As I indicated in my last piece, ‘Can the Economic Growth Council deliver growth for Jamaica’, the world economy may be on the cusp of a recession. Some economists believe that this is already the case. From the Eurozone to Asia to North America, there is a creeping despair that central bank policymakers have run out of options and strategies to stimulate growth in the world economy. The tools of monetary engineering have become quite dull and rusted and there seems to be consternation as to what to do next. “Brexit” has only served to exacerbate this financial anxiety.

Like other fledgling economies, the Jamaican economy is caught up in the throes of this anxiety. This time around the Government seems more conscious of the global realities that impact the economy. One hopes that the minister and his technocrats at the Ministry of Finance are cognisant of strategies that ought to be applied to assist Jamaica to adjust to what is clearly a pending crisis. We should not wait until the global economic storm hits our shores, but should begin making preparations for it so the country can be spared its worst effects. All of this assumes that they are reading the signals correctly. We have been wrong before.

One senses that people are still willing to give the young Government of Andrew Holness the opportunity his Administration needs to get the economy right. This is so despite the People’s National Party’s (PNP) angst to get back into power, having suffered the pains of being put to the political curb in the last election.

Desperate to shore up its prospects for the upcoming parish council elections, the PNP has almost been mindless in its criticism of the new Administration, yapping like the proverbial junk yard dog to be heard, but adding very little substance to what is needed to move the economy forward. Opposition politicians have a bad habit of berating the weaknesses in the incumbent Government, which they themselves failed to correct when they had power. But such is the nature of the game that politicians, who are bereft of a sense of personal responsibility, play when it suits them.

But the new Administration cannot allow itself to be distracted. It should not take the breathing room that the people are still willing to grant them as a licence for idle indulgence. Already there is concern for what a slipping dollar may mean to the economy. The “dollar whine” continues as the Jamaican dollar continues to feel the summer heat of its US counterpart.

With the Jamaican dollar not being far from J$130: US$1, investment in Goldman Sachs financial booby trap schemes can no longer be sustained as an explanation for the sliding dollar. Something else is at work, as the problem seems to be systemic and should concern the Government in terms of inflation in the economy. It could be that the confidence of people is being shaken. Just as in an atmosphere of financial uncertainty in the financial markets, international investors, including governments, are likely to buy up gold, so Jamaicans will purchase United States dollars. They know that this represents one of the best hedges against inflation and is still a great store of value than the sick and comatose Jamaican dollar.

Clarity is needed as to what the Government’s foreign exchange policy is. In opposition, Audley Shaw, as finance spokesman, indicated that he favoured a fixed exchange rate. Does he still hold this view? Does he believe that there is need for further devaluation of the dollar to increase its international competitiveness? If he believes this to be the case, where does he expect it to go? To J$150:US$1 like Senator Aubyn Hill once opined? There seems to be a deafening silence on this matter and we need to hear from the minister on this.

And, while we are in the listening mode, Minister Andrew Wheatley needs to tell us why, despite the low cost of oil on the world market, Jamaicans cannot see any reasonable reduction in the price of a litre of gas at the pumps. The operations of Petrojam ought to be audited as is being done of the parish councils by the Ministry of Local Government. One is not suggesting that there is anything illegal going on there, but we cannot take their word for granted that they are giving the consumers the best price available. Not when their word flies in the face of the reality of falling prices in the commodity. Wheatley would do himself and the country a great favour if he would turn the searchlight on and give clarity to what has become a vexing issue, especially for motorists.

The above, and similar related issues, if left unattended can only generate more anxiety among the citizenry. As you move about Jamaica you are presented with a sorry spectacle of worry, stress and frustration on the part of many Jamaicans, especially among the older members of the population. Despite the apparent wealth in the country, many are finding it hard to make ends meet. Many who are beyond 55 years of age are now faced with the grim realisation that where they have now reached in their lives is not what the doctor ordered when they were young, energetic and hard-working.

They now find themselves in a society of diminishing returns and more and more at the mercy of the State. And the State does not have the resources to offer them much help. It can no more provide for their welfare than a dead ewe can provide for its young kid.

Increasingly, the realisation is dawning on many Jamaicans that politicians are just like themselves: weak, frail, petty and discombobulated; that they are mere mortals who can no more make manna rain down from heaven than they can produce white milk from a black cow. Indeed, they realise that the “hen house” of State is largely guarded by foxes that are voted in by the majority to help the majority, but who are soon co-opted by the status quo to do the bidding of the minority interests and cronies who sponsored them. However much we sing the praises of democractic governance, as the leading Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto described it, it tends to come down to one common denominator: the rule of the majority by a few special interests to whom the politicians cower and do their bidding.

Like sheep we join lines at election time to carry out our patriotic duty of voting in a government that we think will do good by us. But we soon discover that this was all a sham, as it soon dawns on us that the whole bunch had already been bought, packaged and sold to the highest bidders. One cannot say for sure the extent to which the Jamaican politician has been overtaken by this governance paradigm, but the present Government will have a tough time explaining to the ordinary Jamaican why he gets poorer by the day while the few, excluding the lotto scammers, drug and gun dealers, continue to “hog” the best resources of the land.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest and social commentator. Send comments to the Observer orstead6655@aol.com.

PULL QUOTE

Desperate to shore up its prospects for the upcoming parish council elections, the PNP has almost been mindless in its criticism of the new Administration, yapping like the proverbial junk yard dog to be heard, but adding very little substance to what is needed to move the economy forward. Opposition politicians have a bad habit of berating the weaknesses in the incumbent Government, which they themselves failed to correct when they had power. But such is the nature of the game that politicians, who are bereft of a sense of personal responsibility, play when it suits them