Comments on: Alfred Grixti challenges Jason Micallef to a duel at dawn

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:53:05 +0000

@Don Mangion: I wouldn’t bother quoting Peter of PBS. The man was a TVM reporter by day and a stripper by night. He had these special cargo pants with Velcro all down the sides, so that he could rip them off with one snatch – oops, sorry – of his hand. One of his TVM colleagues (a woman) was mortified when she turned up for a hen night, a stripper was announced, and her workmate Peter from the newsroom sashayed in shaking his booty. She left immediately, saying that she didn’t know how she would be able to face him the next day. I told her that was his problem, not hers. I would have stayed, taken plenty of pictures, and passed them round the office.

By: Guzeppi Grech

Guzeppi Grech — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 09:12:56 +0000

Its nice to be proved right….no less by Eurostat

Quote:
Eurostat’s calculations confirms earlier statements by the EU in its Quarterly Report On The Euro Area that Malta’s inflation is being fuelled not only by the high prices of energy and food on the international markets but also by the lack of effective competition on the island due to “a few food importers dominating the market”.
Unquote

Open to debate LOL :) SMILEY :)

By: Athina

Athina — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 08:09:33 +0000

@ Amanda Mallia
Just read your post about the local TV in the good old days. Don’t you remember the countless Russian and animal documentaries.

By: Meerkat :)

Meerkat :) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:37:44 +0000

@ amrio

Who said I was out?

My, you are touchy

By: Amanda Mallia

Amanda Mallia — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:10:59 +0000

Romegas – “Who will replace Jason?” – Gerald Fenech, possibly!

By: amrio

amrio — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:39:53 +0000

@Meerkat

As far as I know, that’s 2 nice women mentioned in this blogas opposed to about 50, largely olden men!

Anyway… myself, Guzeppi, and M Brincat were having some heavy discussions about economics while you were out… and I just put in a Carla Bruni note to alleviate the atmosphere.

By: Don Mangion

Don Mangion — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:41:35 +0000

This might be very interesting…a PBS ‘MLP’ Journalist expresses his pre and post-election emotions on Hi5
http://www.hi5.com/friend/profile/displayScrapbook.do?userid=44586040

By: Ronnie

Ronnie — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:38:07 +0000

@ Daphne

I don’t agree with you totally that inflation is caused only by Malta approaching full employment and NOT the introduction of the Euro. I think inflation in Malta is being caused by a number of different things, such as low unemployment, a growing economy, relatively low interest rates and international factors such as the rising price of oil and cereals. However I do think that a part of the inflation can be attributed to the introduction of the Euro due to the rounding up effect. This happens with most currency changeovers. How much of the actual inflation figure can be attributed to Euro changeover is hard to tell.

Nevertheless I am still a very firm beleiver that adopting the Euro will be a very positive experience. What one really needs to consider though is the average inflation over a 5 or 10 year period. I’m positive that the 5 or 10 year average with the Euro will be lower than if the Lira were still in place.

By: Meerkat :)

Meerkat :) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:31:18 +0000

@ amrio

re carla bruni comment.

Now who’s dragging this blog down ej?

PS @ Daphne I am not flirting. I am just making a valid observation.

By: Ronnie

Ronnie — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:20:44 +0000

I would also like to add that the most competitive countries in the world are not the ones where labour is cheap. In fact if one had to look at the list compiled by Forbes, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland are amongst the countries who consistently place in the top 10.

Should Malta restrain wages? Definitely not, but it should not also artificially raise wages by giving automatic COLA adjustments to unproductive sectors of the economy which are not linked to productivity increases.

With regards to R&D, yes you are right it is the private sector which makes the bulk of the investment in this field, but Government policy and incentives can definitely be a driver to increase this. It is also interesting to note that the countries who consistently rank high in competitiveness are the ones who spend most on R&D as a percentage of GDP.

I guess the way forward is;
investing in education (which we already do), decrease the tax burden, create a more business friendly environment.