Tag Archives: Heritage and Stabilisation Fund

“Grave fiscal irresponsibility!” was former Central Bank governor Jwala Rambarran’s characterization of the announcement of a US$900 million loss by the Heritage Stabilisation Fund (HSF). Invoking a dog whistle, he continued by saying that this spoke to the “incompetence of the Board”. Roodal Moonilal reminded us of Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissesar’s …

All Caribbean children (from Jamaica to Guyana) learned about Brer Anansi. Brer Anansi is one of the most significant characters in Caribbean folklore.  ‘He is admirably clever as he is greedy, selfish and reckless. In a place where there are no standards and anything goes, Anansi holds a cherished place …

This week’s blackout taught us a great lesson: the street windscreen wiper boys at the West Mall traffic lights are human! Not only are they human and not freaks intent on mischief, but they are also brave entrepreneurs. Who would have thought?  When anxiety levels were rising, they, who reportedly live …

The budget presented by the Honourable Colm Imbert, minister of finance in the current PNM administration, is his seventh such offering. Not for the first time, he has offered the country a deficit budget, to the tune of $TT9.096 billion, resulting from expenditure in the sum of $TT52.429b and revenue …

“[…] No, no—WASA should not and cannot be privatised! There are some entities which are what you call in economics, natural monopolies. For an economy like Trinidad and Tobago, the production of water is a natural monopoly and the state should do it. “[…] We are going to give WASA …

“[…] Non-energy revenues have fallen in 2020-2021 and for next fiscal, 2021-2022, it is going to be worse—partly because people pay taxes on the previous year’s numbers and partly because the recovery is going to be slower than expected because of the state of emergency and the impact of the …

“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by our responsibility for our future.” — George Bernard Shaw. To accept the virus-induced lockdown was, for the most part, a no-brainer. To exit is not. Indeed, the public comments of the major business organisations show us more …

Over the weekend of 15 March 2020, the Minister of Labour pronounced on the need to implement Pandemic Leave in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. To date, approximately one month later, we are yet to see what is the policy for Pandemic Leave, which has become more relevant now than …

“So we can assume that the restrictions now in place worldwide will only be lifted gradually over the next 12 months. Some semblance of normalcy will not return until the middle of 2021. “There is no way that the private sector and the government can carry the labour force for …

“[…] Ultimately policy is made by politicians who of course, may have other considerations which influence their decisions. However, just as it would be folly for politicians to ignore the advice of medical professionals in dealing with the coronavirus public health crisis, so too the laws of Economics are inexorable. …

“Thank God for decisions made to stimulate drilling […] by the Kamla Persad- Bissessar government… Instead of benefitting from flowing gas today, we might well have been on our knees, eating grass.” (Dr Bhoe Tewarie, Trinidad Express, 13 March.) An astounding statement with subtexts! What exactly is he saying and …

An Economist article (2011) defined ‘elites’ as people who shape the world without anyone noticing. The rich and powerful leverage their privileged status to exercise decisive control over the way society is organised and developed. I am thankful that Gregory Aboud has opened this discussion. While he did not define …