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[Baddaz]

emotional... a suh yuh a spin it... no sah... just a state de sentiments and observation... de peeple realize dat dem cannot trust de intellectuals and latte drinking crowd wid dem future... mi si dat yuh and yuh colleagues dem having a difficult time coming tuh terms wid da reality deh... next...

[Muadib]

please explain the poison reference..

thanks in advance..

careful when yuh ansah.. yuh might end up support it based on wheh mi hear di new 'leadahs' saying..

[Don1]

Yes, but this has been said enumerable times on this forum and outside...nothing new...Don1 is probably the major advocate of this....

Except for the sole emphasis on so-called "highly educated Jamaicans"

The biggest social impediment we have is the EXCLUSION and/or MANIPULATION of the mass of the humble... educationally, socially and politically.

We continue that folly to our detriment.

I don't see where Mr Chin advances that cause...so we are on fundamentally different paths

[Don1]

Two-edged sword for me....

Yep... Trini ah bathe an Yard get soak

[Bricktop]

Except for the sole emphasis on so-called "highly educated Jamaicans"

The biggest social impediment we have is the EXCLUSION and/or MANIPULATION of the mass of the humble... educationally, socially and politically.

We continue that folly to our detriment.

You mean like paying Cuban health care professionals money that we didn't see fit to pay to our own competent health care professionals, forcing them to migrate?

[Willi]

Highly inflammatory nonsense.

Just PNP excusing.

The fact is that both parties fall way short of the mark and they keep doing the same thing over and over.

Do you think a perfectly executed PJ Guvvament can take Jamaica where we want to go?

Cant you see we are walking up the downscalator?

Cant you see we need a FUNDAMENTALLY new approach?
Cant you see that a storm is coming?

Sigh.

[Willi]

While I completely agree that exclusion is a big danger, the more highly educated Jamaicans will be asked to contribute more. They will be asked to volunteer to lift the intellectual ad skill deficit of the less educated.

To whom more was given, more is expected! When we realize that we are all in the same boat and GREEN MUST live with ORANGE and the uncoloured, because without any of these, it ceases to be JAMAICA as we know it.

However, ALL will have to be at the table. I dont think Chin is far from your vision at all. I dont think its a sole emphasis, rather he points out the low current level of our politics and puts blame to BOTH parties for this.

We have a choice, politics as usual with the usual (poor) results, or we can try something new. We also need to clear the slate with a truth and recon process, so that recriminations from the past can finally be let go. There is much to be atoned for. Both parties (and many in civil soceity)have spiritual stains...

[Willi]

So why ignore this? You dont think that such raised expectations (patently false) have consequences?

"During the election campaign the PNP claimed in cute radio ads — with an actor playing the part — that the JLP was the reason university graduates couldn’t get jobs. I thought this quite amusing.

A 2011 graduate of the prestigious Sloan School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whom I spoke to recently, told me that most of his fellow graduates and those from the MIT engineering school, who were in the past normally snapped up by employers the instant they graduated, were — up to the end of 2011 — still jobless.

Jamaican university graduates jobless because of the JLP's policies, and not the world recession? The Jamaican economy crashing because of the policies of the JLP over the past four years? If you believe this, your head must be buried in the sand like an ostrich!"

[Mosiah]

Nonsense! You have no evidence of that.

[Don1]

Who needs evidence when a pre-determined agenda is paramount?? LOL

[Don1]

ok... I don't know nor ever even heard of the guy so I'll give him the benefit of any doubt for now

Guess I'm an automatic skeptic

[Willi]

More prophet of doom:

When everyone in the world stops partying at once

Published: Monday | January 30, 2012 1 Comment




by John Rapley
Save in good times, spend in bad. That was the basic advice given by John Maynard Keynes to governments. Use fiscal policy to smooth over business cycles. Drain money from an overheating economy with spending cuts, then pour it back in when a recession loomed.

Keynes' advice was practically dogma back in the 1950s and '60s. Not only most governments, but indeed most economists, swore by Keynesian techniques then. But sadly, politicians ended up implementing only one part of the equation. They spent in bad times. Then they spent in good times. By the 1970s, excess demand caused high inflation. When recession hit the industrial economies during the two oil shocks, they faced a problem Keynes had not reckoned with: stagflation - rising prices amid declining demand.
There was no obvious solution. Then along came the monetarists, led by Milton Friedman. They said Keynes had got it all wrong. [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Monetary [COLOR=blue !important]policy[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], not fiscal policy, was the most important lever available to government. And they maintained that inflation, not unemployment, was the principal threat to [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]market [COLOR=blue !important]stability[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR].
The basic purpose of policy was the same: to smooth over the business cycle. But the toolkit was new. When inflation was high because demand was excessive, the central bank would lower demand by [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]raising [COLOR=blue !important]interest [/COLOR][COLOR=blue !important]rates[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], drawing money from spending to saving. When inflation was low because demand was deficient, it would then release money from savings by dropping interest rates. Central banks were to be independent, and governments were to get out of the economy.
Bitter medicine
The medicine was bitter. The Reaganite and Thatcherite revolutions continued a trend that had already started in some developing countries, of austerity during a recession. But it worked: prices came back down, economies stabilised, and people slowly got back to work.
Then, sadly, it was the turn of the monetarists to stop taking their own advice. In the '90s and 'noughties', [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]asset [COLOR=blue !important]prices[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] began going through the roof. But central bankers, especially in the US, ignoring the exceptional cyclical features that were keeping [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]consumer [COLOR=blue !important]prices[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] low (in particular the imported 'disinflation' of China), maintained it wasn't a problem in the 'real' economy. Interest prices remained low. Bubbles started inflating and they looked the other way.
By then, the public debt of the developed countries was on a secular upward path. The boom years had brought relief to some countries, but the underlying trends pointed towards long-term debt accumulation. So when the bubbles began bursting and crises hit the world economy, governments rushed back into the arms of Keynesianism. But very quickly, their debt loads shot to record levels. They grew as nervous as a rock climber who looks down.
Recession fears
So here we are. Europe is sinking back into recession, America is slowing. Consumer demand is low since everyone is rushing to pay off debts. Because demand is low, nobody is investing. Interest rates are at record lows. Governments should take advantage of them to borrow cheaply, and restore demand.
But either because they have too much debt already and can't, or because they want to gain a march on their rivals and export their way to growth by cutting costs, everyone is cutting back. From London to Washington to Berlin, governments most everywhere in the developed world are determined to get their deficits under control. But as their economies sink further into recession, they will have to cut further yet, and demand will only worsen.
During the boom years, some developing countries, especially in Latin America and Africa (let's not discuss the Caribbean, shall we?), had got their budgets back into balance. They can now borrow. But it is a bit much to hope that they can plug the gap vacated in the developed economies. They can stay afloat, but they may not be able to do much for the rest of us.
I don't envy Peter Phillips his job. His kitty is empty but the need is huge, and he can't look abroad for much help. The best support everyone can give him is to listen carefully to his concerns, because he'll need all the help he can get. John Rapley is a research associate at the International Growth Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and rapley.john@gmail.com.

[Willi]

Or prophet of doom! LoL

[Don1]

Or prophet of doom! LoL

All dat tuh... Nightmare, Bangarang an Ataclapse mi seh

[Muadib]

Digital City Pyramid.. Have helping the Have Nots.. all the way to the base..