Prime Minister, is among those with the virus and has had to pull out of a number of public engagements.
Sir Liam said there was now “exceptional influenza activity” across most of the country except Yorkshire and the Humber, although there are signs that the virus is now spreading faster across the north of England.
Making the claim is Dr Carlisle Pemberton, head, Agricultural Economics Department, UWI, St Augustine Pemberton, responding to yesterday’s article in the Guardian, in which Williams said:
“In the recession that the United States is talking about, unemployment moved from 5 to 9 per cent. We are not facing that. We have clearly faced a deep slowdown. And, we have some positive signs like the increase in the oil prices.” Williams’s statements were made on Monday at the presentation of the De La Rue scholarship to Kester Thompson.
Pemberton differed with Williams on whether the T&T economy is in a recession. “Many economists define a recession as at least three consecutive financial quarters with negative growth.
So far, we do not have access to the statistics to confirm whether we are in a recession, but you can see the effects through lower employment, growing inflation and reduced consumer confidence. We are seeing all of those effects right now, even though the recovery in oil prices has made it easier for this country to cope than many of our neighbours.
The economist said with a drop from US$149 to US$30 a barrel in just a few weeks last year, the T&T economy has definitely seen a contraction since last July.
He said that despite an oil price recovery to less than US$60 a barrel since then, the contraction will continue and will have an impact on T&T’s non-oil sector. “The drop in oil prices has led to reduced local demand for goods and services. This, together with higher international demand for food items such as corn for alternative energy and ethanol production, has led to scarcity and higher prices on basic food items.
“In the recession that the United States is talking about, unemployment moved from 5 to 9 per cent. We are not facing that,” Williams said.
He said a recession had certain consequences, the magnitude of which has not been seen in T&T as compared to what was happening in the United States. “We have clearly faced a deep slowdown. We have had some positive signs like the increase in oil prices.
The data that I’ve seen has shown that some of the output indices in the energy sector have been pointing upwards,” Williams said.
Regarding oil prices, Williams said they have been “bumping around” and showing excessive volatility. Oil prices rose above US$60 a barrel yesterday. Prices have fallen US$14 a barrel, or 19 per cent, since June 30 after poor unemployment data from the US and Europe sparked doubts that the global economy was poised for a strong recovery this year.
In a statement on Monday, the Bank said that remittance flows to developing countries are predicted to decline by 7.3% in 2009.
The Bank released its updated estimates on the sidelines of an International Diaspora and Development Conference being held in Washington. For the Latin America and Caribbean region, the new forecasts show a -6.9 percent decline in remittances while it was stated too that flows to this region are expected to level off, with a smaller decline in the second half of 2009.
“Remittance flows to developing countries are expected to be $304 billion in 2009, down from an estimated $328 billion in 2008”, the Bank said. “The predicted decline in remittances by -7.3% this year is far smaller than that for private flows to developing countries”, it added.
According to the Bank, remittances are relatively resilient because, while new migration flows have declined, the number of migrants living overseas has been relatively unaffected by the crisis.
“There is a risk that rising unemployment will trigger further immigration restrictions in major destination countries. Such restrictions would curb remittances more than forecast and would slow the global recovery in the same way as protectionism against trade would endanger a global upturn,” Hans Timmer, Director of the World Bank’s Development Prospects Group was quoted as stating.
“Remittances provide a lifeline to many poor countries. Although they remain resilient, even a small decline of 7 or 10 percent can pose significant hardships to the people and to governments, especially those facing external financing gaps. Reducing remittance fees and developing innovative tools to leverage remittances for financial inclusion and capital market access should be a part of our response to the financial crisis,” said Dilip Ratha, Lead Economist in the Development Prospects Group of the World Bank.
Mr. Obama left Russia with a December deadline for finishing a nuclear arms reduction treaty.
He left a summit of nations in Italy with a deadline, also in December, for completing an agreement to address climate change.
He also has a deadline in September for checking Iran's nuclear ambitions, perhaps with sanctions.
While Western European leaders were quite taken with Mr. Obama - going so far as to applaud his arrival at one photo session in Italy - Russian leaders were unmoved.
Two days after Mr. Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev his plans for missile defense were aimed at Iran, Mr. Medvedev rejected that, saying he still viewed plans for a defense site in Eastern Europe as a threat.
And even as the Russian president signed on to the Group of Eight major economies document calling for 80 percent emissions cuts by 2050, his adviser told reporters they couldn't meet the target and said it was "unacceptable."
The Renewable Energy Strategy, to be published on Wednesday, will state that more than £100 billion will have to be invested in renewable energy infrastructure, including 7,000 wind turbines, by 2020.
Derek Lickorish, chairman of the government-appointed Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, urged ministers to introduce measures to protect poorer families from rising energy prices. “We need decisive action on energy efficiency and social tariffs or many hundreds of thousands more pensioners, families and disabled people will struggle to afford their energy bills,” he said.
The Government has bound itself legally to cutting CO2 emissions by 34 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. To achieve this, it must increase the amount of energy generated from renewable sources from 2 per cent at present to 15 per cent by 2020.
The strategy estimates that energy bills will have to rise by about 20 per cent to pay for the investment. The average household currently pays about £1,150 a year for electricity and gas, a small decline on last year but still double the amount paid in 2003.
The cost of converting to renewable energy and modernising Britain’s power supply would add about £230 to annual bills. Costs are likely to ratchet up quickly as the investment is made, with the increase reaching 20 per cent within three years.
A White Paper detailing how Britain will make the transition to being a low-carbon economy will also be published on Wednesday. It will contain measures designed to accelerate plans to slash Britain’s dependency on fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil for electricity generation from the current level of 78 per cent.
The White Paper will include predictions that Britain will have to cut its gas consumption by nearly 30 per cent by 2025 and coal by 34 per cent. Consumption of petrol and diesel will also have to fall by 10 per cent by 2020.
Corzine aides called the enthusiastic and quick response to the upcoming rally "absolutely outstanding" and promised that those turned away would have first dibs when first lady Michelle Obama and administration officials come before the November election - or if the president makes a return trip.
Democratic candidates across the country are similarly hoping to harness some of the Obama spark that drew record crowds before the presidential election, and Mr. Obama is in top demand as state parties push him to be campaigner in chief.
Corzine campaign manager Maggie Moran said some of the 52,000 who signed up online to see Mr. Obama share the stage with the governor will get calls confirming they can attend the Thursday rally, moved from Rutgers University to the 18,000-seat PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J.
