Not so, Mr Wignall

[Mosiah]

Not so, Mr Wignall
Friday, March 08, 2013

Dear Editor,

I normally would not take the time to respond to your columnist, Mark Wignall. However, his column in yesterday's edition of your newspaper (: "Are we going back to the dark days of the mid 1990s?" is an attempt to rewrite history, with a total disdain for the facts. It cannot be permitted to go unanswered.

DAVIES... foreign exchange auction instituted by Seaga.

In this column, there is a photograph of me, with a caption: "foreign exchange agents used under him". However, nowhere in the text is there any reference, either to me or to the false assertion of the caption to my photograph. In any event, Mr Wignall's implied accusation is totally false. What are the facts?

The foreign exchange auction system instituted by the (Edward) Seaga Administration in the 1980s did give rise to a black market, with the Bank of Jamaica resorting to using agents to purchase foreign exchange 'on the streets'. When this information came to the attention of Prime Minister Michael Manley in 1991, he ordered a full investigation, led by Sir Alister McIntyre, then the Vice Chancellor of the UWI. The investigation revealed that this unacceptable practice had started in the last years of the Seaga Adminstration and had continued, unknown to either the new BOJ Governor, G Arthur Brown, or Prime Minister Manley. Governor Brown immediately put a stop to this practice and senior officials of the BoJ were dismissed.

Immediately after, the exchange system was totally liberalised.

All of the above is documented public information. In fact, the results of the investigation were presented by Sir Alister at a press conference.

In case Mr Wignall is interested in facts, I became Minister of Finance in 1993, fully two years after the BoJ's involvement in the black market came to light and was terminated. What then is his rationale for associating me with this unfortunate practice? Is this sloppy journalism or plain malice?

In case Mr Wignall is interested in some additional facts, during my period as Minister of Finance, the NIR moved from (US)$12 million (December 1993) to over (US)$2,400 million in 2007.

Omar Davies, MP


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lette...#ixzz2MvIXOZb8

[Assasin]

Omar Davis still take no blame for what happened under his rule.

When will he accept responsiblility of the highest interest rate, biggest devaluation and highest inflation rate. Highest Bond rate.

Dr. Davis can you say not so to that?

[Lazie]

I heard this man dismiss the call for a reduction in the cabinet and salaries of the ministers. I had to laugh, thinking how people like Plush was adamant that the previous gov't was arrogant. I wonder would be his take on Omar's utterance?

[Muadib]

<In case Mr Wignall is interested in some additional facts, during my period as Minister of Finance, the NIR moved from (US)$12 million (December 1993) to over (US)$2,400 million in 2007.>

What was the cost of that money ??!

lol ! woiee !!

Mi feel seh Omar all con himself to rathclaut !!

[Mosiah]

Address what is in his letter. Are those facts or not?

[Mosiah]

As dislikeable as some may find Omar, arrogant he's not.

IMHO, of course.

[Lazie]

As dislikeable as some may find Omar, arrogant he's not.

IMHO, of course.

Of course not!!!!

[Mosiah]

I knew you'd agree.

[Don1]

Wha?? Omar arrogant bad man

Mek im run ova yuh toe dem an yuh si

[Assasin]

Yes he left that reserves but he need to talk about the other factors like the dollar develuation and interest rate etc.

There is NO question under which regime the worst black market took place. Why don't he say even Seaga and other advised him not to. Let him speak a little bit more on this "Immediately after, the exchange system was totally liberalised."

The day I hear Omar Davis admit to one wrong during his day as finance minister I will give him some credit. It is always someone else to blame. Omar took no responsiblity for his bad policies and by the way he left the economy in much worst state than when he took over. You wouldn't hear that from him.

[Assasin]

Yes he left that reserves but he need to talk about the other factors like the dollar develuation and interest rate etc.

There is NO question under which regime the worst black market took place. Why don't he say even Seaga and other advised him not to. Let him speak a little bit more on this "Immediately after, the exchange system was totally liberalised."

The day I hear Omar Davis admit to one wrong during his day as finance minister I will give him some credit. It is always someone else to blame. Omar took no responsiblity for his bad policies and by the way he left the economy in much worst state than when he took over. You wouldn't hear that from him.

[Karl]

Omar Davis still take no blame for what happened under his rule.

When will he accept responsiblility of the highest interest rate, biggest devaluation and highest inflation rate. Highest Bond rate.

Dr. Davis can you say not so to that?

Sass: Omar Davis spoke to facts relating to an article Wignall penned...in that context, how is it you arrived at your above?

Is it a case of singing the same song regardless of turning of the page?
e.g. Would Omar going to the store have you saying the above? ...or Omar going to the bathroom...and again you would say the above?

[Mosiah]

Thanks for barely addressing the points in the letter. No thanks for obfuscating it with unproven fluff.

[Assasin]

what is unproven????

The record is therre to show.It is public record.

[Assasin]

Is this what Omar is responding to????

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Are we going back to the dark days of the mid-1990s?

