by | December 29, 2011 · 4:10 am

How the DLP and BLP plunged your children into debt

What Owen Arthur, David Thompson and Freudel Stuart did to you and your children is pretty well as simple as the scenario shown in this excellent little satirical short.

16 Comments

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16 responses to “How the DLP and BLP plunged your children into debt”

  1. Rastaman
    December 30, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    They do not have to worry.It is not their money they are spending.

  2. 183
    December 30, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    All countries has to be in debt to progress.Check bim is d most advance in the caribbean.

  3. Reasonable Man
    December 30, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    183 said “All countries has to be in debt to progress.Check bim is d most advance in the caribbean.”

    I presume the writer meant to say “All countries have to be in debt to progress. Barbados may be in debt but it is the most advanced country in the Caribbean.” It appears that the writer was hampered by the substandard education they received in “Bim”.

    We keep saying that we are the “most advanced” country in the Caribbean, but I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean anymore. We don’t look like the “most advanced” country in the Caribbean. Our successful financial institutions are mostly offshore branches of European and North American banks. Half-finished and abandoned building projects small and large dot our landscape. Our hospital is, in a word, disgusting. Those who can afford to travel to Miami for serious medical care do so.

    We have zero high tech industries and it is acknowledged near and far that our population has a deplorable work ethic and poor productivity. Our tourism industry is suffering for many reasons but one of our most fundamental flaws is that half the tourism industry workers don’t know what it is to smile and at least act like they appreciate visitors to Barbados.

    For 20 years we have been told by our political leaders that we are “the most advanced nation in the Caribbean” and many like 183 believe that to be true as an article of faith without considering what it really means.

    Unfortunately the world is not as impressed as we are with the statements of our politicians. Foreigners tend to see us as we really are.

    Oh dear!

  4. Gravity
    December 30, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    Governments don’t create wealth. At best governments redistribute wealth to those that have little or none.

    Many governments just print money and distribute this to their friends without any trickle down, who immediately transfer it offshore because they are illegally hiding it or have no faith in their own economy and want those monies in more secure currencies.

    New debt only works if it is effectively and actually creating new business and real growth to offset the existing non performing debt.

    What examples of real growth or progress exist in Barbados by the increase of this additional debt?

    The Emperor has no clothes and he is hurtling towards the earth at an accelerating rate. The fall will not hurt the Emperor because he will live by falling on the bodies of over taxed taxpayer and their children.

    The lie of debt and progress without accountability and results is just that.

    No Transparency and Accountability Legislation means more of the same
    nonsense.

    ONE BIG DELUSIONAL LIE!

  5. Whywunnamustknow
    December 30, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    I wish people would actually learn a bit about economics before they write in this way about debt. Public debt is a critical part of all civilised societies, it is how labour and resources in the present are mobilised to make the future possible. Barbados’s public debt has bought the best health and education system of any third world country, a life expectancy for poor people higher than than like-for-like in terms of race and social class than the United States and Britain, an infant mortality rate for poor black children which again is almost the best in the world (only Cuba is better), a quality of roads, air, sea, and telecommunications infrastructure which make Barbados into the natural centre for all transnational activity in the Eastern Caribbean. Clean water, electricity, schools, and hospitals, that is part of the common wealth. And do not believe anyone who says “governments do not create wealth”, without the social conditions created by governments, we can call it civilisation, no private entity can have economic activity. Do not believe the Thatcher/Reagan/neoliberal nonsense which seeks to attack the central role of government in making economy and society work. Walk good my friends, there is some dangerous ignorance about.

  6. Crazy Stupid Us
    December 30, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    I think this blog is DEAD and should be closed. It is seving no useful purpose so can Allerd QC make the necessary arrangements to pull it offline?

  7. wizard
    December 30, 2011 at 6:44 pm

    This BFP site lost its magic right after Jerome Hinds was banned from contributing here.

    He/she used to have this site hot !

  8. Nationalist brainwashing.....
    December 30, 2011 at 7:20 pm

    ….got most Bajans patting dey-self on the back, as they have been for the past 20 yrs!!
    It still hasn’t quite sunk in that we are now past our Best by: date.

    I haven’t been called out to work since about Sept.
    and 2012 looks to be a mere continuation of 2011.

    I say zip happens in the Barbados economy until 2013
    so wunnuh try en hold strain, yuh heer?

  9. BFP
    December 31, 2011 at 11:34 am

    wizard: Hello Jerome. I can’t remember why we banned you. Maybe Marcus remembers. We’ve given everyone a fresh start, so welcome back for now. Go ahead and post in your own name or whatever you like. Same rules apply. We’ll see how we all get along.

