The only equation Bowe seems to understand and appreciate as a myopic accountant is that assets minus liabilities equals owners' equity. His education obviously did not extend to learning that a corrupt government plus more taxes equals greater deficits and increased national debt. Even now, after having been an ardent supporter of the implementation of VAT and watching how our VAT dollars have been squandered by the corrupt Christie-led PLP government, Bowe still doesn't get it!

You're absolutely right about this. The more tax dollars fed to a corrupt government, the greater its propensity to borrow and the more likely lenders (like the World Bank, IDB, IMF, etc.) will seek to have the corrupt government over-extend itself through the taking on of additional loans that do not serve the borrowing country's interests. This is a simple fact! The developed countries long ago realized that the best way to acquire or control the natural resources of third world countries on the cheap is to foster the corruption of their governments and than saddle their citizenry with excessive debt through the international lending agencies controlled by the developed countries.

You need to spend much more time reading good meaningful literature and much less time spewing bad meaningless comments (often laced with salty rhetoric) on web sites like this one. Many have by now relegated you to the same dust bin that Tal and Birdie were long ago tossed into. Frequently you come across as being very much like a cork pulled half way out of an expensive bottle of champagne that then gets violently shaken to the point where the cork.......oh well, you get the idea!

**.... Nothing to worry about! P.M. Perry Gladstone Christie promised to "soften the blow"....**

That debt ain't slowing down anytime soon because elections are coming up and traditionally the government in power goes on a spending spree to curry favour with the electorate. The IMF already packing their bags for their 'vacation' to the Bahamas.

**This is the real news today and it should make each and all shudder! We are broke with no growth except TAXES to pay off our ever increasing DEBT. Bahamians get ready to be raped and pillaged by the government of The Bahamas.** This is the only way these morons know how to operate, corruption, mismanagement, graft, outright theft, and the list of nefarious deeds goes on. Your money is no longer yours, they coming to take it!

The biggest shock will come when first quarter VAT returns are filed. This will show a contraction in the amount of VAT filed last year after the insurance companies contributions are deducted. It may also show a reduction in the number of businesses filing. Government cannot continue increasing taxes when there is no real growth in the economy. But the situation is not limited to the Bahamas. China's exports decreased by 25% in February under the previous year and declined for the thirteenth consecutive month, indicating that that country is in recession. While unemployment figures in the US are at their lowest in 10 years, consumer confidence and consumer spending are also at extremely low levels. This is despite consumer prices and commodity prices also being at record lows. Gas and Oil prices especially. And prices are expected to go even lower as Iran starts selling oil and since there is an abundance of natural gas on the market. The biggest problem for the Bahamas should there be another worldwide recession is that very little recovery was made from 2008. The government is up to its eyebrows in debt, unemployment remains drastically high, many home owners have lost their homes or are in arrears on their mortgages and businesses, many are saddled with old debt, increasing taxes and zero profits. Food prices are incredible. Government did very little to stimulate the economy and their ability to borrow and pile on more debt is becoming beyond the ability to pay back.

If government had spent $20 million of the money it spent on BAMSI to assist existing farms increase their output and increase their distribution it could have put a significant dent in the food import bill. And since there are so many persons on the Food Assistance Program, why not give out vouchers so that these recipe ants get local produce as part of the program. There are tinned and tinned of produce going to waste every month and since the government has to pay the farmers for at least some of it why not put it to use? The quality of the produce is not bad and the only thing that may be required is more distribution points.

Excellent point!

Our government is boasting that is has reduced the annual deficit after spending it's entire annual budget by mid year. I would trust a crack addict better with my hard earned tax dollars. RBC and all the other banks must be smoking crack too if they think this government or anyone else in this country are going to be able to service their obligations when growth is barely 1% and interest rates are 4 to 10 times that number. By not dropping these rates, the people who can afford to pay right now are being strangled and when the government raises taxes next go around, a whole other round of defaults and foreclosures, and then they strangle off the next level of people affording to pay off their mortgages.

Oh.....unless there is a miracle

The cold harsh reality of the banking world is that central and commercial banks work together to keep interest rates at as high a level that they can (for profits) without caving the market place in on itself. In most intelligent financial market places, the banks gauge how many people can afford their mortgages and how many people are defaulting and adjust the interest rates accordingly. The fundamentals of floating interest rates say that 97% of the bank's customers paying 5% interest is better than 80% paying 5.5%.

For some reason in this wee country the central and commercial banks seem to think 40% of it's customers paying 8% is a good end game. Perhaps when the Bahamian economy caves in on itself, RBC knows it can sell all it's junk debt to the Chinese and go back home to Canada ?

Totally agree with happyfly.

As a former banker from a G8 country I know that banking has to be sustainable and in alignment with the long term needs of the civil society in which it operates, for both the banks and the society/ country to benefit.

Yet the recent concerns of ridiculous spreads on interest rates and the negligence and arguably much more serious wrong doing exposed by the Malcolm Spicer case shows to just blame Bahamians is not only one sided but not in the banks' interest either.

Now that the Spicer lawyers at MERIDIAN LAW CHAMBERS, and before them CALLENDERS, have filed publicly available affidavits revealing potentially very serious wrong doing, including raising the question of a bank lying under oath - it has to be time to reset this discussion to have a more sobre and realistic appraisal of how to make Bahamian society grow sustainably.

The Spicer case how now led to approaching 500 people signing the petition for better treatment form the banks in just a couple of weeks

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/baha…