Mark Wignall

Thursday, March 07, 2013

Tweet

'I run my business on the basis that in this country you will always have bad Government, with the PNP being worse than the JLP. And my survival, the survival of my company, my 10 employees, is based on me seeing Jamaica as a hustle. I have to fit within it because that is what it is.'

Jamaican businessman of 30 years, age 57.
STEWART AND SEMAJ ... made brave inputs, saved Jamaica millions of dollars
(L-R) DAVIES ... foreign exchange agents used under him. SIMPSON MILLER ... launched an economic fallacy



STEWART AND SEMAJ ... made brave inputs, saved Jamaica millions of dollars


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Months ago the prime minister launched an economic fallacy — something that was mostly rooted in her need, as a politician, to convince most of the people of this country, that she had their economic interests at heart.
So she launched 'Jamaica Employ', a loose and probably undocumented (show me your papers?) agreement with private sector firms that they would employ at least one more person. To her way of seeing it, we could see about 40,000 more of our people employed.
Immediately I scoffed at it, and not because I needed the prime minister to provide me with more fuel to comment on her clear misunderstanding of what a market-driven economy is all about. I scoffed at it because I knew that there would not be a single Jamaican businessman brave enough to commit himself in these times by openly admitting that the prime minister's 'initiative' was antithetical to what the objectives of running a business was.
In the 2008 US presidential election, the biggest surprise of the run-up to the elections was John McCain choosing Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his Republican running mate. Weeks after, when the McCain team realised that they had made an error of historical proportions, they were still forced to allow the press to gain access to the mindset of Palin. Disaster!
Professor Fareed Zakaria of CNN's programme, Fareed Zakaria GPS, in commenting on Sarah Palin's lack of understanding, suggested that it was not that Palin could not answer the questions asked of her. Instead, he said, it seemed obvious to him that she didn't understand the questions.
Months after, leaders in business are admitting that the programme has failed miserably, even though it is quite obvious that their circumspect words indicate that they do not fall too much on the wrong side of this PNP administration. What, I ask, are they really afraid of?
We have been told that, in the chase for US dollars, in 2013 one large organisation has resorted to using a man on a bike, with huge wads of cash, like in the early to mid-1990s, trying to buy up all the US dollars he can for the company.
In the 1990s when the PNP administration at the time was running true to form, in that, it was hopelessly out of touch with understanding the complexities of a market economy, the old 1970s PNP socialists found that where the rate of exchange for the US dollar was quoted officially at one level, the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ), found it useful to utilise the services of licensed 'foreign exchange agents'. These agents were given millions of Jamaican dollars in the basement of the BoJ, drove out in their cars and bought US dollars at much higher, realistic rates on the streets of this country.
It was not until one agent was held up and robbed that the matter was admitted to the public. By that time, the finance ministry had begun to lose the grip on the rapidly slipping dollar. Patriots like the Hon 'Butch' Stewart and Dr Leahcim Semaj made their brave inputs and saved the country millions of dollars. For a while.
In the end, the market won, in that, as business confidence turned down and, in general, businessmen realised that the PNP's monetary policy, said to be designed to 'mop of liquidity' (of people buying US dollars) betrayed a gross misunderstanding of Capitalism 101. As the interest rates soared, many people found that investment in Government paper was far easier than actually running a business. In the end, the financial sector crumbled.
Since 2008, there has been a paradigm shift in employment. Although it was probably trending that way before the global recession hit, after the 'right-sizing' of businesses in 2009, many employers have resorted to rehiring on the basis that most workers are on contract, whether it be for two weeks at a time or six months. Beyond that, nothing is guaranteed. Gone were the days when one had a job with a company, 'for life.'
Painfully, that fact has still not sunk into many poorer Jamaicans who were once able to secure jobs in factories at low levels but with a guaranteed salary. Too many of our young people, educated and barely educated, are still in the mode that there is a job for them out there, meaning, a building with an office or a desk in the corner where one can sit at, do 'work' and collect a pay packet on a regular basis.
Small business, which is where a large bulk of Jamaica operates, will be significantly hit. Women who are often the breadwinners in households are oftentimes the first to head out into the unknown of business and 'start a thing,' whether it be a bar, a beauty salon or renting 200 sq ft to operate a buy-and-sell business.
Those who either need to source goods via the Chinese stores downtown or through direct purchase from the US, are already feeling the pain.
'When I go downtown for my supply,' one man said to me. 'I am at the mercy of the Chinese. Even although I know that they have ways of importing goods cheaply, I believe some of them are taking advantage of the slipping Jamaican dollar and hiking the prices.'
One woman said, 'I buy directly from the US and due to the US dollar slipping, and, shortage, I have told my regular customers that certain things will increase in prices. My problem is two-fold. The resistance of customers to the increases and the unavailability of US dollars.'
On a medium-term basis, I have expressed more than hope that minister Anthony Hylton's plan for the huge build-out of the Jamaican Logistics Hub between now and 2016, will be successful.
My main concerns, however, are with what I see as too much time being taken up with the problems of the present, where business confidence is down, consumer confidence is probably between low to non-existent and the leader of the party which forms Government really believes that making an appeal to private sector companies to stock their staff with 'just one more' is sensible political leadership.
observemark@gmail.com



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