“If Labour is elected and sticks to the few promises that it has already made, I see great risks for our economy.”
Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil, on why he has decided to stand for election to the Maltese parliament (published in The Times, yesterday):
The parliamentary majority is what it is and the opinion polls speak for themselves. I do not want to sit idly by to see a change in Government and then regret not having done my part to avoid this happening.
I want to do this because I firmly believe that, despite its shortcomings, the Nationalist Party is still by far better placed to lead the country than the Labour Party. Not for the benefit of the party but for the benefit of our country.
I want my country to keep moving ahead. I do not want it to slide backwards.
Change is good, but only when it is for the better.
Not for the worse.
This is what I fear will happen if the Labour Party is elected into office.
If Labour is elected and sticks to the few promises that it has already made, I see great risks for our economy. It takes just one or two wrong decisions to put a small country like ours off track. It does not take much.
And in one or two years we could find ourselves knocking on Europe’s door for a bailout. That would spell disaster. And the risks for your job, for your children’s education and for your family’s health services are just too great to ignore.
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It is too much of a gamble to vote Labour.
Nifhem u naqbel perfettament mat-thassib tieghek Simon. Min issa tidher cara r-risposta tal-eventwali makna ta’ propaganda biex tiddefendi s-sitwazzjoni li jsib ruhu l-pajjiz fiha. “Blame it on GonziPN”.
Izda l-aqwa li nkunu ssodisfajna l-kilba ghall-poter. Il-problemi mhux nanticipawhom, izda nippruvaw insibu soluzzjoi ghalihom wara. Jekk ma jirnexxilniex … “it-tort ta’ haddiehor”.
Kif ma jisthix jitkellem hekk!
Simon Busuttil forms part of the very system that’s systematically pushing nation states into further bankruptcy before we are ‘saved’ by the money-creating despots at the ECB.
The man is a walking scam! When the time comes I will be writing a piece on the comings and goings of this Busuttil character and I’ll make sure he won’t have a hairline’s crack for a libel.
Tghidx kemm ser tahleb, Sajm, la jigi il-waqt – u tghidx li ma haqqekx ghax meta titnejjek bin-nies issib kappell jigik.
Yes, Kev. Maybe Simon should speak like Francois Hollande did before the French elections. Let us spend more to stimulate the economy.
And then, after the elections, you get this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/10/francois-hollande-cut-public-spending
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2206042/Fresh-headache-Francois-Hollande-figures-French-business-suffered-worst-month-years.html?ITO=1490
You’re misreading the whole thing, ciccio, but enough of Simon, I’m hardly in the business of digging up other people’s trash anyway (we know who the expert is).
I don’t want to predict that Malta will eventually need a ‘bailout’, although if we’re forced to pour more borrowed money into the ESM bottomless pit we’d eventually come to that. (Busuttil should be defining what’s happening, not pre-judging Muscat over a crisis that’s not of his making.)
It’s been four years since the financial collapse was triggered. It did not appear to collapse because the house of cards was globally stacked up with plenty of newly monetised fiat money, mainly from the NY Fed ($16 trillion by the last count, covering 2009-10).
I will spare you the details, but there have been several stages to this controlled collapse, and we now come to the final stages.
So far, very little monetisation of the euro has taken place – even if inflationary measures have not seized. The ECB has laregly been relying on the infamous ‘dollar swaps’ with the NY Fed (an 8-trillion dollar slush fund) to feed its LTROs (cheap loans to eurozone banks). But with ‘unlimited bond-buying’ as the ECB’s next ‘resort’ – I would say ‘step’ – (strongly opposed by sensible people at the Bundesbank) the monetisation phase is essentially geared to start.
So we get what’s being dubbed as the Fed’s ‘QEternity’, meaning monthly quantative easing ad eternum… meaning printing OUR way out of the quadrillion-dollar global Ponzi scheme, and we get the ECB’s OTM (‘outright monetary transactions’) – which is not exactly QE, since the new liquidity is supposedly sponged back (ask not how), but it’s the ECB’s back-door sleight of hand towards monetisation over the Bundesbank’s soon-to-be-dead body.
Unlimited QE does not necessarily lead to hyper-inflation, either. For with negative gowth comes deflation – everything gets cheaper – which to a degree offsets the central bankers’ inflationary policies [global (hyper)inflation does not act the same way as localised, Weimar-style hyperinflation (or Zimbabwe-style, for that matter)].
