By Derren Joseph
June 06, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
In difficult economic times, the sensitive issue of immigration tends to get even more sensitive. It is hard not to notice this. In England for example, there is much debate about an apparent increase in popularity of a far-right political party called the British National Party or the BNP.
Continue reading ‘We are the land of opportunity’
Harsh reality
Central Bank Governor Ewart Williams has officially confirmed what everyone, except the Cabinet, had long known: the economy is in decline.
The starkest figure cited by Mr Williams when he released the Bank’s Monetary Policy Report last Thursday was related to unemployment. The unemployment rate has already moved from just over four percent last year to between six and seven percent in the first quarter of 2009. This means that the Government can no longer boast about having achieved zero unemployment in Trinidad and Tobago. But, as long as two years ago, economists such as Jawala Rambarran and Ronald Ramkissoon were warning that the unemployment figures were essentially illusory.
Central Bank gives banks a lending hand
Faced with stagnation and an inflation shadow, the Central Bank yesterday sliced off fifty basis points of its repo rate to eight percent, a move designed to get banks to reduce their interest rates and spur borrowing.
Continue reading Recession
By Raffique Shah
March 01, 2009
FOR too many years we have haggled over what the minimum wage should be in this country: should we pay the poor buggers $9 an hour, or $10? That would amount to less than $2,000 a month, but it’s worth fighting over. For those trapped in this gloomy underworld-not so hidden, since we shop at groceries and stores where they labour every day-it could mean being able to afford an extra “doubles” for lunch, or buying their children the toys they so covet. As far as I am concerned, what we call a minimum wage is in fact starvation wage, a kind of semi-slavery endured only by those who have no other options, except perhaps to turn to crime.
Continue reading Taxing the million-dollar men