Do Mauritians Need To Learn How To Save?

Not really. We were always big savers. For example the average savings rate during the 15 years preceding the Sithanen/Mansoor reforms was 26.4%. A few years into the reforms it had hit a 30-year low of about 12%. 

Hmm, so tax rates are cut by 50% and savings plunge by about an equal amount? That does make a lot of sense because people adjust their savings to keep their standards of living at about the same level.

So no, we don't need any advice on building a savings nest. What we need is to make sure that bean-counters are always kept away from policy positions. Because although they will sound the alarm they can also go on and screw up big time. Which is a darn good measure of their skill level.

More Proof Crisis is Homemade

Recall that the bean-counters were quick to say that their 'reforms' had produced green shoots followed by an early harvest in 2007 and a bumper crop in 2008. That is easily disproved. They also said something else: that growth rates would have been a lot better had the Great Recession -- which began in 2008 and lasted 18 months -- not happened. And that as soon as conditions will get sunnier in the world things would improve for us because we're one of the world's most open economies. 

But as the above graphic shows, we didn't really rebound when times got better. Unlike the object of our economic fantasies: Singapore. We also know for a fact that a lot of the record poverty that was created has been produced well before 2008. And before Bheenick got appointed as Governor.

We also know what's holding us back.

Understanding Our Recent Budget Deficit Numbers

Did you notice that the bean-counters are crying on every roof that our budget deficit is under control at 1.8%? Presenting it as a proof that the so-called reforms have worked. It's quite easy to disagree with that.

Remember that the silliest idea of the reforms was to slash tax rates by half promising that we will grow faster. We know our economy didn't clip the required higher growth rates. In fact the reforms have ushered in a string of persistently low growth rates. So the small deficit numbers didn't come from better growth rates. We know it did not come from reducing wastage either: we just need to read the audit reports to strike this one out. So where did these low deficit numbers come from?

Well that's easy. By not spending budgeted funds and other essential monies that prevent the country from going to the dogs. And by doing other stupid things like keeping oil pump prices at unreal levels so as to pocket billions more in VAT and making us pay for a strange multi-billion-rupee hedging loss at the STC that seemed to get bigger as the toxic bean-counters got craftier.

Think of it this way: for many years hyenas have been trying to make an easy-going tiger run faster but instead of cutting the fat they’ve been taking out the muscles of Panthera Tigris. For personal consumption. And unsurprisingly this has badly crippled the big cat.

Inpe Zafer Ki Totalman Inprevizib

1. Guvernman pu fer 7,500 a 9,000 zelev fel zot legzame CPE ankor en fwa byinto. Eh wi, sa li pu en mari sirpriz sa. Nu pu totalman etone. Anfin, ziska mem kantite zelev fel lane prosen.
2. 11 dimun mor dan inondasion le 30 mars. Non, u pe fer erer: zame u ti truv en PPS bloke dan so loto divan la rad le 13 fevrier. Aret reve kamarad!
3. 11 dimun mor dan en bis CNT. En kut fluk sa papao. Aksidan Montebello 2009? En deziem kut fluk sa do matlo.
4. Kupir dilo rekumanse ankor. Pa fot guvernman sa. Se u fot. U pa pe priye bondie ase pu fer lapli tonbe. Se usi inpe so fot: li pa kon viz kuma dimun. Nu dan guvernman nu pu kontinie ogmant pri dilo ziska u aret servi dilo uswa ziska u la priyer marse.
5. Lekonomi pan rebondi kan lekonomi mondial fin sort dan resesion an 2009. Kifer u prese kumsa, ein? Fin gayn zis kat an depi resesion mondial fin fini. Li pu bizin rebondi dan prosen sinkant banane. E pa bliye ki se akoz ban kondision extern ki nu dan fatak. Apre aret plinye. Nu dan byin isi gras a reform. Pena bomb be tom lor u latet ek anplis nu pe travay dir pu polision vin kuma dan lasin. 
6. Flat tax fin zet 22,000 dimun dan lamizer. Phiu, en kwinsidans sa mo burzwa. Sat mao pu may lera vit vit la. Pa trakase.
7. Buku milyar FDI pa fin redwir somaz mem. Get sa, pa akoz u ena en degre liniversite ki u pa pu kapav vin enn bon zardinie dan en proze IRS. Wena bel swa: u kav netway pisin usi. Apre ler u rant lakaz pa bliye ekut nuvel pu apran listwar u pei kuma bizin.

Boolell Explains Romney's Defeat

And part of the explanation is that trickle-down economics doesn't work. Interesting. Would the Minister kindly then tell us (i) what has been tried in Mauritius since 2005 and (ii) whether it has worked? Sounds like a PQ, eh? But it's not. So I can ask this last part: (iii) is that consistent with the DNA of the Labour Party?

Our Future is Still in Our Hands

Anybody with two and a half grams of intelligence knows that we are in the current mess because of the reforms that were implemented by Rama Sithanen and Ali Mansoor. Navin Ramgoolam has to take a lot of the blame for allowing the toxic policies to inflict a lot of damage on the livelihood of Mauritians. He should have better surrounded himself to include enough dissent in the decision-making process -- an important ingredient for increasing the odds of leaving a legacy that will not be sneezed at. Although that would have been easy to do given the number of smart people around it will not change the past. But we can still invent a better future.

We could for example start with the lowest hanging fruit: the CPE. Just add enough chairs in post-primary classes so that we fail 3,500 less kids this year. Repeat the same process next year and we would have stopped the senseless practice of making thousands of children pay for a badly designed learning process. Who knows? Maybe this will help produce another Steve Jobs ready to dent the universe. One more time.

Proof That Reforms Have Worked

Chuttoo Organising Debate On Political Financing

Because big political donations are driving policies that benefit a minority in our country. He's got a valid point. Why would you give millions to politicians? Because of the blue eyes they don't have or to get something from them later?

Naturally, with the flat tax I am guessing political financing reached a significantly higher level in 2010. Add to this the proposed double candidacies and you will understand what some want to do with our democracy.

Debate is on February 23rd and you're invited.

World Bank Blows Own Trumpet, Again

According to an article published in the media today reforms undertaken since 2006 have saved us by producing a higher growth rate during a three-year period. And given that the reforms were implemented by a Bretton-Woods puppet and his university friend who spent literally all his life working for the Washington-based loan sharks the World Bank is essentially asking us to be grateful and to keep on borrowing billions we don't need from them. Plus we should keep on listening to their crappy advice that has screwed up Mauritius for the past five years.

Hello!!! Anybody home? Ramgoolam had to unceremoniously dump Sithanen otherwise he would have become the leader of the opposition by now.  You already know how Malawi ended poverty, but did you know how brilliant they've been with the world's second lung? And it's nice that some NGOs keep track of the 'work of god' they do around the world.

By the way, this is our 500th post. Thanks for the conversations!