C'mon, what's the problem with holding up your knickers? — Seriously, I can't recall a single occasion, when Dougie's boy, Comrade Mario, was so up to his knickers,— fretting over the national debt when Minnis was rackin' up — the full 100% the colony's $11+ Billions, — Yes?

I for one will welcome our IMF overlords. We have never had a balanced budget since independence, we are abysmally incapable of managing our fiscal affairs. The inevitable privatization of loss making SOE’s will be liberating and save future generations billions, the sooner it happens the better. Also it is important to remove government patronage from these sectors where jobs and contracts are used for political and financial benefit of the few. We need govt as small as possible and a fraction of the size now. Hopefully the IMF takes charge soon. We should welcome them with roses and kisses, or at the least a cold kalik and conch salad.

I agree, anyone looking for a **side hustle,** Well, look no further than the House of Assembly (HOA). — The HOA, is most definitely — **Thee** — Best Bay Street place to go looking. — Will be hard-pressed to find seated in reconvened October 2021 House Session — a single Red MP, that hasn't been handed a — **side-hustle comes lots fringe benefits paycheque, — usually includes free use a fine, insured Motor Car,** — All Courtesy PopoulacesPurse, — Yes

Mario is on to something here. What is wrong with a sale on favourable terms? Find an out Island no one lives on and sell it to a group of billionaires so they can form their own Country (Think Turks & Caicos) and evade taxes in peace.

It’s simple - who wants to PPP with government and have them on boards?
Please… straightforward asset sales against cash and pay down debt to a sustainable level.
All sugarcoating. Greece, Portugal, Trinidad, Jamaica.
Sell all SOE’s conditional on competitive pricing for all
Bahamians. Solutions please let’s do it now before the IMF will do it brutally.
Who needs Bahamasair - look at Alitalia. Sell and request a minimum domestic network at
competitive prices. No way out. Who needs BPL and W&S as SOEs? Unbearable.

What did this debt buy us? Where did it go?

Bahamians deserve to know. It will take generations of Bahamians to pay this debt for no apparent benefit.

Imagine being born and being responsible for your parent's mortgage. For a house that was never built. What hope do you have to pay back a house that was never built and eventually afford to build your own house?

Selling away the country won't fix the problem because the same practices will continue until we have to sell again.

We have too much government. This is just one example: In Britain 1 MP represents on average 92,000 people. Based on the Bahamas population we should have 4 MPs for all of the Bahamas. We have on average 39 MPs, what are their salaries and is it worth it?

Remove BIA from the investment equation and let whatever investment exists today flow in without impediment … many will fail, but some will succeed … let the free market decide … either way, money flows in and fuels the economy.

Sell MICAL and pay off entire national debt. Added benefit is no more taxpayer funds spent on these sparsely populated islands. Any extra funds go into a national sovereign fund where we can only spend the interest each year. Amend the constitution to require that every year there be a balanced budget. Sell all SOE’s to remove these losses from public purse each year, and to reduce political patronage and to crush the unions.

The problem with selling SOEs off is that someone has to be willing to purchase them in the first place. Little do Bahamians know, companies like customers who pay their bills. No one is going to run operations at a loss here.

If we have to sell the SOE’s for a $1 each so be it. Last year we subsidized them to the tune of over 460 million, simply removing that is a huge benefit to our balance sheet. Will have suitors hand over fist for BPL as many companies already have submitted numerous proposals to provide energy generation or to buy the corporation outright. Private airlines already service many family islands already, some private concern would be happy to subsume bahamasair’s routes. ZNS is totally unnecessary. People will have to learn to pay their bills or lose services like in the real world no more slackness or fantasy land of never paying bills, workers will have to work or be fired, just like everyone in the private sector does already.

When are they going to introduce a Powerball type lottery. The part of the proceeds the government keeps won't pay of the national debt anytime soon, but it will be substantially more that they get from the numbers boys.

The number boys asqre already paying taxes.

Sure, but a government lottery will net the government far more than they get in taxes from Sebas & Co. IMO. They could even have both going at the same time.

They are not paying anywhere near the taxes they should be paying on their enormous profits and never will do so. Take that thug Sebas Bastian for example. There are only a couple of very highly paid key individuals within his entire organization who have access to the real accounting records of his sprawling criminal enterprise.

Ever heard of BIA type investment authority in the free world?
Trinidad,Jamaica,Turks&Caicos, Cayman?
Let the market speak. Let investors invest, let them succeed and let them fail.
Ease of Business could be better than Gaza!

"*We had a debt before that was manageable,*"...

not quite....

Im told this 100% debt to GDP is old news, they just werent reporting it. Shuffling numbers and excluding debt categories to make it look good. Funny how it never fools Moodys

Too late!!! Someone been selling off cays and islands to foreign investors

> A prominent realtor yesterday voiced fears The Bahamas will become “a nation for sale” unless it quickly gets its $10.4bn national debt and associated economic and fiscal crises under control.........Mario Carey...... told Tribune Business that this nation might be forced to sell-off key national assets and patrimony unless it rapidly reckons with a growing debt mountain that is presently bigger than the Bahamian economy.

And just think how much money Carey has pocketed over the years from selling-off to his wealthy foreign clients acres and acres of our nation's most scarce national treasure, i.e. land. LMAO

Why has Long Island been outpaced, compared to the colony's other islands in attracting tourism and investments of any measurable scale?
Partnering someone with Comrade Mario's international reach is just what Long Island has been missing.
Long Islanders, by utilizing, Mario Carey Ventures (MCV) initiative website, will also for the very first time, be the vehicle to also stepped beyond their island's reach by sharing stories with Comrade Mario's $1 million assets foreigners, stories told by islanders, eager share their personal experiences of the different ways, Long Islanders — **Call their sheep.** — And. how seriously the islanders, take to bicycling about the island.
And, yes, — there is 'No Fear' in tellin' Comrade Mario's rich foreigners, that— 'Long Island, "Is" An Island For Sale.'

On the contrary, we absolutely SHOULD be a nation for sale. That's the only hope I see for my children and their children here. This cheap nationalism is used by local business and politicians to safeguard their interests. We are a stone's throw away from a country awash in money but we continue to make it far too onerous for that money to make its way here and lift the tide. The BIA should be done away with altogether. Revenue would increase dramatically overnight.