We spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on these ministries: defense, health, education etc. and all we get for it is incompetence and excuses, and predictably horrible results. We really have to admit we are a banana republic for the most part. Then we have ministers making excuses saying it is the best they can do and a prime minister who ducks the press and can not honestly face the Bahamian people and answer the simplest of questions.

We need to downsize government. Privatize everything possible. Admit it is a failure and use the resources to pay down debt and free the private sector. But to continue to increase taxes to fund such incompetence is madness.

Wondering if madhatter was on the payroll as well. Tired of these sellouts! Too many Bahamians, especially the leadership of the PLP were willing to take the financial handouts from mr. nygard who flouted the laws of this commonwealth and destroyed the environment all for his selfish pleasure. Should be massive environmental fines levied in this case to make an example out of him and deter others from desecrating this beautiful country.

I agree with everything Mr. Brown has articulated in this article. To describe BISX as “ useless” simply is an ignorant and inaccurate statement. BISX while terribly flawed and far from what it should be has revolutionized my life and has been essential to me in reaching my financial goals far far sooner than I could have otherwise.

I began trading in Bahamian shares more than 20 years ago with a first purchase of $1200 shares, it was over the counter trading then before BISX. I saved , saved, and saved, each time buying shares with my savings. Today although I am a relatively small retail investor, with no insider information or any other advantage over anyone trading in the market I average a six figure income simply trading my portfolio (amassed over these 30 years) and reaping dividends from companies that I own. This has allowed me to retire at an extraordinarily young age. I have financial freedom I never imagined. Like Albert Einstein said the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.

BISX clearly suffers from chronic illiquidity, a problem management has failed to address adequately. There is an issue with insider trading which leads to an uneven playing field. A problem that is easily fixed and most frustrating is the failure to timely issue information. The re vamped website is pretty but cumbersome. Worse BISX fails to even update trades in real time sometimes taking hours or even large parts of days to update the market. The list of problems goes on. This is simply unacceptable and easily correctable ( it is time for new management) but to say it is “ useless” is a bridge too far and the good far outweighs the bad.

First off BTC is still profitable and Aliv has its big capital expenditures behind it and expects to be profitable by next summer. No certainty any of these firms are going bankrupt anytime soon. What is very likely to happen is that they hold current market share, reduce incentives, cut costs, improve efficiency and both will make modest profits. Thanks to WhatsApp the days of outlandish profits in cellular are gone.

URCA,the industry’s regulator,has been very open that it will see to it that both survive. A far better outcome than a return to a dinosaur of a corrupt, inefficient govt monopoly that you seem to love and pine for. Welcome to the 21st century and capitalism!

You must love paying high charges and having poor service. With competition service has improved and rates and fees fallen. How is this not better?

I agree with you 100%. I live in Long Island and I would like to put up sufficient solar panels to cover my entire energy needs. I would even be willing to go beyond 100% so that I could sell clean energy back to BPL, but I am limited to a mere 4kw because they do want Bahamians off the grid or generating clean energy, they want us to be shackled to an inefficient monopoly BPL forever. Worse yet is the paperwork. I understand not even the very first application to put in solar has been forwarded from BPL offices in Long Island to URCA to be approved. All to enslave Bahamians to govt owned BPL. This is over a YEAR. This govt words are worthless when talking about renewable energy. A total SHAM, not even worth the breath used to utter them. We are mired in the inefficient past. I am very angry and intend to raise this issue with my parliamentary representative.

You know what the real killer is added sugar, specifically in this case fructose. Leading to an obesity epidemic in this country. Heavily tax these sugary drinks to pay for the health problems they cause. These businessmen are more concerned about profits that the health of Bahamians.

Well said. We have an endemic problem in this country of partisans (of either party) all too willing to put party before country, self interest before that of the common good. It is at the root of almost all our problems.

Shame on the FNM. This is a blatant conflict of interest, plain and simple and no spin can change that truth. How greedy is Mr. Symonette? Apparently very greedy and more concerned with graft than his reputation. Very sad, expected better of him and the FNM leadership. It seems we have replaced a greedy corrupt government with one just a bit better but greedy and corrupt nonetheless.

All fast food should be taxed at least an additional 5% maybe even 10%.