I missed it when you said it. It flew right over my head!

>Why in the hell would the government expect anyone to invest in this country ever again?

That's is what they are saying now after the Izmirlian fiasco. I can't believe that the government would shoot themselves in the foot with this. We aren't a communist country, for crying out loud. This would be the final nail in the coffin and is the harbinger of chronic total unemployment for the majority of Bahamians for generations.

exactly. He is supposed to be working for Bahamians. He is an agent of the Chinese. And not a secret agent either. Do you remember how he dressed up for Junkanoo as a Chinese emperor?

Here are some necessary translations to cut through the obsfucations:

1) replace the word "softened" with "fell". - tourism industry’s output “fell” during the 2016 first half

2) replace the phrase "tapering off" with "sliced down by almost half" - the growth rate for stopover arrivals sliced by almost half to 2.7 per cent compared to 2015’s 5 per cent.

3) *The overall visitor count firmed by 1.7 per cent to 3.3 million, a reversal from a 1.1 per cent decline in the prior year* - This means that we have made up for the 1.1 percent fall from last year, and the two year overall growth is only 6 tenths of one percent. Yay!

4) replace the phrase "trended lower" with "sunk lower" - room revenues at large resort properties in the capital sunk lower than in 2015,

5) replace the phrase "registered a moderate decline" with "tanked" - foreign currency transactions through July - which include inflows from tourism and investment-related activities - tanked in such gross receipts

6) Don't worry, looks good though because Baha Mar is maybe starting up again to save us. And everything is good, because FDI is driver (no mention of the 78% freefall in Foreign Direct Investment -- don't ask questions, just believe!)

7) Here is the big lie translated: What they said was " liquidity in the banking system firmed, buoyed by the Government’s financing activities, while the lowered import pressures". What they meant was: "Foreign reserves increased because government had to borrow American dollars to finance its spending orgy. And imports are lower because Bahamians cannot afford tings any longer."

Sighhhhh!

Oh for phocques sakes . It makes sense now! Does that mean that the Government of the day plans to buy Baha Mar and run it like the Hotel Corporation tried to do with hotels? Baltron Bethel is the new/old hotel master of the Bahamas?

It makes sense as to the secrecy. Crisco Butt and Company are planning to buy it with taxpayers' money and run it themselves. They couldn't run a resort anymore than a Chinaman could back a car out of the driveway. They will buy a hotel full of rooms with rice poop on the carpet, doorways so short that you hit your head on them, and bridges on the property so low, that firetrucks cannot pass!

Fer crying out loud. My Gawd that is the plan! Brilliant Tal for figuring that out.

It's gotta be stopped. This government can run a nose if they had a cold. They will enrich their cronies and bleed the country dry.

The Chinese have gotta go from this country. The only benefit of having the Chinese here, is that there is a new sound that the potcakes from the street make -- a sizzling sound.

As someone in the business, it is apparent that Financial Services is in a state of morbid decline. Jobs are going away and ain't coming back. More & more wealth management units of banks are selling their book of business and getting out of the game. The risks don't match the rewards any more.

You would think that as minister, this person would take some proactive measures instead of just talking. Their are things that can be done, and no they aren't SMART funds like Ryan Pinder said would revitalise the industry.

Let me get this straight. Under the hotel encouragement act, up to 25% of the workers can be permit holders? It says that 75% of the workers must be Bahamian.

I don't know how many Atlantis employs now, but at one point, it was close to 9,500. Let's assume 8,000. 25% of 8,000 is 2,000. Does Atlantis hold 2000 work permits? I doubt it.

Will Baha Mar hold the maximum number of work permits -- you can bet on it.

The funny part is that Prime Minister Crisco Butt is onto Baha Mar like white on rice, and I wonder if ever, that it was a viable project in the first place?? Dunno!

Suppose that it did open on time? Would it turn a profit? Would all of the brand hotels have stayed open after a year or two of punishing losses? There seems to be the mindset that if you build it, they will come. What if that were not true? What if our tourism product is finally toast -- a relic of a bygone era where a tropical beach and a daiquiri was all you needed to lure tourists. We cater to old fogies. Millennials use AirBnB and want an Instagram vacation.

Belize took a long hard look at its tourism product, and is in the middle of a massive rebranding that is working to attract millennials and make their vacations suitable for Instagram. Here, take a look for yourselves: https://www.fastcocreate.com/3063284/fo…

Even if Bahama Mar opens, will it be able to compete with Swim with the Dolphins at Atlantis or Marina Village?

Even if all of Crisco Butt's dreams, schemes, hopes and lies come true about the Chinese finishing it and selling it, it still may not be much of an economic boon unless the place brims with tourists. Crisco Butt thinks that he is the saviour of Baha Mar with the Chinese, but he will soon learn that he can't wok on water.

Several things jump out.

(1) No hotel operator is going to put skin in the game. In most cases in North America, a development company creates the building and then goes looking for a hotel operator. I have been to cities like Atlanta where hotels have been re-branded after one tenant leaves and a refurbishment is done. Hotels may be involved in the retro-fitting and building prep, but they never contribute to the development of the actual building itself, unless it is a custom build for them.

(2) The hotel operators look at things like airlift, competitive advantage, overall market conditions, etc. When you see that the overnight numbers here are falling, as is the revenue per room as is the ADR (Average Daily Rate), then you have to wonder if their financial models will show profitability. The total number of rooms available now in the Bahamas, is nowhere near saturation, and two or three new major hotels will have issues with filling the rooms.

(3)Recruitment. Key management personnel for the old Bahama Mar were in place almost a year before it opened. They were hiring manager of digital marketing, financial analysts, casino infrastructure and operations planners, IT teams and all sorts of experts to create, install and test the operations before the guests arrived. I had a chat with the fellow from upstate New York who was in charge of all casino operations, and he was telling me that they were going to use analytics to determine sliding slot machine payouts, and they actually were recruiting a data scientist or statistician. You just don't hire these people the month before, and like Burger King workers, tell them to get behind the cash register and go to work.

The really sad part, is that I bet you that Prime Minister Crisco Butt really believes his own lies.

The government is raping the NIB for every spare cent that it has. They will not have enough money to pay the pensioners. That day is coming very soon.

Yes that is very possible, and good for you. However, you need to look at the balance sheet. The company probably had assets or a book value greater than what the share price reflected.

I myself have a foreign trading account, and I bought Sierra Wireless for $17 a share a few years ago. I sold at $44.00. It has since gone back to around $17.

This is what pisses me off. Bahamians should have the right to participate in the stock markets, and yet with the exchange controls, they are locked out and marginalised, unless they have access to foreign capital, which most don't.

Now, if we dollarised the economy, Bahamians could possibly day-trade to make money. I know that there are a few foreign shysters out there, inviting Bahamians to trade Forex, but they are all bucket shops. Your trades are not executed on any exchanges, but on a dark exchange run by them. If you take a large position, the bucket shop trades against you.