To cut it short, we are in the final phases. The EU-ECB power-grab is highly visible for those who are eager to know; the collapse of indebted nation states continues while the Spanish bailout and its domino-effect keep looming. But soon Mario ‘Goldman-Sachs’ Draghi will emerge from the heavens to redeem us all from our financial sins (which were in fact the result of a Faustian pact between governments hungry for money and central bankers/banks eager to appease. This collapse has thus been long foreseen, if not outrightly managed).
The euro will survive, of course. If the Soviets managed to keep the zombie rouble alive for 70 years there’s no reason why the European central bankers should fail. It’s very easy, actually: just remove democratic control over monetary policy and manage the slaves super-centrally with paper/digital money (a cashless society would be perfect for this purpose).
So what does all this have to do with a future Labour government? Is a future Labour government in a position to influence matters at the ECB?
This is some of what Simon Busuttil fails to say, although, to be fair, he’s been fed so much bird feed he’d think meat is a conspiracy theorist’s fantasy.
One last point: With this whole thing being a slow-motion train crash, if it’s prolonged long enough the little apparatchik himself may be facing what he’s wishing for little Joseph from Beau Murad.
Kev, you need to have your body temperature checked.
The rectal method gives the most accurate reading.
Kev, so many words to tell us that the end of the world is nigh.
Thanks for the tip – I’ll board my flying saucer as soon as possible and find another galaxy to live in.
That’s not what the piece says Vella, you idiot. It’s not even beyond your mainstream BS staple. What are you, some kind of profs? That would explain why you’re so utterly moronic and unable to offer a sound critique.
“Your flying saucer…” eh? But you forgot to spot the error, profs – it should be ‘ceased’, not ‘seized’… harbitli profs, bhal ma hrabtilhom int.
Basta professur – u ma jaf xejn!
Ciccio, min imaqdar irid jixtri. Let me assure you that what I wrote is all factual, even if compressed to the point where nearly every single sentence contains a whole volume’s worth of facts.
I have not even touched any of what morons call ‘conspiracy theory’. If I go there the ‘nejxin of cindrins’ would think I’m from another planet.
Haven’t any of you lot yet realised that you’re playing the man, rather than the ball? And you’re doing a lousy job at that, too. I can assure you, for example, that Antoine Vella, who seems to own a flying saucer, has no clue what an OTM is, or how QE works, or what the ESM treaty states… And if he commits himself to a search, he’ll come up with so many threads he won’t be able to put one next to the other. That’s why most of you here prefer to play the man – it stems from a frustrated ego nagged by a subconscious mind that says: ‘I don’t know enough of this stuff to nail this Kev to the wall’.
Kev,
would you like to meet a Rotschild?
That doesn’t make much sense, Jozef, and it wouldn’t have been any better even if you had spelt his name correctly.
Honestly.
Kev, you say “just remove democratic control over monetary policy and manage the slaves super-centrally…”
Let’s be honest with the truth and talk about basic concepts without making them seem too complex, like you do.
Since when is monetary policy one to be controlled democratically?
Central banks are expected to be autonomous institutions that deal with money, its issue, its control and its price (interest rates). These are economic and market issues, not democratic issues.
It is precisely because of the democratic control – i.e. the political interference of governments with the ability of central bankers to raise interest rates in the early part of the 2000s that the world experienced the financial crisis.
Governments were happy to see ‘economic expansion’ and new house affordability through mortgages at low interest rates. So no political pressure was put on central bankers to raise interest rates when the bubble was developing.
How predictable you are ciccio. But that’s the Catch 22 element you’re talking about, isn’t it?
The crisis had its beginnings precisely when money ceased to be money and became fiat paper money (see Bretton Woods I and II). The corruptibility of politicians became easier when central banks could print money at whim. But the more autonomy were the central bankers given, the more power they exerted over those same incompetent politicians ever in need of money to bribe the people with what we call ‘re-distribution’ of ‘wealth’.
And now, what has long been foreseen has happened.
But keep your eyes on the ball before parroting that mainstream bull: the trillions that the central banks pump out, including those nasty ‘bailouts’, go straight into commercial banks – and that’s where the spinner is – and also where the unpayable soverign debts emerge from.
You say, “These are economic and market issues, not democratic issues.” Yes, ciccio, these are market issues, so why do central banks mess about with interest rates when it is the market that should be establishing that – and that works organically when you have sound money.
