In August 1959, at the peak of his fame, Miles Davis was taking a break from a recording which he was making downstairs an equally famous club called Birdland Jazz Club. He was on the pavement when a white policeman told him to move on. “Move on for what? I …
Read More »MSJ: Gov’t ‘recovery team’ lacks creative minds; NJAC: ‘Human factor’, ‘small business’ missing
MSJ: “Regrettably, the composition of the ‘Recovery Team’ does not suggest that the opportunity to bring about solutions to these problems will be seized. The MSJ does not have any problem with the bona fides of any member of the Recovery Team. The issue is that of balance. “It is …
Read More »Dr Farrell: Gov’t must reform labour market NOW, as rising unemployment meets global pandemic
“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 …
Read More »Dr Farrell: Covid-19 and falling oil and gas prices made perfect storm; and T&T’s not ready
“[…] 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. …
Read More »Vidale: Will vulnerable jobs remain after pandemic? Could digitisation ‘recolonise’ our economy?
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the WTO was set to host its 12th ministerial from 8-11 June 2020, in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The negotiation would establish new trade rules for the new global digital economy. I want to focus on two key aspects of the impact of digitisation. First is the …
Read More »Noble: The poor are more vulnerable to Covid-19; who will help them?
The pictures of shoppers at a leading membership warehouse store that emerged on social media capture the social divide in our society. Those fortunate ones can go mid-morning to stock up whatever is needed to prepare for the eventualities while others are tied to their place of work and unable …
Read More »PM condemns Persad-Bissessar for urging Ghana to ignore his energy advice
“What should be of great concern to all the decent right-thinking citizens of Trinidad and Tobago is whether there is no limit beneath which some persons not sink in their quest for political power even if it means destroying the wider national interest. “This is a serious question for the …
Read More »Pandemic leave, child care and remote work possibilities: Labour Minister issues guidelines
Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus issued guidelines today to employers, unions and employees designed to deal with the Covid-19 virus and ‘mitigate the obvious personal and family logistical inconveniences and the consequential significant workplace adjustments which are expected to be faced, as a result of the inevitable decision which had to …
Read More »Noble: Sunshine the best disinfectant: why churches must open their books
US Justice Louis Brandeis, in his book Other People’s Money, explained: “Sunshine is said to be the best of disinfectants.” He leveraged the view that ‘public opinion … is full of sunlight … selfishness, injustice, cruelty, tricks and jobs of all sorts shun the light’. This is appropriate to the …
Read More »Baptiste-Primus: NEDCO’s Business Accelerator encourages new type of entrepreneur
“Competitiveness will depend, to a large extent, on the ability of firms and our people to innovate. We need to encourage a new kind of entrepreneur in Trinidad and Tobago—resourceful individuals who can draw from their creative genius and give birth to new products and services and rather than merely …
Read More »Noble: The ‘underbanked’ and the $100 bill; the real solution is accessible electronic banking for all
Much of the discussion about the introduction of the polymer $100 bill conflates the evil of ‘dark’ money with persons who have been shut out of the banking system. The persons who deal in ‘dark’ money have self-selected to operate outside the system; but there are those who are unable …
Read More »Dear Editor: Best is wrong, stats suggest Kamla CAN deliver promised 50,000 jobs to T&T
“This is not a personal attack on my erstwhile journalist/teacher friend, Earl [Best]. It is meant as a critique of his un-researched commentary. “From what one can discern, Earl has an obvious personal issue with Kamla’s declared intent on creating 50,000 jobs, if she becomes PM. On the surface, one …
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