Business Review

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.

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.

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.

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.

Crazy columnist This columnist has not gone mad, at least not yet.

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.

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.

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.

Part 2 Introduction I was totally surprised at the very informed responses to last week’s introductory part on the country’s housing situation.

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 the middle years of this decade was an unmitigated disaster.”

Introduction It has been all quiet and stable on the business scene this past week, or at least what could make news.

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. 

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.

Introduction Even though auditors sell their services, the profession of auditing – certainly of the financial kind rather than the forensic type – is unlikely to feature in the list of top one hundred most sexy professions in the world.

Introduction Five months after the passage of the largest budget ever, Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh has gone back to the National Assembly for an additional $6.3 billion for spending this year.

Introduction Mr Hinds’s intervention on the Amaila issue came one day after the press carried a report that hydro-electric “pioneer” Mr Fip Motilall had received approval for the transfer of a licence to Sithe Global, which some time in 2002 he had been awarded under the Hydro-Electricity Act Cap 56:03 to develop a hydroelectric plant at Amaila Falls.

Introduction As it enters its forty-second year as the workers’ retirement and short-term insurance fund, the National Insurance Scheme is facing one of its most serious crises ever.

Introduction Even as mainly organized labour assemble at their various points today to march in silent resignation, listen to flat speeches from their leaders, numb their plight and pain with music, food and liquor produced by their colleagues for the profits of the investing class, the evidence so overwhelmingly confronting their membership on this Labour Day points to a movement that is in complete crisis, their numbers in decline, their leadership in disarray, their unity in tatters, and their very survival in question.

Introduction As the season for general meetings moves into high gear, members, or as some companies call them shareholders, have been showing some interest in these meetings, although not always for what might be considered the right reasons.

Beneficiaries of hundreds of millions in Sports and Arts Development Fund uncertain.