You yourself mentioned the ‘power of central bankers to raise interest rates’. That dabbling is only a part of the Ponzi scheme. If money is to be printed, then let the treasury print it debt-free, but if we want to prevent the erosion of the middle class, then we need sound money – the type no banker or treasury can dabble with.
This is a very short answer ciccio. I understand your perspective clearly, for I live in the same world. I, however, see beyond your illusion and it’s never easy to explain it in a way that you may understand since there are too many branches to go through.
Enslaving whole nations through death is as old as the Bible, ciccio. That’s why you live in the land of Pollyanna.
Last sentence: ‘death’ should read ‘debt’ of course – quite a Freudian slip, that…
Also, ciccio, concerning the central banks’ power to raise interests, the spinner is in lowering those rates for their banks to re-lend at much higher rates. Raising interest rates in the past was just part of the ‘business cycle’ ploy… you know, like raising sheep and shearing them once in a while.
Kev, keep in mind that there are thousands who work in finance; none of whom would be impressed, to put it mildly, by your Continuous Repetitive Acronym Phenomenon.
Anyone with a half a brain will ignore rantings that touch upon a million topics. What you bombastically describe as a statement that is “compressed to the point where nearly every single sentence contains a whole volume’s worth of facts” is, quite simply, useless.
Kevvy, as usual, you’re off the rails again.
Daphne’s column in the Independent today says that you are allowed to voice your opinion on any matter.
However, please think through your scribblings before posting. This one demonstrates that you utilize warped logic.
Daphne also allows me to say that you are a nonentity in the scheme of things and also an idiot.
And what time would that be, Kev? The dawn of The Great Feminist Goverment which will unashamedly promoted Mrs Dishwasher to a position beyond her capabilities?
No, that will be when an ex-IRA comrade comes over to Joe Sammut’s. Smellymara’s not equipped to write letters to The Times.
It is all well and good to cower beneath books & rags about conspiracy theories.
So what are you actually doing about it, beyond sending cryptic and vague messages and threats to blogs here and there?
Well? ARE you doing anything about it? Still in planning phase are you?
“La jigi l-waqt”? Iddahhaqx nies – hawn bizzejjed buffuni fid-dinja.
If I was concerned about something enough, and I was really worried about it, I would certainly not stand in a corner and sulk. I would try everything I can to prevent it happening.
I’ll give you one tip. How about starting by verifying the facts and trying to form a logical, objective and plausible explanation for them?
Ah no I forgot, it is much easier to blame “Them”, the ones who control everything and everyone.
Kev, I suggest you either let go of the Father Christmases in your head, or else leave us alone and go back to read your narrow choice of conspiracy blogs/forums etc.
And by the way, do try to occupy yourself with something productive. Write a book or something.
You wouldn’t be ‘willywonka’, would you, Esteve? Just asking.
Kevvy, you are beginning to sound like Franco Debono in drag. Self-serving, plagiarized meanderings, hiding behind a skirt.
I love it when the REAL Purdie emerges from within that inspiringly mundane genius who’s proved to be not only Nosebook’s finest applauder, but its brightest flatterer and surely the most eloquent joker in the dishwashing category.
Not a bad retort, Kevvy. However, you tipped your hand by obliquely referring to your dishwashing duties. That must truly be a downer. Such a brilliant mind reduced to such a mundane duty.
BTW, Piscopo is handing out free Kinnie aprons and I’ve saved one for you. They’re really nice, and I think it will go so well with your reddish complexion.
Well done, Simon. Thanks for joing the PN candidates. Let’s hope that your message gets through to those who are thinking of abstaining from voting just because they feel they have been done hard to, by some minister or other.
In the end what counts is how Malta will fare under a labour government-this labour lot at least.
I hope that in the future we will be lucky enough to have a serious opposition that could be trusted to govern and keep the momentum the PN has created.
Deputy prime minister Clegg has just apologised to those who voted for him because he has supported an increase in tuition fees, contrary to an electoral promise that he had given.
He explained that he should never have promised a measure that could not be financially viable.
The PL’s promises are liable to face the same problem.
That is what Dr Busuttil, and many others, see in promises that involve financial outlays that are not backed by explanations on how these measures will be financed.
Gonzi’s promises………….??????????
It never ceases to intrigue me how/why people would prefer to put a Joe Debono Grech on the government bench rather than a Simon Busuttil.
And I’m not talking about people who think they have more of a chance of getting a messenger’s job by the former than by the latter, either.