    Clive

  10. BFP
    December 31, 2011 at 11:36 am

    Hi Crazy Stupid Us

    2 million visitors a year is doing fine, thank you. Besides… there’s an election coming and we’re about to declare our support for one side. This should be interesting!

  11. Green Monkey
    December 31, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    @BFP
    Could you check for a post I made on this thread early Sat morning around 1:20am that disappeared after I hit the “Post Comment” button. It’s a comment on the relationship between debt and the money supply.
    Thanks

  12. watcher
    January 1, 2012 at 5:37 pm

    There are always issues when a fixed currency country incurrs debt and expenditures that are in a free trading currency such as the US$. In Barbaods it is all about foreign exchange reserves. The reservers are covering about 3 months worth of imports but if you subtract the US$ loans from the reserves you will see that the country is headed for deep deep trouble. Debit in fixed currency countries like Barbados can be sustained so long as the dollars printed can purchase all local made goods and rely on no importation. If the foreign exchange reserves drop and can’t handle the import bill, where will the foreign exchange come from to pay for things? Can the tourism product recover quick enough to handle this or will it be necessary to get a bail out from the IMF. When money is borrowed, people expect to get repaid and if you try to repay them with money that is valued as “junk bond”, which is the international definition of the value of the Barbados dollar, you might just be forced into devaluation or worse yet, a free trading dollar. If that happens that is when we will find out Barbados is the Greece of the Carib……seems to me the Greeks once were at the top of the food change re living standards. It has all changed rather quickly. Mostly all caused by debt incurred to support a lifestyle that was not sustainable

  13. Britty Brat
    January 1, 2012 at 6:53 pm

    @ Reasonable Man

    ….It appears that the writer was hampered by the substandard education they received in “Bim”. …

    You were ALSO hampered by the substandard education: ” the writer” you referred to is SINGULAR, the “they” you referred to is “PLURAL”

    Spit in d sky, it fall in yuh eye.

  14. Green Monkey
    January 1, 2012 at 8:25 pm

    Why is the world “drowning in debt”?

    From zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-world-drowning-debt-and-europe-laces-concrete-boots:

    The world’s major economies are drowning in debt–Europe, the U.S., Japan, China. We all know the U.S. has tried to save its drowning economy by bailing out the parasite which is dragging it to Davy Jones Locker–the banking/financial sector– and by borrowing and squandering $6 trillion in new Federal debt and buying toxic debt with $2 trillion whisked into existance on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet.

    What is the impetus behind the explosion in debt? Is it simply a matter of people and governments getting too complacent, lazy and greedy for their own good, or is there another underlying impetus related to our debt based monetary systems and the need for economic growth which in effect leads to ever increasing debt loads?

    Check out the video Money As Debt and the sequel Money as Debt II for a fuller explanation of the debt/money connection and fractional reserve banking. You can access them here:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/compelled2283#g/p

  15. Whywunnamustknow
    January 2, 2012 at 11:34 am

    Krugman deals with the matter simply and clearly:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/opinion/krugman-nobody-understands-debt.html?_r=1

    “Watcher” your points are well made, but the issue of the foreign exchange reserves should be distinguished from the question of the national debt. A large part of the national debt of BDS is held locally, in fact is part of the capital structure of the National Insurance scheme– debt in Greece and Spain are problems because the bondholders are foreign and thus are in a position to sell. Barbados is more like Japan and Italy , where the bondholders are local, so that much higher levels of debt are sustainable. There is however no doubt that without public debt Barbados would be what it was in 1966, that is to say a place where the majority of the population lived very hard and shorter lives than they do today.

  16. watcher
    January 2, 2012 at 8:39 pm

    @Whywunnamustknow

    the problem with Barbaods debt is that when the debt is incurred there is a natural outflow in foreign currency becasue just about everything consumed on the island is imported. If the money related to the debt were put in the bank it would not matter, but the money is not put into the bank, it is spent. No matter who recevies the money it gets spent, and a large amount of that money is spent on imported things whether they be food, cars, computers, gasoline or building materials. Becasue the Barbados dollar has no free trade market, it is worthless outside of the island. So we can’t pay for all of those imported things with Barbados dollars. We have to generate the dollars to pay for these things by generating foreign exchange. When we no longer have enough foreign exchange being generated to pay the import bill, all items imported will have to be cut back on. The alternative to cutting back will be to have a market where Barbados dollars can be sold and exchanged for other currencies. Without this market to trade Barbados dollars we had better have some other plans to get the foreign exchange to pay for all of the things we want to have that are imported.
    As a example lets say we build a new hopsital for $100 million Barbados and borrow the money to do so. likely $50 million of that is going to leave the island to buy equipment etc. Where is the $50 million in foreign exchange going to come from if there is no place to exchange Barbados dollars.?