The people who are left out of the Corzine-Obama rally will be put on a "preferred reservation list" for the next event, Ms. Moran told supporters in a Web video.
NOW THAT the Caribbean Community's 30th Heads of Government Conference in Guyana is over, it is relevant to note that the controversy that erupted over the issue of "sovereign right" by a member state to introduce its "domestic immigration policy" should not have been manifested as occurred as this right was NOT questioned by ANY government of CARICOM.
In existence for 36 years, CARICOM is recognised as a "community of sovereign states" committed to regional economic integration and functional cooperation with the creation of a single market and single economy (CSME) under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas as its flagship project.
The fury exhibited by officialdom, first in Barbados and later in Antigua and Barbuda, with a war of words involving governing and opposition parties, and later extended to sharp political criticisms in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana and Jamaica, had to do with recurring claims of hostile and degrading treatment of CARICOM nationals, mostly Guyanese but with Vincentians and Jamaicans also being victims.
In the case of Barbados, by the time Prime Minister David Thompson was ready to talk reassuringly in Georgetown of his Government's intention to conduct an "independent review" of allegations made against immigration authorities, the victims of ill treatment - incidentally during the first month of a six-month amnesty - had already been "removed" and sent to their native land.
According to the "summary of electors by country of birth" for last year's general election, "non-citizens of Barbados" on the electoral register totalled 6,246. Of these, Vincentians accounted for 1 838; Guyanese 1 013; and St Lucians 1 198 - altogether 4 039.
For those now suggesting ulterior political motives for the presence of CARICOM nationals, it should be noted that even if ALL the Guyanese, Vincentians, St Lucians or Trinidadians (the latter numbered 1 345 electors) had voted FOR the then incumbent Democratic Labour Party, the Barbados Labour Party would still have scored its landslide parliamentary victory.
To conclude, for now, while respecting the "sovereign right" claim without condoning the ill-treatment meted out to CARICOM nationals compelled to leave Barbados in humiliating circumstances, the promised "independent review" should begin. The statistics on what it may have cost Barbados' social services, at least within the past three years, to accomodate CARICOM nationals should prove illuminating.
According to a release from the company, the price discount is being applied across the board so that at every level of construction activity, domestic, commercial, and public works, there would be benefits to be gained from using TGI cement.
The announcement from TGI comes a day after another company in the TCL Group, Caribbean Cement Company in Jamaica, announced a discount in cement prices there in a clearance sale.
Caribbean Cement will commission a new cement mill this week that will increase milling capacity to 1.9 million tones per annum. Caribbean Cement exported more than 38,000 tonnes of cement this year with some of those exports coming to Guyana.
TCL Guyana Inc. is a cement bagging facility, which allows for bulk cement manufactured within the TCL Group to be shipped in specialised bulk carriers to the terminal where it is packaged for distribution throughout Guyana.
The TGI cement terminal began operations in December 2006 and was formally commissioned in June 2007.
TGI features three silos, each with a storage capacity of 2,000 tonnes and a warehouse with a storage capacity also of 2,000 tonnes giving a total stored inventory capacity of 8,000 tonnes.
The terminal is supplied with bulk cement from the group’s plants in Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica.
American officials called the results a step forward in the arduous process intended to lead to a worldwide climate treaty at a conference in Copenhagen in December.
But the impasse over the 2050 targets demonstrated again the most vexing problem in reaching a consensus on climate change: the longstanding divisions between developed countries like the United States, Europe and Japan on one side, and developing nations like China, India, Brazil and Mexico on the other.
While the richest countries have produced the bulk of the pollution blamed for climate change, developing countries are producing increasing volumes of gases. But developing countries say their climb out of poverty should not be halted to fix damage done by industrial countries.
As various sides tried to draft an agreement to sign Thursday, those tensions scuttled the specific goals sought by the United States and Europe. The proposed agreement called for worldwide emissions to be cut 50 percent by 2050, with industrial countries cutting theirs by 80 percent. But emerging powers refused to agree because they wanted industrial countries to commit to midterm goals in the next decade and to follow through on promises of financial and technological help for poorer nations.
Moreover, a separate statement approved by the Group of 8 nations embraced the 80 percent emission cut for industrial nations and said scientists believed that the increase in world temperature “ought not to exceed” 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Other Group of 8 leaders emphasized that any solution to climate change depended on the developing world’s joining the battle. Without China and India, said Arkady Dvorkovich, the chief Russian negotiator, any further discussions would not lead anywhere. Besides the United States, Russia and France, the Group of 8 includes Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada.
President George W. Bush agreed to a 50 percent cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but not to an 80 percent reduction in those produced by industrial countries. With Mr. Obama’s support, the House recently passed legislation to curb emissions, though not nearly as fast as the Europeans want.
Addressing MPs in the House of Commons, the Chancellor said that the Financial Services Authority will monitor the structure of bankers' remuneration packages and produce a report on them every year.
Should the City watchdog find that an executive's pay encourages the financier to take risky investment decisions it can order the lender to put aside more capital in reserve. Any such requirement would reduce a bank's profitability and, the Treasury believes, act as an effective veto.
In a long-awaited white paper on banking regulation, Mr Darling rebuffed calls to force large banks to carve themselves up.
Such measures would have been designed to limit the impact of the collapse of a large bank on the rest of the financial system.
In September last year, politicians, regulators and bankers were stunned when the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street bank, triggered a domino effect bringing down other lenders and insurers.
Today, Mr Darling argued that any attempt to limit bank size was "simplistic" and that small banks, such as Bradford & Bingley, can pose an equal threat to financial stability.
Both Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, and George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, have made it clear that they favour forcing large banking empires to carve themselves up into smaller units.
LAST WEEK I wrote that "at the height of the concerns about illegal immigrants, Barbados experienced its lowest rate of unemployment.
If, as some are arguing, the number of illegal immigrants reached tantalising levels, then the economy was operating at close to full employment because an illegal immigrant is not part of the country's labour force and by extension not part of its employment or unemployment statistics.
"So without the illegal immigrants, assuming that all Barbadians wanted to work, the unemployment rate would have been virtually zero at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008".
Above and beyond the arguments, it is believed in some high quarters, that there are in excess of 30 000 Guyanese immigrants, most of whom are illegal and yet employed in Barbados.
