A PICTURE is worth a thousand words! The photo on The Gleaner's front page of May 1 showing our most 'able' Minister of Finance and Planning, 'squinting' through his spectacles, was indeed amusing! The honourable Minister was caught in a reflective though somewhat unstable mood! He has been going back and forth, amending his proposed Budget, which is saddled with unproductive taxes, instead of encouraging growth, improving productivity and quality of life for our people!
The Minister is caving into pressure from public and other interests groups who seem to understand the economy far better than the Government and our 'learned' team of economists and planners! He is now considering backing down on some of these 'harsh' measures tabled in the House recently.
Looking at the Gleaner photo, I started to do my own reflecting, wondering if any serious thought really went into this Budget, what was the objective? Did they really assess the issues and implication to our economy and the productive sector and consumer? It seemed as if it was prepared in an arbitrary manner, without much insight, or scope, ignoring fundamental laws and principles of economics! And the Gleaner photographer was able to capture all this and more in a single photograph!
