it is easy to forget Jamaica's financial status especially when bemoaning the lack of services, education and environmental awareness. Check out the link. Interesting!



http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/apr/16/jamaica -decades-debt-damaging-future

Thank you for this...

Depressing and disappointing. We need to drop the pretense that we are Independent.

So what’s the alternative to constant IMF "Rescues" of Ja's Debt Death Spiral?...Debt Forgiveness for Lost little Lambs...Unlikely!

This might be anti-climactic but in the short term I see no viable alternative to the IMF. I think the belt tightening it promotes has become necessary and its better we tighten our belts and get some well needed foreign currency into our reserves at the same time.
Now let us be clear the IMF is no grand saviour and if we the people of Jamaica and our leaders operate under the status quo then we will be right back at square one. So rather than propose a grand alternative I think there are several common sense actions that must be taken if we are going to reach a point where we don’t need the IMF. And these actions are not confined to government but focus on we the people including young people as we barely even recognise the important role we have to play.

1) Adjust our consumer tastes. –“Buy Jamaican” is a buzz phrase but how many people truly take it seriously. This is a fundamental way that at the grass roots level we can affect our economic reality. For every good or service that has to be imported to satisfy our “foreign minded” tastes that is valuable foreign exchange departing our shores. So as best as possible we need to consume our local goods to reduce the strain on our foreign reserves. Many people bawl about the exchange rate but ignore the roll of their consumerism on the demand for US dollars hence the exchange rate.

2) Deal with our energy issues – Anyone who has ever looked at a JPS bill knows that it is ridiculously expensive to consume electricity in Jamaica. This is magnified for mass users of electricity i.e. our productive sectors. Businesses cannot grow and regular people cannot pay their bills. Diversification of energy sources particularly going into Renewables have been mooted as the solution.
Whatever the solution is at the level of policy something needs to be done yesterday. The biggest draw on our foreign currency reserves is the money we spend importing oil. We need to reduce this amount spent on oil at a policy level as well as on a micro level. We at our personal level need to get into energy conservation. Turn off the lights, don’t let the TV watch you at night...the more power we use the more money we spend importing oil the more we need loans to shore up our currency reserves.

3) Live within our means. – Again this applies to both the government as well as we the people. The government must find a way to stop wanton borrowing as well as become more efficient and cut waste.
A lot of resources could be saved if at the government level waste in cut. Less job duplication, less friends in positions where they aren’t really working, less expensive desks and cars etc.
Not saying one should live in “squalor” as was famously said but at the same time acknowledging where we are we must live within our means. The same principle must apply to us as people in our personal lives. Spending as if there is no tomorrow, cannot be sustained.

4) Unite around common goals – again another cliché but this is our only hope. The status quo of playing politics with every single issue.
Or changing major policy decisions every five years based on the political flavour of the month cannot work.
We need to forge a consensus around where we want to go, how we plan to get there and all persons green, orange purple or yellow get behind this and work towards this common goal. Until we get here or close to here we might remain in a position where we need to be dictated to by the IMF and its friends out there in the world.

I’m sure there are more complicated and intelligent responses to our economic plight that have been and can be offered but this is my two cents. So here we go on our IMF path. Let us hope that everyone plays there part so that in another 10 years persons are not writing about these same issues that we have been writing about for 50 years and continue to write.

--Shane Cunningham's Blog ("Reasoning With the Cunning One")

My jamaica,
Sweet island in the sun
I love you with all my heart.
You have been unfortunate in your progress true earths orbit.
When the man said he discovered you that wasen't totally true You were already existing healthily and strong in the cycle of life.
Your inhabitants flourished healthy and strong just like you, they were also calm, serene and nice you were taken prisoner and has never been able to escape from the shackles of the I.M.F hold strong my sweet island we are comming.

Good article - sad, ongoing situation. God Bless to a better future.

And who gets the largest % of the vote in the IMF? Good 'ole America. Don't be mad at Portia, be mad with the U.S.

http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/members.aspx

ps--i loved the poem, Love Jamaica!

IMF Was Wrong on Greece, What About Us?

The fact is, the IMF has been wrong so many times in both diagnosis and prescription that there is a case to be answered. There is voluminous empirically based literature to support this, not literature simply dismissing the IMF as an instrument of imperialism, but reputable scholarly economic studies, some of which were produced by Jamaican economists as long ago as 1980.

Now comes the almost unprecedented public admission by the managing director of the IMF, Ms Christine Lagarde, that the Fund was wrong on Greece and that its prescribed austerity policies were harmful to Greece. Indeed, she is quoted as describing 2011 as a "lost year", partly because of IMF mistakes.
She was referring to an IMF report that stated: "Market confidence was not restored, the banking system lost 30 per cent of its deposits and the economy encountered a much deeper than expected recession with exceptionally high unemployment."

...The Greeks may say beware of IMF officials bearing policy prescriptions.

Observer Link:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/IMF-was-wrong-on-Greece--what-about-us-_144471 80

Whether or not the IMF is right or wrong--or who "controls" the IMF--is not necessarily of much importance. What is important is that unless Jamaica finds ways to escape from its downward financial spiral, it will be beholden to the IMF and its draconian rules. If you are so poor (as Jamaica is), you have no other choice except to borrow from the only lender who will offer you credit, no matter how high their interest rates are and no matter how horrible their rules are.

Z's suggestions offered above on June 2nd are excellent.

The Government of Jamaica must protect its natural resources and stop allowing people and corporations to ruin the country. The Government pretends that "selling to the highest bidder" is a viable solution. Instead, it is an unintelligent and short-term excuse for a real solution.

The Government of Jamaica (and Jamaicans) must stop looking for "get rich quick" schemes--including drilling for oil and bringing in casinos.

No one is going to "save" Jamaica except its government and its people--all working toward common goals.

Sane Advice To His J'Can Counterparts From Columbia's Former Minister of Finance/Economist Who Helped Steer His Country Out Of Dire Straits Onto a Progressive Growth Path:

• "Don't fool yourself and then ask to be fooled."

• "We all have to learn patience because what led us to this crisis in the first place is impatience...At the very least, we got to this point because we were impatient."

• "This is a hard world that we live in. We don't live alone here... We have a lot of competitors who are trying to get things right in order to compete … "

• The principles of economics indicate that Jamaicans must spend within their means:
"Economically, we ask our governments to spend more than we give in taxes …'Give me more health care, give me more this and that', but we don't want to pay taxes, yet we are impatient to see results. … All too often, we ask our Government to provide more services than our taxes can afford to provide."

• if the crime rate continues to climb, the Government must sacrifice all things to fight crime:
"There is no way you can fight crime and not sacrifice other means..."

--Juan Carlos Echeverry
(Chosen by four international publications as 'The Best Minister of Finance of the Americas' in 2011...credited for lifting Colombia - previously marred by widescale narco-trafficking, reeling under the weight of crime and violence, and crippled by an economy that experienced negative growth of minus 4.9 per cent - out of its economic woes.

Gleaner Link:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130619/lead/lead6.html

If there is a perception of government waste or corruption, there will be a corresponding reluctance to pay taxes.

For those willing to pay, the procedure is complicated and time wasting.

What was echo before we got the I.M.F loan was that our dollar would see some stability but instead we got a run-a-way train,we need leadership who can address the issue and not being afraid of talking one self out of power,cutting ribbon and welcome speeches wont help this jeep driven economy, instead of focusing and these major development work with the small farmers and give them some incentive to produce what we eat so we can cut down on our import bill,its herald so many time but nothing has been done .