This belief is fascinating for a country that last year recorded an official average of just under 12 000 unemployed people in the labour force.
In essence, if every Guyanese is deported and Barbadians, regardless of their qualifications, are willing to replace the deportees in the job market, not labour force, then there would be excess employment opportunities in this country.
As stated above, an illegal immigrant cannot be part of the approximately 143 000-strong labour force of Barbados and therefore cannot be among the employment or unemployment statistics.
Therefore, for the recent immigration policy to be more than just popular, it should have some effect on the official employment statistics as job opportunities ought to become available for Barbadian workers following the deportation of thousands of illegal immigrants.
This may turn out to be an employment policy rather than an immigration policy.
The debate is about scale. The more Guyanese, the greater the blame! As a result the political argument is more potent, especially among a certain social elite.
Global Economic and Financial Crisis
Recognizing that several countries in the Caribbean have been adversely affected by the global economic and financial crisis, the Heads of Government have taken the bold step of establishing the first ever regional Task Force of a political nature to find solutions for the region.
Tourism
The Regional Marketing Plan, which will assist in bringing more visitors to the Caribbean region, has been identified as a priority for implementation.
The Plan was established at the previous Heads of Government Conference but its implementation was delayed because of the lack of funding.
“That marketing plan has been developed for a while now. The plan is developed and approved but with countries having fiscal difficulties (with) so many requests for finances, which will have to come from the Treasury, there is that difficulty of funding all of these new initiatives that are coming on board,” President Jagdeo had stated earlier yesterday.
Heads of Government reiterated their deep concern with regard to the proposed Air Passenger Duty (APD) as it applies to travel from the UK to the Caribbean as it would not only greatly increase the cost of travel from the UK to the Region but would also put the Caribbean at a disadvantage in relation to other more distant destinations.
The Heads of Government agreed to continue pursuing vigorously the matter with UK policymakers to ensure that a more equitable band of the APD is applied to Caribbean travel.
Agriculture and food security
Heads of Government reaffirmed their commitment to providing financial and other support measures for agriculture. They underscored the importance of agriculture for food and nutrition security and for the development of Caribbean economies.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, however, told reporters that while regional leaders have recognised the right of a member government to pursue domestic immigration policies, it must not be done outside of commitments to Articles 45 and 46 of the treaty, which establish the goals of CARICOM regarding freedom of movement.
Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda have recently announced new immigration policies that some regional countries deem contrary to the spirit of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy that allows for the free movement of skills, labour, goods and services across the region.
But both Bridgetown and St John's have sought to defend their positions by indicating that while they are not against the ideals of the CSME, it was necessary to impose the restrictions on illegal migration because of its impact on social services.
Guyana is one of the countries that is opposed to the treatment of their nationals under the new immigration measures. It has said that many of its nationals have been rounded up and subjected to degrading treatment by immigration authorities in Barbados.
Gonsalves said that while he was not prepared to name any specific country, "we know that in every single Caribbean country, some more than others, that migrants are taken up and treated in a manner that is not humane.
"Once we acknowledge that there is a spirit of the treaty that addresses certain minimum standards of treatment and they are also included in international law and best practice, it is now up to us to work out the necessary protocols which would adhere to certain minimum standards."
On the issue of free movement of skilled nationals, Mr. Jagdeo said that the conference agreed to grant Antigua and Barbuda an exemption with regard to non-graduate teachers and nurses, but concurred that countries must put in place the necessary arrangements to issue the certificate of recognition of CARICOM skilled qualifications to CARICOM nationals who are eligible to move freely within the region.
The conference decided too that household domestics who have obtained the appropriate qualifications will be allowed to move with ease from January 1, 2010. However, with respect to this category, it was agreed that Antigua and Barbuda will be given a five-year derogation on the free movement of the new category of household domestics, President Jagdeo said.
He said this decision was taken so as to allow that country to make the necessary adjustments to its infrastructure and other imperatives to facilitate the fulfilment of its Treaty obligations with respect to free movement of skills.
On the issue of the global financial crisis and the region’s response to it, Mr. Jagdeo said it was agreed to have a task force set up to assess the medium and long-term focus of the development strategies.
The task force, which will be headed by Guyana, will comprise Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr Edwin Carrington as well as several technical people to start taking action in this regard.
It will be the mandate of the Task Force to detail the situation of all of these countries, and States will be required to disclose their separate plan of action of tackling the financial crisis so that the task force will be able to work with them with their own plan to mobilise more resources, Mr. Jagdeo pointed out.
The political task force, the first within the region, is mandated to mobilize resources internationally within the context of Norman Girvan’s strategic vision.
It is also expected to identify certain specific areas in which regional leaders can move forward in a coordinated and more focused manner.
Jagdeo dismissed claims that Guyana’s figure of deportees from Barbados since the announcement of the migration policy was incorrect. “We have a number of the persons who came back, deported,” he said. “This is what was given by our immigration. When I looked at what Thompson said it’s a totally different number… Someone has to be lying.”
Jagdeo restated his position on the issue saying that if nationals are treated in such a manner by their own people then the region cannot expect a third country to receive its citizens in any better way. He said too that the region’s work will remain incomplete until the day a child born anywhere in the Caribbean can wake up to a Caribbean minus boundaries and nationalities.
It is unfortunate that the Barbados Youth Development Council (BYDC) does not want to understand the simple point that Miss Forde made. Camps Yes! Pork barrel politics and party tribalism, No!
We too are appalled that there will be no support for churches and other private organizations who have been and are still running summer camps and even more disappointed that unlike previous years, there will be no camp for Persons with Disabilities.
It is regrettable that the BYDC sees nothing wrong with the DLP’s plan to spend $4.1 million over six weeks on persons who have been specially chosen at the expense of Barbadians, who have over the years, proven themselves by giving freely of their services. Miss Forde's simple point is that why discard persons who have training or experience and who have worked for free.
But how could you have a fair system if DLP politicians were asked to hand-pick persons to operate as Camp Directors?
It is our fundamental belief that what the DLP purports to do with the camp programme - is not “change” nor “good government,” but trademark “old-style DLP pork barrel politics,” of using State resources for partisan purposes.
This is wrong!
We feel that having promised “good governance” and having described DLP politicians as: “squeaky clean,” the Prime Minister has a responsibility to all Barbadians to make sure that this happens and that our tax dollars are hereafter spent in a prudent manner.
