Competition Commission Signs MOU With BOM

That happened 5 days ago at the BOM Tower.

Wonderful, more reasonable spreads in the forex market should be in on their way. The Banker, are you there?

Top 10 Most Popular Posts in July 2010

1. Paradi An Dey
2. Mansoor Doubles Foreign Debt in 3 Short Years

3. Why You Should Add 3% To The Unemployment Rate

4. Gautam Was Madly in Love with Viveka

5. Sara Blamed For Spain Winning The World Cup

6. Download The Audit Report in A Handy Format

7. World To Grow Faster Than Dodoland in 2010

8. Kozelidir Guides

9. How Inequality Was Boosted in 3 Easy Steps

10. Win Rs60,000 By Explaining Where The Repo Rate Should Be

Mansoor's No. 5 Circular of 2010

What Killed Many IRS Projects

Depreciating currency and dullness of Mauritian evenings are two reasons we identified last year. Overpricing is a third one. Here are a few more:

1. Getting someone from the World Bank(WB) as Financial Secretary who promises to adapt WB policies to Mauritius. Investors know very well what happens when government allow Bretton-Woods-formatted cowboys to run the show: they screw up public finances and the economy, people eventually take to the streets and governments lose power along the way. That usually doesn't help real estate values to firm up. 
2. An eyebrow-raising event: WB opens an office here in 2008 based on totally fallacious arguments. We didn't need a WB office in the 1970s when we went through very turbulent economic waters so how come we needed one 4 decades later when conditions are infinitely more manageable? Investors definitely interpret this as a signal that a few idiots have decided to send our country to the dogs.
3. Investors were attracted by sexy ingredients that are the foundations for our country's reputation as the poster child of economic development: success in defusing the demographic bomb, rapid industrialisation, progressive taxation, free education and other carefully thought-out components of our welfare state. With the introduction of the Sithanen-Mansoor-Scott-Ramgoolam flat-tax they fear Mauritius may have lost her magic touch and know government will have no money to maintain standards or solve any national problem. Which is essentially what happened over the past 5 years. And that doesn't sell properties.

Guess you've noticed that the policy spaghetti that killed these IRS also killed our savings and made our economy more vulnerable. Things could get out of hand pretty quickly.

What It's Like Working at FB

Miss Universe: Mauritius and Mexico

Les Onze Critiques De Jack Bizlall

Jack published this 80-page booklet a couple of weeks before the last general elections. It is an interesting read. Download and enjoy it!

Mathematics 'Nobels' Announced in City of Pearls Tomorrow

It's actually called the Fields Medal named after Canadian Mathematician John Charles Fields. In 2006, Russian Grigori Perelman declined the award while the Mozart of Math picked up his.

Download Pravind's ERCP

Democratisation of the Economy Could Now Take At Least 1,000 Years

That's 2 centuries more than my October 2008 estimate which was based on what Cader Sayed-Hossen was saying and the speed at which he was going about it then.

I added 200 years because I think I may have somewhat overestimated his ability to change anything with his commission and to account for the brutal reverse democratisation of the economy that took place over the past five years.

US Plans to Let Tax Cuts For The Rich Expire

Bush had cut tax rates for the wealthiest 2% Americans and this did not boost economic activity while it only increased the budget deficit. America will however extend those granted to middle-income families.

Recall that when Reagan lowered top tax rates by about 10% in the 1980s the US didn't experience higher growth rates but only a quadrupling of its debt. Similarly when the bean-counter flattened our tax structure we not only got some of the worst growth rates in decades but very little happened in our country save Voodoo economics and the doubling of foreign debt.