OK, lets see. The government has gross annual revenues of $2 billion but can't find $20 million to purchase a lousy building?

Ok, lets see. Why would the government want to purchase another old and tired building in the first place? With all the vacant office space from all the offshore banks leaving town they could easily rent space?

Ok, lets see. Since the government keeps all their buildings in a very nasty state (e.g. post office and ministry of education etc.) why would they want to own and manage another building and keep that nasty as well? Understand the A/c at the South Beach clinic hasn't been working for ages.

Fidelity and Providence will be pulled out of government bond issuance because they provide feedback to the public on exactly what is going on. Once Rolle starts issuing bonds from within the Central Bank we won't know the rate of bond issuance until we wake up one day and the national debt is over $8 billion.

Besides Rolle needs to issue a bunch of new bonds to re-capitalize BoB. How much is needed to recapitalize the Bank of the Web Shops? $40 million? $60 million? We will never know.

Bahamian investors need to wake up and really consider the risk involved in purchasing government bonds which are rated one notch above junk.

I guess Bahamians will find out like they did with BoB stock, BoB preferred stock, Cable Bahamas stock and soon to be joining the list Cable Bahamas pref stock...once the dividends are halted but the price on BISX hasn't changed...and suddenly one day the price collapses and Davies has nothing to say.

Banker you are correct, well said.

With the national debt increasing by $2 billion to over $7 billion under the PLP, transparency would really will be quiet inconvenient for them. So if debt can be issued without Michael Anderson chatting about it all the time, then all the better.

Also, adding in non accrued government pension liabilities of over $2 billion I think the PLP cronies are over joyed that they are all over retirement age as there certainly won't be any money for young people by the time they retire in 2050.

Don't think voting for the FNM will solve anything. The first thing the FNM will say once they take office is how "shocked they are at how broke the government is". Next the FNM will say they need to come up with a Strategic Plan to resolve the financial problems, the FNM's Strategic Plan to deal with the debt will take 2 years to produce and in they mean time they will blame the PLP while they increase the debt from $7 billion to $9 billion. By the time they leave office in 2022 the debt will be over $10 billion and we will be forced to value.

The country will then be very upset with the FNM and then re-elect the PLP...and the virtuous cycle begins again...but this time Alfred Sears, the new PLP leader, will be shocked at the $10 billion debt the FNM accrued.

With the Central Bank taking back the full issuance and control of government bond market the "virtuous" circle is now complete and the fix is in.

Central Bank issues debt with no prospectus, no government audit --> Funds go to the General Fund -> Allows Government to consistently spend more than it receives in taxes --> No independent audits = no accountability

National Issues funds --> transferred to BoB --> Bob transfers bad loans out of sight at Resolve run by you know who

BoB - banker to the web boys --> political contributions to you know who --> no campaign finance laws = no accountability

And you are shocked that the international community has downgraded us to one level above junk. Next year we will be junk.

The web shops are a state of the art parallel banking system. With over 400 locations it has more branches than all the retail banks put together.

There are no lines in the webshops, no KYC, cash is accepted no questions ask, money is deposited, saved and can be transferred internally and globally, they are "semi" licenced, what ever that means, they make massive political donations and they have no published audits. The Toronto head offices of RBC, Scotia and CIBC have rejected dealing with them.

It is proposterous that the Governer of the Central Banks wants to intergrate these shops into our financial system further staining our tenuous US correspondent banking relationships.

May be the government through its controlling share in BTC should block Facebook.

That would also stop Bahamians spreading lies that the PLP is corrupt.

Extract from the Economist article:

Pascal Saint-Amans, the club’s head of tax policy, was concerned enough to fly to Nassau last year to address the cabinet. “I told them if they play games they will lose. Their reputation will be hit,” he says. The lack of a response has left him “extremely disappointed”.

When we get Black Listed again please don't say the G 20 did not warn us.

Through the invention of 400 webshops replete with bank accounts, global transfer capacity and no KYC the PLP has created a perfect parallel banking system that no other Country can rival.

Deposit under $10,000 in cash at numerous locations and internally transfer to other web accounts.

No published audits, no banking reserve requirements and one sovereign correspondent - BoB. Indeed, these shops aren't even fully licenced.

Automatic tax and criminal exchange treaties become useless without KYC.

When it comes to global regulation the PLP had created an escape hatch.

I don't think anyone will get paid. If you don't pay the foreign contractors who is going to come back to the Bahamas to finish the hotel...lol...the Chinese?

If the Bahamian courts are unnecessarily prejudiced against foreigners then the foreigners will take their case to an international legal forum where their grievances will be heard.

Sovereignty only takes you so far, we live in a world of international law and order.

Baha Mar will need banking relationships and a presence in the US at some point in the future if it wants to be an international tourist destination. When that occurs the foreigners will have assets to attach.

Which is why this hotel will never be completed and the payment to Bahamian is just to say "sorry for messing up your Country". Here's a dollar for yinna.

Here we go again. Criticizing the messenger and not focusing on the real problem of being a jurisdiction pandering to undeclared and web shop funds.

The Economist is correct. We need to sign on to internationally accepted automatic tax and criminal related banking exchange information agreements where ever possible. If not we will eventually loose even more correspondent banking relationships. If you think international banks are leaving the Bahamas rather quickly due to bone headed offshore banking through backs, just watch this space. Citibank has stopped correspondent banking with Venezuela, no official reason given.