It saddens us greatly that the BYDC does not share these values, which the majority of Barbadians hold dear.
It will get worst!
The DLP is now taxing the poor to give to the rich. A Senior Citizens Tax is not far behind. This is frightening stuff!
But for all of this, Barbadians can thank the DLP, which promised to reduce the cost of living but is Barbados' biggest price gouger.
First the DLP price gouged Barbadians on petroleum products, then land tax, now water. Next, it will be elder care.
But while the rich and big business are getting sweet-heart deals form the DLP, the poor are being asked to pay for the comforts, which the DLP gave the rich.
Imagine, the DLP gave the rich 40 million but is now asking the poor, to pay more to recoup the money it gave to the rich.
Barbadians who were already flinching as a result of the DLP’s uncaring economic whip – are now faced with yet another of its price increases – this time a 60% increase in water rates, which will put the health and jobs of Barbadians at risk.
The DLP’s rationale for imposing more economic pain on Barbadians is because the DLP feels that since Barbadians are buying bottle water – then they should not fuss about paying a DLP 60% Water Tax.
The DLP is so adamant and determine that Barbadians should pay more for water –that it did not consult the Social Partnership, for fear that it would say no to more “DLP economic pain” at this time.
The simple fact is - when ever Barbados is under "DLP rule," Barbadians can expect economic pain and social chaos.
Opposition Leader Mia Mottley was therefore right when she cautioned Barbadians to brace for yet another assualt on their pocket. The Dems said it was not true, yet they are now demanding that Barbadians pay its 60% Water Tax.
Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson, at the weekend, had blasted reports on the various criticisms being levelled against his government’s new policy. And for the first time, he gave statistics to support his side. However the figure he gave – four Guyanese deported — contrasts sharply with immigration figures here.
Rodrigues-Birkett in a brief interview with Stabroek News yesterday said she had received figures from the immigration department which showed that for the month of May, 29 persons were deported from Barba-dos. Thompson announced his policy on May 5.
And for June, so far, the foreign minister said, 24 Guyanese have been deported from the island.
Such an approach in mobilising some of the best in available human resources would, of course, require shedding political pettiness, prejudices and parochialism in preference for a shared commitment and vision to help CARICOM achieve its central goal of being transformed into a seamless regional economy to better serve the 'Caribbean family'
WE UNHESITATINGLY embrace the very commendable decision by the Caribbean Community to bestow its highest honour -- Order of the Community (OCC) -- on Percival James Patterson, former long-serving Prime Minister of Jamaica and an icon of our Caribbean region.
Often referred to with fondness and admiration as simply 'PJ', Patterson will be the second Jamaican leader -- the first being the late Michael Manley -- and the seventh former Prime Minister of our 36-year-old Community to receive the coveted OCC, instituted by the Community in 1992 as an initiative to ‘honouring our greats’.
Patterson will be honoured at the ceremonial opening of the 30th Heads of Government Conference, scheduled for Thursday afternoon at the Guyana National Cultural Centre.
He has not only distinguished himself as an outstanding and unique four-term Prime Minister in his native Jamaica, but more importantly, from a Caribbean perspective, he has evolved through his long years in regional and international politics as a most sturdy and eloquent voice in the cause of fostering the objectives of CARICOM.
In addition, we are appalled that there will be no support for churches and other private organizations who have been and are still running summer camps.
To spend $4.1 million over six weeks on specially chosen person and leave out people who have over the years proven themselves by giving freely of their services is simply wrong and unfair.
The Barbados Labour Party has every reason to believe that Members of Parliament on the DLP side – have been directed to hand pick persons to operate as Camp Directors.
We feel that the casual way, in which persons who have served with distinction as Camp Directors for free for many years - have been discarded to make way for paid DLP operatives - re-enforces our belief that this is simply: “a pork barrel situation,” of using State resources for partisan purposes.
In one instance - even a person, who received glowing praise from a Department of Government for good work as a Camp Director, has been taken off the list. These Camp Directors many of whom were fired were so organized, that they formed an organization in 2007.
We maintain that it is shameful that people who were not prepared to work for free are now being hand-picked because millions of taxpayer’s money is involved.
We call on the DLP to immediately stop using this Camp Programme as a slush fund.
I HAVE BEEN WATCHING and listening studiously to the debate on illegal immigrants and I am in no way surprised by the view of the majority in this matter. A typical illegal immigrant is Guyanese, poor and seeking to enhance his/her life.
At the height of the concerns about illegal immigrants, Barbados experienced its lowest rate of unemployment. If, as some are arguing, the number of illegal immigrants reached tantalising levels, then the economy was operating at close to full employment because an illegal immigrant is not part of the country's labour force and by extension not part of its employment or unemployment statistics.
So without the illegal immigrants, assuming that all Barbadians wanted to work, the unemployment rate would have been virtually zero at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008.
It is highly unlikely that a typical non-CARICOM [Caribbean Community] illegal immigrant is poor when he/she is welcomed on the basis of wealth that is invested in high-end accommodation or in business; otherwise such an immigrant works in the high-end of the labour market, with some exceptions.
It is therefore not surprising that the amnesty was not extended to non-CARICOM illegal immigrants, since such would be an oxymoron. Indeed, non-CARICOM immigrants constitute the core of the philanthropic society in Barbados which has the financial resources to contribute to the building of a new hospital.
At the height of the concerns about illegal immigrants, Barbados experienced its lowest rate of unemployment.
If, as some are arguing, the number of illegal immigrants reached tantalising levels, then the economy was operating at close to full employment because an illegal immigrant is not part of the country's labour force and by extension not part of its employment or unemployment statistics.
So without the illegal immigrants, assuming that all Barbadians wanted to work, the unemployment rate would have been virtually zero at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008.
The Prime Minister announced a series of initiatives to provide economic aid to Grenada, Dominica, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and the Eastern Caribbean generally in light of the slowdown in these economies due to the global economic recession.
“The disparity in the economic position between Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the Caribbean is something that is a source of concern to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago,” Manning said.
The package of economic aid includes: supplying Jamaica with natural gas for the stimulation of its alumina trade; entering into an arrangement for Jamaica to supply the under-construction smelter plant at La Brea with alumina; the relocation of Caribbean Airlines’ jet maintenance trade to Grenada; investing in quarrying facilities in Dominica; helping St Vincent and the Grenadines to revamp its ship-maintenance industry; and lobbying for access to the United States market for goods from the Eastern Caribbean alongside goods from Trinidad and Tobago.
