Goto, if you are a Bahamian citizen you have already bought the bonds, as NIA or the Treasury will subscribe to the entire issuance. Guess whoes on tape for the government....you and me.

Greentea, no need for Flowers to own a bank, so long as he can correspond with a bank that has legitimate correspondents to the global financial system. Enter BoB.

BahamaPundit, BoB can't be liquidated otherwise the webshops will go back underground as there will be no "legitimate" correspondent bank for them.

I say correspondent because the webshops are mopping up missing links in our financial system. Inter-island transfers, 24/7 banking services, loans at resonable rates, branches in every settlement, international transfers, speculative investments etc. etc.

The government is not bailing out BoB, it is bailing in the Bahamian public. So where are these funds coming from at such attractive borrowing rates? From you and me via NIA or the Public Treasury.

In the meantime BoB continues to be the only bank providing banking services to the web shops. Which continues to endanger our correspondent banking system through which we trade globally.

No need to worry about a devaluation if you trading via correspondents becomes challenging as more and more correspondents withdraw their services.

75 cents at Sawgrass will look good once as the correspondence leave.

Any commission of enquiry as to what is causing this continued need for cash infusions at BoB? How much are we up to now? Almost $200 million in bail ins? How much more do we have to go? Find out what the balance of loans receivables is versus government deposits? $X00 million?

Brilliant response and spot on ThisIsOurs! Ask S&P and they will tell you that the government's rating is junk, that it can't borrow money on the international markets at a reasonable rate and that the local market for government debt is maxed out, or people are just afraid of devaluation if they buy any more government bonds. Investors have already suffered 2 quasi devaluations with VAT where everything became 7.5% more expensive and the interest payment on their government bonds was just reduced by 1/2%. Even at Sawgrass, according to a newspaper, the Bahamian dollar is only worth 75 cents. Better not go to Miami anymore wit out US dollars, ya ga get swing.

At the "trickle down" end of things the teachers aren't paid and the national education remains a "D". So we remain poor, black, uneducated...drinking liquor all day, buying numbers and going to church on Sundays. What wrong with dat.

I saw a dress code sign some months ago at the DMV testing department. Also, I've heard complaints that some young women going in for testing were turned away due to wearing shorts. However, this may not be true at the moment. I don't know.

Hmmmm.

So, you can't get a passport due a long waiting period, you can't get a voters card due to how you dress.

Even when you do vote in a referendum and say NO to gambling, your vote is ignored.

No wonder people don't want to get proper ID or vote because its too much of a struggle and basically the insinuation is that no matter what you do we in charge and control tings.

Bahamian fiscal, monitory and regulatory policy are not coordinated and are putting the country in line for further credit downgrades, economic contraction and added misery for the average Bahamian (if that's possible).

Under orthodox monetary policy, such as being followed by Argentina, in the face of credit downgrades, interest rates are increased to draw in more investors (foreign and domestic) into the local currency while at the same time fiscal policy is liberalized to stimulate investment (cutting the time to approve projects) and increased hope amongst the investment class (lower taxes, less regulation and reduced corruption) and government is contracted through privatizations (sell BTC, Port, W&S, Bamsi, outsource NI etc).

We are doing the exact opposite. Increasing interest rates (poor Bahamian who bought the govt bonds for retirement income), increasing taxes (RPT revaluations, poor Bahamians), growing government (Aliv, NHI, Bamsi, Baha Mar and the Port), ignoring corruption (e.g. BoB, Post Office Bank) and adding more bureaucracy (VAT accelerated payments) on an already weary business community.

Our foreign policy is also out of wack. Instead of warming up the west we are looking east. The Dow is almost at 20,000 in anticipation of a business friendly administration and being 1 of 3 countries bordering on America we should be poised to benefit. On the contrary our biggest investment is drowning in secrecy, state sponsored ownership and is doomed for failure (after the election, of course).

Normally I consider most of what Christie says is crap. However his comments on global warming and rising sea levels in the Bahamas are spot on. However the conclusions are all wrong.

He concludes that "acts of God" caused the downgrade and leaves it at that. My issue is that the flooding in the Southern Bahamas will continue and accelerate and become more severe each and every year as 80% of the Bahamas disappears underwater before the end of this century.

S&P realiaes this and is warning investors of the calamities to come and to consider the Bahamas a high risk area. Never mind the corruptions, weak money laundering control, lack of fiscal reforms...the flood is coming.

Like Noah we need to prepare for it by moving Bahamians out of the low lying Southern Bahamas.

The offshore financial services industry is now at risk. Who in their right minds would deposit their funds in a country that has a junk rating? You see, now that the government has squeezed the Bahamian consumer dry with VAT, who will they soak next? Foreign bank accounts, trust funds, mutual funds, second homes, income taxes, taxes on corporate dividends? What will they do next to raise money?

The real property tax bills have gone up so much they haven't even mailed them to the people. What are they going to do next? Start confiscating family homes for real property tax?

The Bahamas should not be selling permanent residency in exchange for the purchase of a home period.

Think about it. Once the foreigner buys the property, we, the government support the property and the permanent resident as the government runs a constant current account deficit to run the country. No government department makes money. So we are supporting the foreigners.