Introduction
As indicated last week, today’s column continues the discussion of risks and pitfalls facing mineral resources extraction in Guyana. This discussion is in recognition that the country is approaching a time of oil/gas production and export. Following today’s discussion, next week I will present information on the performance of individual products over the past decade.
My immediate concern, is that recent reports, analyses, and policy advice given to the Guyanese public and authorities, from a variety of sources, (including international organisations, civil society and hired consultants), fail to incorporate in their presentations evidence of an adequate understanding/appreciation of the basic dynamics of Guyana’s economic history and the workings of its political economy, since Independence.
Weak conceptual framework
The conceptual framework underlying these contributions is decidedly weak. Most of them explicitly base their recommendations on the World Bank’s concept of ‘Total Wealth’, which I had introduced last week. As I had observed there, while this concept is typically proposed as “a new holistic measure of [Guyana’s] economy