“These initiatives are being contemplated by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. We cannot sit idly by and allow what is taking place in the Caribbean to continue unattended,” Manning said.
He warned that, “the need for cash could easily force governments in the region to move in directions which hitherto would have been unprecedented in their case. To avoid the introduction of undesirable activities in the Caribbean, it is clear that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has to act and act as decisively as we can.”
However, immigration authorities in the capital, Port of Spain, to whom the illegal immigrants were turned over, have given them a grace period to wind up their affairs, said an official at the Guyana Consulate on the island.
According to him, the Trinidad immigration officials took into consideration that the majority of those held have roots, in some cases children, in that country.
“They will not be allowed to stay but were given time to sell their belongings and purchase their travel documents to leave by a stated time,” he said.
Action by Police and Immigration to rid Trinidad of persons living there illegally is not new but the approach seems to be more structured than what is being reported in the other CARICOM State of Barbados.
Following Prime Minister David Thompson’s announcement, that illegal immigrants have six months, since June 1, to have themselves regularised, there have been reports of Guyanese being aroused from sleep and, when found with documents not in order, are being detained and deported.
The Office of the Registrar of Insurance Companies has advised that there is a gap between the assets and liabilities of CLICO leaving a net liability of $42 million, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham recently revealed in the House of Assembly.
There are realizable assets estimated at $85 million, and adjusted liabilities of $127 million.
Policy liabilities are estimated at $73 million and other liabilities at $54 million. As policy liabilities may have a first claim on all assets, it is therefore expected that policy liabilities will be fully covered.
Ingraham said on May 27, "Notwithstanding that ultimate circumstance, many policyholders have expectations that day-to-day contractual obligations arising under the terms of their different policies should be honored if they continue to keep such insurance policies in force, by virtue of the payment of their insurance premiums.
In order for this expectation on the part of policyholders to have any hope of realization, it is necessary to sell that part of CLICO's insurance business relating to such policyholders' liabilities to one or more active insurance companies with the capability of successfully managing the assets and servicing the liabilities.
As he spoke of the imperative of economic and political union, Manning said economic union would bring the benefit of increased economic activity in the entire region - both in Trinidad and Tobago and in the countries of the Eastern Caribbean.
Unemployment in the last quarter of last year was 4.2 per cent in this country. He said with the economic downturn, unemployment was slightly higher now, between five and six per cent, "but far better than almost any other country in the Caribbean".
In St Vincent, unemployment was 18 per cent and in the bulk if the Eastern Caribbean it was between 15 and 20 per cent, he said. In terms of poverty index figures, it ranged between 20 and 37 per cent in the Eastern Caribbean, while it stood at 16 per cent in Trinidad and Tobago.
He said Trinidad and Tobago's public debt was 27.2 per cent of GDP.
"Aren't you happy about that?" he asked, provoking applause.
In St Vincent, the debt/GDP ratio was 67 per cent, St Lucia - 71 per cent, Barbados - 95 per cent, Dominica - just under 100, Grenada - just over 100, Antigua - 120, Jamaica - 130 and St Kitts/Nevis - 180, Manning said, the "oooohs" getting louder and louder with each figure.
In terms of reserves for imports, the situation was the same, with Bahamas having reserves for two months, Belize - 2.8 months, the Eastern Caribbean - 2.5 months, Guyana - 2.5 months, Jamaica - 2.3 months, while Trinidad and Tobago had a healthy foreign exchange reserves figure to cover 11.3 months of imports, he said.
He said Cabinet is being regularly briefed on plans to reintegrate these Guyanese into local society, and the government is also according top priority to claims by some that they are being unfairly targeted in an anti-Guyanese sweep there.
A “bit more delicate matter,” he said, is getting the Barbados Government to address claims by some Guyanese that they might be subject to “anti-Guyanese treatment” while going about their lawful business on the island.
He said President Bharrat Jagdeo has been assured by Barbados Prime Minister, David Thompson that these allegations, once brought to the attention of the authorities in Barbados, would be investigated and decisions made on the accuracy of the claims.
Leaders of the 15-member Caribbean Community are to have a special caucus on immigration tension within the grouping when they meet here next month.
Sources said current controversies surrounding intra-regional free movement of community nationals and claimed hostile treatment against ‘illegals’ in some jurisdictions have emerged as “a pressing matter” for urgent attention.
The sources said that with mounting criticisms over alleged hostile and degrading treatment of CARICOM nationals in Barbados, arrangements are being considered to start the four-day summit here with a special caucus of leaders on the morning of July 2, at which the problems and countries involved could be “candidly discussed.”
What is of equal importance for the current administration however is the need to address the cost of living which was identified as priority No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3.
The current water rate structure favours businesses over households.
A household that uses the magical 40 cubic metres per month pays a bill of about $93.88 - a cubic metre is about 220 gallons. On the other hand, there is a fixed rate for commercial usage of $2.91 per cubic metre, and so a business that uses 40 cubic metres of water has a bill of $116.40, a mere $23 more.
Based on the information provided at the back of the bill, if the Barbados Water Authority were to charge the household a fixed rate for using the 40 cubic metres instead of the three-tiered structure to recover the same $93.88, the rate would be $2.36 per cubic metre. The three-tiered system is, however, designed to help those at the bottom which is morally just and fair.
The debt of a financial institution that made bad investment decisions is no more in need of attention than the debt of the BWA which is providing a social good to all Barbadians.
The cost of water is an urgent problem which has to be addressed but, unfortunately, it requires an intellectual response because the issues are not salacious and cannot be solved by innuendo and invective; so they may not attract the attention they deserve.
There are issues on the water supply-side that have to be tackled systematically and scientifically over the medium term to the deal with the scarcity of water in Barbados. This is as crucial as the rate fixing and of course the two are related.
