The Jagdeo Initiative – what is that?
Introduction As President Jagdeo prepares to demit office in another few weeks there is a single issue with which his name will always be associated in CARICOM. And that is the common regional agricultural repositioning strategy which has been given the name Jagdeo Initiative. That it will remain only an initiative without any success is [...]
Berbice Bridge Company Inc. – Not really a profit
Introduction At long last, the Berbice Bridge Company Inc. (BBCI) has decided to file annual returns and financial statements with the Registrar of Companies. The law requires that such returns and accounts be filed no later than around mid-August of each year for companies with a December 31 year-end. Why BBCI chose to file some [...]
The death of an I-con – Steve Jobs
Introduction “The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented,” US President Barack Obama said in a statement. Lest I offend anyone, I will not call any names. But I do [...]
Another corporate governance code for Guyana
Introduction The Council of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) of Guyana on April 7, 2011 accepted a Code on Corporate Governance which could have some transformational effect on the way Guyana companies are managed. The code has its origins in the National Competitiveness Council and was identified among eight priority matters at a meeting in [...]
Business and the Ninth Parliament
Introduction As the life of the Ninth Parliament comes to its constitutional end later this week, Business Page thinks it opportune to review its productivity in terms of its legislative agenda. My emphasis will of course be on legislation directly or indirectly relevant to financial and business issues and mainly on new legislation rather than [...]
Elections year mid-year report
Conclusion Introduction Today I conclude the review of the mid-year report for 2011, a statutorily required report under the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003. In doing so I also draw attention and comparisons with the half-year report of the Bank of Guyana which while using the same data seems less inclined than the Minister [...]
Election year politics?
Crazy columnist This columnist has not gone mad, at least not yet. I am just mesmerized that Dr Ashni Singh who Manzoor Nadir of the PPP/C/TUF rates as one thousand times better than Peter D’Aguiar as Finance Minister, has finally met the statutory deadline for the annual mid-year report. (For the younger among us Peter [...]
The problem of unincorporated associations
Introduction Last Monday, August 29, I indicated in a letter to SN captioned ‘Nothing illegal about unincorporated bodies operating by the rules‘ that I would be reviewing in today’s column the court’s decision in the case brought by the Secretary of the Berbice Cricket Board against the Guyana Cricket Board. The Chief Justice gave the [...]
Surge
Two very important pieces of legislation to which the Jagdeo administration had committed itself are now before Special Select Committees of the National Assembly working feverishly overtime to ensure that this legislation is passed before the Ninth Parliament comes to an end. The two are the Access to Information Bill 2011 and the Telecommunications Bill [...]
Guyana in a housing bubble – not really (but maybe)
Conclusion Introduction I ended last week’s column by suggesting that the commercial banks – which account for 58% of the mortgage lending by financial institutions – have both the liquidity and the reserves to withstand any significant reduction in house prices and consequential foreclosures. I believe that the position is different with the non-bank mortgage [...]
Guyana in a housing bubble
Part 2 Introduction I was totally surprised at the very informed responses to last week’s introductory part on the country’s housing situation. What made it even more interesting were the sources of the comments and the insights they offered. Indeed they made me do some previously unintended research, the results of which are indeed quite [...]
Guyana in a housing bubble – not really
Introduction In an op-ed column in the influential New York Times on December 21, 2007 Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, columnist, bestselling author and professor of economics at Princeton University, wrote of the mortgage crisis in the USA that “the explosion of ‘innovative’ home lending that took place in [...]
A potpourri of NICIL, the Berbice Bridge and the TUF (with some computers added)
Introduction It has been all quiet and stable on the business scene this past week, or at least what could make news. The column will resort to a number of issues which could not individually justify a column but together represent matters of some concern. One rather publicised issue was the appearance of the Minister [...]
Oyez, the IMF brings good news for our poor
Introduction Earlier this week I received a copy of a wonderful book called Poor Economics written by professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of the renowned research university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is one of the best gifts for anyone truly interested in development models and processes to help the poor and who [...]
Poor IMF Consultation Paper predicts brighter future for Guyana
Introduction A report compiled last November by the staff of the IMF in which two officials of the World Bank participated predicts a brighter future for Guyana despite the challenges, risks and threats to the economy. The exercise is done annually under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement which requires it to hold [...]