"Smart talk" may sound impressive when you are in the opposition but you are now the Minister of Finance. All of what you just said above is absolute nonsense talk with no connection to the objective reality of the Bahamian economic context. Beyond silly!

As an actual economist I place no value judgement on it and do not fault those that do. But for those who do place such judgements, you may call it what you like but while you're at it please name the other Bahamian entrepreneurs driving similar economic activity?

We were at this exact place 10 years ago with stop, review and cancel. If HAI was really serious about this he should have passed legislation making contracts executed 3-6 months before a general election voidable by the incoming government unless certain pre-defined criteria were met. If Minnis is serious and truly cares about electoral process reform and fiscal policy abuse he must pass this legislation now. That is what would imbue confidence from the rating agencies, our willingness to make systemic and structural decisions that will impact fiscal policy not just cuts from a stop, review and cancel look-a-like where the penalty for cancelling is just as much as the contract, if not more.

You are kind of missing the point. If you unilaterally breach a fundamental condition of a valid contract, then what do you think would happen? The prior government may have been corrupt and these contracts may have been self-serving but there are no legal or statutory constraints that would make these contracts void or voidable. That is first and foremost what needs to be changed asap. Successive governments have used the public treasury as a slush fund to finance their elections. This must stop.

The numbers don't lie and our current issue is not one of confidence but one of deteriorating fundamentals. The budget deficit is projected to be over 50% higher than earlier projections. Gowan Bowe, the purported strategic thinker says our fate with the rating agency will depend on how good of a story we have. That is the biggest joke every. During the recession between 2007 - 20012 HAI increased debt by $1.5Bn and he built roads and undertook other capital infrastructural projects. From 2102 - 2017 PGC would have added about $2.3Bn in debt and this is after after he introduced VAT, he invested zero in infrastructure and to top it off he wants to implement National Health Insurance. So if we collected $1Bn in VAT revenue then compared to HAI, PGC's nominal debt would be about $3.3bn. This ain't no perception loop or confidence referendum as if the rating agencies are unfamiliar with these facts. Bowe, in my view is more a talking head charlatan than a strategic thinker. We must remember debt is a dependent variable driven by the independent variable of our ever increasing deficits. What we are up against is much bigger than KPT, FNM or PLP. In short, the trending evidence suggest that at the current economic growth rate this country cannot sustain or support its recurring level of expenditures. This is all about our expectations as Bahamians, our desire to emulate the standard of living of our neighbors in the USA and our unwillingness to accept ultimate and personal responsibility for our affairs. The politician that explains that to us has zero chance of being elected. We prefer slick talking charlatans who will tell us that we can have our cake and eat it to.

You guys speak about the lack of access to risk capital as if it is merely an inconvenience. Proper functioning financial and market institutions that promote transparent access to capital, investments in physical infrastructure, technology and innovation are some of the primary drivers of aggregate supply in an economy which in turn drives the capacity and limits of GDP growth. This is a structural weakness in our economy and the primary reason why we have historically relied on FDI to finance GDP growth is that we lack the wherewithal and courage to confront and address the root cause of this structural weakness.

Why can't Bahamian entrepreneurs do what RBC is doing?

This issue is more political/procedural than substantive. That being said, in my view this appear to be an honest oversight, however, it should put all government ministers on notice to be more diligent in following established disclosure protocols. The corrupt PLP should be the last persons on earth to raise these types of issues. Mr. Turnquest's interest had been publicly declared and disclosed unlike the many and varied backdoor undeclared PLP deals. The larger and more substantive issue is why the FNM government did not have its own budget prepared and ready when they won the government or have any plan at all for that matter. They now appear to be putting forth a PLP budget based on forecasting from an election year. This is not the most efficient way to jump-start a change agenda.

Absolute nonsense. Do you even understand how the VAT regime work?

Totally agree, this is a perfect example of how technology drove the emergence of a substitute product that fundamentally shifted the entire demand curve and consumer preferences with respect to typewriters forever. I guess from the perspective of typewriter manufacturers, microsoft word was also unfair competition.