The six leaders, all of whom have recently commented publicly on immigration problems, are expected to be:
* The Bahamas' Hubert Ingraham, who has criticised his country's immigration service for discriminatory and hostile responses to Jamaican nationals;
* Trinidad and Tobago's Patrick Manning who, in speaking of his "awareness" of problems involving claimed "illegal" immigrants, stressed that routine deportation was not a preferred policy of his administration;
* Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines, who denounced specific cases of deportations from Barbados and warned against hostile acts that could "rend asunder" the regional integration movement;
* Barbados' David Thompson, who could either go on the offensive, or defensive, of his six-month amnesty policy on illegal CARICOM nationals, or on reports of continuing hostile and degrading treatment of CARICOM nationals being deported;
* Jamaica's Bruce Golding, who has been articulating his strong criticisms over denials of both free trade under the CARICOM Single Market and free movement of nationals; and
* Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, host and chairman of the summit. While denouncing reported "despicable acts" against Guyanese in Barbados, he said he was looking forward "to matured responses" to resolve the prevailing problems.
Failure to reach a consensus on the immigration problems could further diminish hopes for realisation of the CSME.
He said the developed world was not doing enough towards reducing the emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere that is at the core of the climate change battle.
“The whole idea is to make this work for our country.
This goes beyond a single government – it’s a long term vision that would outlast many, many governments and we all need to work at this because it can provide a whole range of opportunities for young people.
It would make that leap to our transformational issues because what we are doing is fixing up things – schools, roads, bridges, etc. We need now a new wave of infrastructure, new industries that can be catalysed by this process.” – President Jagdeo
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday announced that Guyana is working on a declaration it hopes Caribbean Community governments will endorse next month to push the developed world further on a new global climate change regime that will benefit other countries.
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"Over the course of the last few weeks, I have had a number of requests from regional journalists asking for comment on what they view as an anti-Caribbean stance on the part of the Barbados Government. Equally, I have had almost a daily set of complaints regarding the manner in which people have been treated since the Immigration Policy Statement by the Prime Minister.
I have refused to give these interviews because I believe that anything I have to say should be said to Barbadians in Barbados first.
A Government is entitled to implement strong policies. These policies, however, must be applied consistently, fairly and humanely. Moreover, for a country where people’s standard of living depends on people visiting our shores, any reputation of Barbados being inhospitable to visitors will affect our economy.
It is critical that the Barbados Government move to correct the very unfortunate reputation, which Barbados is rapidly developing in recent weeks.
A hostile environment for immigrants must not become an unwelcome environment for Caribbean visitors. The focus must be simply on those who have arrived and who have never been documented. We repeat our call for a more humane amnesty of 5 years, as very few people will benefit from an 11 year, 11 month Amnesty.
Further, that when people are asked to leave that they are given the time to pack up their belongings and leave in a manner that does not reduce them to feeling like criminals.
Above all else, Prime Minister Thompson, as lead Prime Minister for the CSME, must move to settle the Contingent Rights as a matter of urgency. It is the uncertainty as to what social services persons will be entitled to receive when they move to live in another country that has driven many of the legitimate concerns expressed by Barbadians and others in the region. Europe has already successfully achieved this.
He was deported along with eight other Guyanese on Sunday morning, some 48 hours after they were picked up by the authorities- many believed to have been rounded up from an area populated with locals within the Christ Church parish. Before his departure from the island, he recalled that another batch of Guyanese was sent home on an earlier flight, among them a woman who was six months pregnant.
“Guyanese are being taken from their homes and deported…some of us getting a knock on the door like me and other times they just showing up, marching in people’s home and taking you if you have no papers to show”, the man told Stabroek News yesterday.
“When I went outside to join the bus to go to the airport it was so full I had to travel in the immigration vehicle…they had to raid several homes that morning”, he added.
Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson recently denied knowledge of raids on the homes of Guyanese living on the island, as disclosed by President Bharrat Jagdeo last week. The President said he got the assurance from Thompson when Caricom Heads met last month in Trinidad.
Further, he explained that he raised concerns about the allegations that the homes of Guyanese were being raided as well as some of them being taken off buses and deported. “He said he didn’t know of any such cases and that that is not the intention of his government,” Jagdeo was quoted as saying on Thursday last.
Perhaps in our search for regional integration and unity we could draw inspiration from Rabindranath Tagore: “I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.”
It is understandable that some be peeved because of the treatment Guyanese nationals receive in some CARICOM member states but one must not be carried away with isolated cases and emotions. Of course these problems must be addressed but we should not allow them to become obstacles in the bigger picture of regional integration and Caribbean unity.
The global reality and challenges necessitate that countries band themselves in blocs, the larger countries recognising the realities are doing so and the smaller and the more vulnerable ones have a much greater need to band together to ride over the waves of globalisation and liberalisalisation of trade. At the moment there is no route other than a collective one in meeting the challenges of today’s world. No small and vulnerable state has the capacity to go it alone. This is inescapable fact we must all recognise and acknowledge.
In any unit or organisation internal differences among members are inevitable. In fact one philosopher said contradictions are the basis of development so what is more important is the manner and timeliness in which these differences among member states are resolved.
Perhaps it is time that CARICOM revisit the mechanisms it has in place to resolve internal differences to determine whether they are adequate and effective.
A once socialist democratic party that strangely abandons the notion of subsidies as a tool in public policy is now willing to give potential tourists to Barbados a refund of $200 per day if the weather is not perfect; that is, if more than quarter-inch of rain falls on any given day and/or if the temperature drops below 78° Fahrenheit (25.5° Celsius).
The intention/purpose of the policy is to bring more tourists who otherwise would not come because they fear not having all perfect days on their vacation, as defined by Barbados' tourism officials. Therefore for the policy to be effective, there must be imperfect days such that the potential tourists receive some kind of discount.
If the days are all perfect then the promotion did not achieve its objective, that is to compensate all tourists for imperfect days as defined by local officials.
Based on past rainfall data, it ought not to be too difficult to determine on average the number of days between July and December on which it may rain and the amount, such that the cost of the programme may be estimated up front.
According to my research on 2008, the average number of long-stay tourists was 10 478 per day, between July and December, which accounted for roughly 182 days of the year. Therefore the "perfect weather guarantee" would cost the taxpayers over $2 million per day once the country gets more than the magical quarter-inch of rain.
Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding had also questioned elements of the Caricom integration process recently.
Jagdeo said that in spite of the “unprecedented challenges”, which he opined were largely induced by the recent economic crisis, regional integration “was as strong as ever before”. He stated that in his interactions with fellow Heads, he sensed a deep desire from them to work together to achieve the objectives of the integration movement. This objective was to create a better life for the Caribbean people.
He said that inevitably there would be differences of opinions between countries, but added that the differences of opinion on specific issues should not be seen as the disintegration of the integration movement.
