The Economist on Jamaica 50.

Treasure Beach Forum: TB Runnin's: The Economist on Jamaica 50.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By turey on Saturday, August 25, 2012 - 10:41 am: Edit Post

http://www.economist.com/node/21559348


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Z on Sunday, August 26, 2012 - 06:21 am: Edit Post

turey...that is some in-your-face indictment of the J'can economic/political/social scene that can't be swept under the rug...rather let's highlight the bill of particulars to campaign for improvement and the enforcing "rods of correction".

Hold yu horses...What yu seh bout JamRock bidness?

• On current forecasts (Jamaica's economy) will finish the year with the slowest average growth rate since 2000 in the Americas—behind even earthquake-stricken Haiti.

• Jamaica has reasons for its plodding growth of late. Tourism, which employs one in ten islanders, has dipped with the world economy.
...the market for bauxite and alumina, its main export goods, has been rockier than for other commodities.

• Jamaica has run fiscal deficits in 44 of its 50 years of independence.

• Few people pay taxes: the middle class is small, the informal economy big, and enforcement chilled-out.

• Only about 3,000 of the country’s 65,000 registered firms are thought to contribute.

• The government has steadily dished out waivers to favoured industries: tourism pays an effective tax rate of 5%.

• Lacking sufficient revenue, Jamaica has financed public spending by borrowing.
Years of accumulated deficits, a bank bail-out in 1995, and punishing interest rates have swollen the national debt to a Greek-style 140% of GDP.
Servicing the burden now accounts for over half the budget.

The government has further hurt the economy by unwise intervention.
Its tax breaks for imports by hotels have cut local firms out of the supply chain.
That has limited job growth, forcing many of the young into lowly tourism posts, such as hawking handicrafts (and hashish) on the beach.

• The private sector has also been shackled by bureaucracy. Filing taxes requires 72 separate steps and over 400 hours a year, twice as long as in Trinidad and Tobago.

• Manufacturers complain about electricity, which takes three months to get connected and costs five times more than in Trinidad.

• Portia Simpson-Miller, who became prime minister in January, is cautiously trying to broaden taxation...The IMF may require the government to end some tax waivers, which jointly reduce revenues by a quarter.

• The island’s crime problem long seemed insurmountable...The murder rate then dropped by a third, though it is now creeping up again.

• The island will need a political makeover to improve its policies. Both main parties pander to interest groups whose votes are controlled by unsavoury strongmen.

• Many tame constituencies plump almost unanimously for one party, a voting pattern one foreign diplomat compares to North Korea’s. That means policy proposals have little effect on elections.


Gleaner::"Little to Celebrate" Jamaica 50 Parody:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120826/ent/ent1.html

Youtube::Jamaica Mission Parody:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=unetBtwRds8