One of the things I love about blogging is that when ordinary folks have something to say that makes sense, it can attract the attention of world leaders in practically any endeavour. I have no doubt that right now an internet bot is picking up the phrase “World Bank President Robert Zoellick” on our friend Amit’s Pull! Push! blog. There is just a chance that Amit’s article will be laid on Zoellick’s desk tomorrow morning.
Don’t laugh too much about that statement because just about anybody who is anybody these days has someone on their staff searching the internet for articles about them.
Anyway, I hope Mr. Zoellick heads over to our friend’s blog because what Amit says makes some sense.
Pull! Push! The World Bank Meets Wall Street
We’ve also added Pull! Push! to our sidebar because we think that Amit will continue to grow his readership with insightful articles like his current piece.
7 Comments
September 5, 2007 at 4:31 am
Standard and Poor who last year gave Barbados a reasonably good economic assessment to the astonishment of anyone who really knows the sad state of affairs of the Nation, just did some housecleaning of its executives who were involved in the subprime lending scandal.
The comments by some of the bloggers at BFP suggested that these supposed rating institutions are not impartial and are in fact in the pocket of large corporate security companies who make fees and will leave their clients holding the bag when the inevitable happens.
Loaning any person, corporation or government 100% financing when they have no way to pay it back is criminal and tantamount to watching a train crash.
To bring this same sort of amoral corporate behaviour to the World Bank does not bode well for the future.
Wolfowitz is starting to look good if you can believe it.
September 5, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I like the idea mooted by Mr Zoellick that Caribbean countries who pooled their hurricane insurance risks saved 40% on their premiums.
It would be interesting to know which countries these were, for a start.
I have always suspected that the re-insurance market on which insurance companies in Barbados depend tends to lump us all into the same basket so that Peter ends up paying for Paul.
If one were to do a historical track of hurricanes it is likely that the USA is likely to be the place where most hurricane damage is done, because most of them end up in that area.
Caribbean countries are much smaller targets, and with the exception of Cuba, I would guess that no one island country gets hit more than once in eight years on average. Barbados, of course, has been much luckier than that.
It would be interesting to see the outcome of a computer model based on pooled risks to see whether the saving of 40% would have been achieved over the last 25 years.
If so, there would be a strong argument for giving it a try. The main advantage would be to leave out the USA who drain the insurance pool proportionately more than any other entity.
September 6, 2007 at 10:43 am
” From what little I know sub-prime lending was a type of lending geared towards borrowers who had poor credit histories and found themselves in murky financial situations ………. Despite these factors lending still occurred. This was good for the borrowers and good for the lenders. However, it appears that this fell apart around July 2007, during the sub-prime mortgage financial crisis where (among other things) home owners failed to meet their financial commitments and foreclosures ran rampant.” Taken from Amit’s Pull!! Push blog.
A fairly well written and researched article by Amit, with a good academic style and lucid presentation. Also, this article points to some very serious and fundamental issues about how our Barbadian financial system has been influenced and structured over the years based on Western orthodoxical and canonical thinking, a thinking which essentially, however, has NOT, does NOT , and will NOT, unless it is changed for the better, bode or augur well for us as a so-called developing country. That it can be seen that we in Barbados and in other so-called developing countries continue unwisely with the practicing and rehashing of such Western-based financial and economic thinking, is synonymous with a vicious neo-colonial mentality being pervasive in Barbados and in other so-called developing countries.
That is why the People’s Democratic Congress must be in the forefront of urging national political action against the nefariousness of such a mentality, such practices, the kinds of destructive effects such a mentality and practices have had on the lives of the masses and middle classes in Barbados, and must in the forefront of enlightening Barbadians about the kind of financial architecture that needs to be put in place to make living and doing business far better for us in Barbados and across other developing countries. Take for instance, the henious practice of banks and other financial institutions in Barbados charging Barbadians for use of THEIR OWN money/value vis-a-vis Interest Rates, and another sickening instance, Barbadians having so-called borrowed THEIR OWN money/value having to repay it re mortgages and other oppressive financial instruments.
A PDC Government shall surely Abolish Interest Rates, Make Institutional Loans for Productive (investment) purposes Non-Repayable, Abolish Mortgages, among other things for the further development of this country.
September 6, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Hi All,
I recall reading somewhere (via the blogs, newspapers…) that our national debt was at around $4bil BDS (correct me if I’m wrong please), this figure compromised both external and internal debts. Is this figure reasonably accurate, at least for the lay person?
September 6, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Well Amit……..I must ADMIT that the Economic and Financial wizardry of Owen Arthur and Clyde Asscoll has indeed pushed the National Debt to such heights !
Funny enough, when Asscoll was a DEE….he said the NATIONAL DEBT was too high !
While Owen said the NATIONAL DEBT was small / manageable !
Now that Asscoll is a BEE……he says the NATIONAL DEBT is good and we need to produce more children/ increase the poulation !
While Owen now tells the country the NATIONAL DEBT is too high and his government will not borrow any money for the next 5 years !
This level of Economic and Financial wizardry occurs when……..you cross – breed a JACKASS and a MULE !
September 6, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Amit
September 6th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Hi All,
I recall reading somewhere (via the blogs, newspapers…) that our national debt was at around $4bil BDS (correct me if I’m wrong please), this figure compromised both external and internal debts. Is this figure reasonably accurate, at least for the lay person?
**************************************************
Well Amit……..I must ADMIT that the Economic and Financial wizardry of Owen Arthur and Clyde Asscoll has indeed pushed the National Debt to such heights !
Funny enough, when Asscoll was a DEE….he said the NATIONAL DEBT was too high !
While Owen said the NATIONAL DEBT was small / manageable !
Now that Asscoll is a BEE……he says the NATIONAL DEBT is good and we need to produce more children/ increase the poulation !
While Owen now tells the country the NATIONAL DEBT is too high and his government will not borrow any money for the next 5 years !
This level of Economic and Financial wizardry ONLY occurs when……..you cross – breed a JACKASS and a MULE !
September 7, 2007 at 2:58 am
Hi All,
Okay, I found one or two rough figures for the national debt and have used them for my latest article on my blog.
Thanks,
Amit.