Carrington endorsed the statements of President Jagdeo. The Secretary-General said that the role to regional integration was a challenging one. “Integration is not for the faint of heart, it is not a Sunday school process. It is difficult, it has its bumps and it has its smooth freeways.”
He also suggested that the changes in leadership in the region have had an impact on the entire process. He said that since 2005, ten of the 15 Caricom Heads of State have been changed. “Change of leadership has implications for the pace of the movement,” he said.
A TRADE war looms within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as Jamaica's Industry, Investment and Commerce minister, Karl Samuda, has issued an ultimatum to member states he believes have been antagonistic towards the country's products and nationals.
The senior Cabinet minister threatened retaliation if several of Jamaica's CARICOM neighbours did not immediately abort what he described as a hostile trade posture towards Jamaica.
While these territories were specifically fingered by Samuda for their poor treatment of Jamaican products and nationals, respectively, the senior Cabinet minister intimated that other members of the regional trading bloc were also guilty of trade transgressions against Jamaica.
Duprey, 75, is said to have officially tendered his resignation as chairman of CL Financial on the signing of the agreement which is meant to save the group from bankruptcy.
Duprey has been replaced by Government appointee, Euric Bobb, a former Central Bank governor, who is currently chairman of Clico, a CL Financial subsidiary.
Carballo, who also remains as chief financial officer, British QC Andrew Mitchell and Steve Castagne, the founder and chairman of brokers M&M Insurance Services Ltd.
Government has full control of the board with four directors: Bobb, former Citibank managing director Steve Bideshi (deputy chairman); Caribbean Airlines board member Shaffeek Sultan Khan and Ministry of Finance permanent secretary Alison Lewis. Apart from Duprey, there was also no room on the board for his cousin Roger Duprey, who has been replaced as a director. Also to be removed are Clinton Rambaransingh and Leroy Parris.
With Government in control of CL Financial, it means that all of the group’s subsidiaries fall under their purview, including Angostura, Home Construction Limited, Lascelles, the rum company acquired by Angostura in Jamaica, Caridoc in Chaguaramas as well as the group’s real estate holdings in Miami and Clico Holdings in Barbados.
The order, which was granted in an ex parte application by Senior Counsel Ashton Chase on Thursday, also allows for proceeds from the sales to be put away to meet current and future obligations of the cash-strapped insurance company.
The permission to sell off CLICO’s assets had been long sought by then Judicial Manager, Maria van Beek, who recently advised in a report to the court that the company is now in a state where it is to be wound up, adding that “liquidation of the company may be regarded as the option most advantageous to the general interests of the policy holders”.
“Since the Estimates Debate and then again in the Budget Debate last month, the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Opposition expressed its concerns regarding both the rapid fall in Barbados’ international reserves as well as the Government’s deteriorating fiscal position,” she said in a Press statement.
“We indicated then that we also do not accept that the Government’s revenue targets for this year are realistic and that this will only further compound an already challenging situation. On all counts, the Prime Minister dismissed our concerns out of hand.”
“It is critical that the Prime Minister level with the Barbadian public and indicate, with clarity, what the Government will do urgently to stabilise the very difficult situation confronting the country and what it expects of the other partners and ordinary citizens,” she said.
“Any further downgrade will threaten our investment grade status. This must be strenuously avoided, as it will make any attempt to borrow on the international capital markets both more difficult and certainly far more expensive.”
“The BLP Opposition repeats its call made in the Budget Reply for Government to urgently establish a Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs so that the BLP and members of both Houses may legitimately contribute to the national stabalisation efforts which are now most pressing,” she said.
“We must act now to protect Barbadians.”
"If that is the case let us revisit the treaty," he argued.
IN the wake of non-tariff barriers recently imposed on the export of Jamaican patties to Trinidad, Prime Minister Bruce Golding Monday commented that problems were also being encountered between Caribbean states in the movement of people.
"It's not just in trade," Golding said at the launch of National Export month held by the JEA at the Knutsford Court hotel in Kingston. "We are also having difficulty in the movement of people."
The prime minister argued that under the treaty of Chaguaramas, Caricom countries were supposed to open their immigration doors to all Caribbean nationals this year.
"So long as you are a Caribbean national you are supposed to move freely throughout the region," Golding said, adding that goods were supposed to be traded freely "from a long time ago".
"That has not been happening," he remarked.
Van Beek also commented on the general status of the insurance company saying that it has suffered a significant decline in business over the last two months and that, “it is highly unlikely that the company will be able to restore the confidence of the public in the foreseeable future. “
She said too that allowing the company to continue in operation will further deplete the resources available to settle its liabilities, adding that “liquidation of the company may be regarded as the option most advantageous to the general interests of the policy holders”.
Sources close to the discussions have suggested that beleaguered CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey will step down as chairman as Government continues its billion-dollar rescue of the insurance and real estate conglomerate.
Sources have also suggested that Group Finance Director Michael Carballo will remain as a director while current directors introduced by Government to operate CL subsidiary CLICO will also be retained to act as directors at CL Financial.
Former Central Bank governor Euric Bobb and former CLICO and British American executive Claude Musaib-Ali are leading the charge on behalf of the State to repair the damage at CLICO.
Operating in the capacity of Judicial Manager of Clico, van Beek called on Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang in an affidavit in report submitted late last month to grant the winding-up order. This has come nearly three months after the company was placed under judicial management.
She said such further action is “inevitable”, and restated a previous request for the court to permit an order for sale of the businesses.
In her report on Clico (Guyana), which she presented to the High Court in April, van Beek had said “the directors and management of the company operated without a basic understanding of managing an insurance business or pursued a strategy that has resulted in significant losses to the company.”
The recent report by van Beek calling for liquidation comes even as Clico’s lawyers are in the High Court challenging a possible winding-up order.
Her Majesty will deliver the keynote address at the CHOGM’s opening ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port-of-Spain on November 27.
The Government is moving to replace the CL board reportedly in accordance with an agreement made with Duprey to prevent the liquidation of the conglomerate. CL Financial’s minority shareholders have, however, opposed this agreement.
The current CL Financial’s board members include: Duprey (chairman), Michael Carballo, Clinton Rambaransingh and Leroy Parris.
It is understood that Duprey is strongly backing several contenders including Mitchell. The Duprey backed nominees also included Carballo, the group’s chief financial officer, whom Duprey hopes to see remain on board.
