Rating Agency Gets Moody

About our two biggest and hugely profitable banks. For sure and as remarked by Manou Bheenick rating agencies should be careful before pointing fingers after the part they played in the global financial meltdown.

Still, the long string of irresponsible statements uttered by the man responsible for the annual sprouting of hundreds of pockets of poverty throughout our island did not help matters. Here's what his score looks like:

2006: Triple External Shocks

2007: 5 cyclones along with early harvest

2008: 3 crises coupled with bumper crop

2009: He's working hard to prevent us from going into the ICU of the IMF but we're so resilient (come on, be thankful to the guy!)

I guess the next terms in this uncertainty-creating sequence are 4 storms, 2 earthquakes, 6 tornadoes, 42 volcanic eruptions, 3.5 tsunamis, 1 typhoon, 3 mudslides and 2 hurricanes.

Depreciating Our Way to Chaos

Rajesh Jeetah once said that the textile industry was not a place for whiners. I couldn't agree more with him especially when you realise that our rupee has systematically been depreciated against the British pound over the last 24 years. That must have been a bonanza for the so-called export-oriented enterprises which saw the pound move from about Rs20 in 1985 to over Rs60 in 2007 as the above graphic shows.

What I don't understand is why some people from that group have been complaining non-stop for at least a decade about a strong rupee and their lungs seem to get larger by the day. What would they have said if they were operating from Singapore where the local dollar has pretty much appreciated against the USD? How would they have behaved if their operations were based in Canada which unlike us don't stigmatise their workers as lazy bones before allowing into the country foreign workers that will work for the smallest possible pay and endure the harshest working conditions which deprive their unluckiest citizens of a facade of dignity. Besides if the textile industry has been so bad, why the hell did they stay in there for so long?

The other interesting thing in the above graphic is that we clearly see the consolidation that the industry went through between 2001 and 2005. Bean-counters of course call that a shock.