It is understood that the Government is looking to appoint at least three members to the board including a chairman.
The resignation came as Labour digested the worst electoral results in its history after winning just 15 per cent of the vote in the European elections, trailing in third behind the Conservatives and the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
As well as completing his reshuffle, Mr Brown was also preparing for a meeting tonight with members of the parliamentary Labour Party, where backbenchers will get their first real chance to address their complaints to him.
That meeting will take place against the backdrop of an electoral rout in which Labour was beaten in traditional strongholds across the country. It was even beaten into second place in Wales, the first time Labour had lost the popular vote there since 1918 and also came second in Scotland, behind the SNP.
Among the fringe parties making gains was the British National Party (BNP), which won its first two parliamentary seats, including one for the party's leader Nick Griffin in the North West of England
CLICO's insurance agents, the Sunday Express was told, were rewarded with astronomical commissions to push the annuities which offered a 30 per cent return every year, far exceeding that offered by other insurance companies.
Lindquist's preliminary findings have also found that CL Financial purchased Jamaican rum producer Appleton for US$370 million, some US$150 million more than its original selling price.
Sources said that for former CL Financial executive chairman Duprey and his team of his advisers, signing off on the new agreement was an about turn for them as they dropped their objections to several clauses, including the right of the State to pursue criminal investigations in the event wrongdoing was uncovered.
CL Financial's attempt to sell its 51 per cent interest in Clico Energy to Proman AG sparked the court action initiated by the Central Bank on Carnival Sunday (February 22), when the Central Bank obtained an injunction preventing Duprey from disposing of any CLICO-owned assets.
In a previous Sunday Express report, sources claimed that the $300 million sale price was substantially less than the book value of the shares which are owned by CL Financial (34 per cent) and the insurance company, CLICO, 17 per cent.
Prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, had, earlier, lost no time in being the first Head of Government of the region to strongly criticise what he viewed as a myopic and dangerous approach to uprooting claimed undocumented CARICOM nationals. This development, he warned, could "rend asunder" the regional integration movement.
Prime minister of The Bahamas, Hubert Ingraham, had a warning of his own. It was directed at personnel of his country's immigration service for what he condemned as "offensive behaviour" towards Jamaicans on arrival in The Bahamas.
In Port-of-Spain, Prime Minister Patrick Manning last Sunday distanced his government from any hostile treatment of undocumented CARICOM nationals stating that it had a "soft" approach in dealing with such an issue and was not in the habit of "deportations".
In his intervention earlier, Girvan maintained there was an urgent need for a comprehensive management system to deal with the problem affecting CARICOM migrants.
Carpenter, whose mother is a Duprey, was yesterday appointed interim chairman and spokesman for the newly-formed CL Financial Shareholders Association at a meeting at the Country Club, Maraval.
Shareholders have a choice. It’s either this agreement and having an opportunity for their shares to be worth something in the future or allow the group to go into insolvency which would allow the creditors to take everything,” the CL Financial director said. He said when a company is in crisis, directors are supposed to act in the best interest of the company “and this is a clear instance of directors and Government acting in good faith and in the best interest of the company and ultimately the shareholders.” CL Financial is about to send out notices of an extraordinary general meeting of the company at the end of June.
At that meeting, Duprey will try to get the minority shareholders of CL Financial to vote for the agreement with the Government.
WASHINGTON — As Representative John M. McHugh of New York began planning his retirement from the House after being picked to be the new secretary of the Army, a chunk of Republican morale prepared to depart with him.
In picking Republicans like Mr. McHugh for top jobs, the Obama administration says it is assembling a coalition government that welcomes qualified members of the opposition. It gives the White House a claim to bipartisanship despite continuing clashes with Republican Congressional leaders.
But the political benefits are an equally strong incentive. Remaining Republican colleagues become discouraged and feel further isolated in the minority. Political vacancies are created. And Republicans can be painted as being hostile to more moderate Republicans or those willing to engage the Democratic administration.
In embracing select Republicans, the Obama administration — notably Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff — seems to be applying this maxim: Hug them until it hurts.
“This Machiavellian strategy is pure Rahm,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and former top House aide. “It is brilliant and it is painful for Republicans.”
The cash-flow troubles of Colonial Life Insurance Company (Clico) and some of the CL Financial Group’s other subsidiaries may still pose a threat to the economic stability of the Caribbean.
Regional economist Sir Ronald Sanders issued this warning when he addressed the opening of a Commonwealth Caribbean Media Workshop at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain yesterday. Sanders’ warning came as Government and CL Financial engaged in talks behind the scenes to prevent such a threat from becoming a reality.
Sanders said while the Caribbean has undoubtedly been hit hard by the world financial crisis, it has had to deal with the “collapse of CL Financial holdings” on the domestic front. “For some people there is a fear of loss of insurance annuities, long term savings and insurance coverage.
This was the disclosure made by Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams at the opening of a Commonwealth Caribbean Business Media Workshop at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain. Trinidad and Tobago is not on that list.
Grenada has been in an IMF poverty reduction programme over the last four years, receiving US$16 million in aid; Jamaica is talking with the IMF to extend its current arrangement with the institution; Guyana has come out of an IMF programme and Barbados is trying to raise between US$100 million and US$150 million on this country’s stock markets to avoid going to the IMF.
In an oral judgment in chamber court yesterday, Justice Judith Jones ruled that Central Bank cannot use information on the group outside of the present case, which deals with the operations of the financially-strapped company.
Jones ordered that the injunctions be continued:
• CL Financial be restrained from dealing with/or selling, assigning, mortgaging, transferring, divesting, or diminishing the value of the assets of Clico held by the group, wherever located.
• A mandatory order is granted against CL Financial to disclose to the Inspector of Financial Institutions, or his designated officer, the identity and location of all of the assets of Clico in and out of the jurisdiction of T&T and to provide a sworn affidavit to the chief executive officer or chairman of CL Financial.
• A mandatory order to CL Financial to disclose and make full disclosure to the Central Bank of all information relevant to the existence of any interest held in Clico, whether it was under the control of individual members of its board of directors, senior management and staff, and under the control of any of its subsidiaries or affiliated companies.
Sources said with Central Bank taking over key positions, the bank will have a greater say in the way the conglomerate is run and how its assets would be disposed of.
Sources have pointed out that Government wants CL Financial chairman Duprey to step down to give direct access to conglomerate. Government has appointed for
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