What an utter waste of brain power our opposition is going to be, whilst a bunch of mediocre, pea-brained opportunists runs the country to the ground.
I agree with Simon Busuttil, but why does the PN does not address its shortcomings?
Apart from Gonzi, Busuttil himself and a couple of others, the party is littered with people who are not fit for purpose, amongst them some close to illeterate mayors and councillors flying the PN flag, political appointees in ministers’ offices and the list goes on.
It is tragic for Malta that even with its shortcomings, the PN is still the better option for the country.
“If Labour is elected and sticks to the few promises that it has already made, I see great risks for our economy. It takes just one or two wrong decisions to put a small country like ours off track. It does not take much.”
Actually, it takes less than one or two wrong decisions to put a small country like ours off track.
In fact, it will be the economic UNCERTAINTY created by the new Labour government that will spell a disaster.
It is the UNCERTAINTY that flows from the fact that Labour has opposed almost everything this government has done, but it proposed no clear alternative policy.
Let us take water and electricity tariffs as an example.
Joseph Muscat said he will reduce them in a “sustainable” manner.
His Deputy, Anglu Farrugia, promised BondiPlus that he will tell us HOW the water and electricity tariffs will be reduced “the moment there is a plan” (“fil-mument li jkun hemm il-pjan”).
Meaning that there is still no plan, because otherwise they would have told us.
So let us say they are elected to govern. We are bound to spend one or two years devising ways and schemes to reduce water and electricity tariffs sustainably.
Meanwhile:
(i) The international price of oil will be rising – there might even be a war on Iran soon.
(ii) Enemalta’s creditors will get jittery about their loans to the corporation. Enemalta’s ongoing and new projects will be put at risk.
(iii) Local industry and business will be faced with uncertainty about the price of electricity, and the uncertainty about the future constant supply of power from Enemalta which will come under major financial pressure.
(iv) The government deficit will increase, reflecting some short-term decisions by the government about water and electricity bills, and pressure mounts from international credit agencies, the EU and the IMF about the mismanagement of government finances.
We have seen this before in 1996-1998 with VAT and CET.
Meanwhile, the ones to benefit will be those who waste water and electricity and the usual sangi-sugi who are normally harboured by the Malta Labour Party.
And this is just water and electricity. Shall we now discuss economic growth?
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=150925
I agree with most , but not all of what was said in this excellent article.
No one should allow basic human rights like freedom of expression to be held at ransom by the threat of violence from extremists or fundamentalists, irrespective of sex, race, politics or creed.
“And in one or two years we could find ourselves knocking on Europe’s door for a bailout.”
Sorry but Simon Busuttil better not speak about the economy. He has no idea. Bailout ? Bailout for what ?
Ejja ma nibdewx inbezzaw bil-babaw. PLEASE Simon don’t treat us like imbecilles cos babaw won’t work.
A bailout so that we can subsidise your water and electricity bills.
What Dr. Simon Busuttil says here is so very true. That happened in 1971 when Mintoff and his party were trusted into power.
I remember well the prophetic slogan “Thalluhx ikisser lil Malta” referring to Dom Mintoff.
It happened again when Alfred Sant was elected to the premiership office.
He abolished VAT and replaced it with CET and by so doing he destroyed the fiscal system which took fiscal experts several years to build and threw the country into serious financial troubles.
It took several years to rebuild the system and recoup the mammoth financial losses incurred by the big blunder of Alfred Sant.
I like Simon Busuttil. He’s soft-spoken but firm and invites respect.
He’s reliable and extremely competent.
I’m certain that he will get elected and be a minister if PN gets re-elected into government, albeit its slim chance of winning the next election.
I am pretty sure that yesterday Franco’s blog contained a post about his haiku book called Almond Blossoms. There was a very flattering preface on Franco and his poetic skill allegedly written by Prof Peter Serracino Inglott.
The post seems to have disappeared from the blog. I wonder why he removed it. I smell another of Franco’s fabrications here.
For years on end, Nationalist governments have striven and succeeded to build a very strong financial sector in Malta, now reaching mammoth proportions – managing 50bn euro worth of assets.
Undoubtedly the right economic and political climate have been crucial in obtaining these unbelievable results. Can the labour party guarantee a continuation of this unprecedented economic success?
http://gozonews.com/23799/banks-paid-dividends-of-overe55m-to-resident-shareholders/
Maybe the rumours of Gonzi packing it in are true after all.
Dr Busuttil looks like a sheep talks like a sheep but acts like a wolf.
I m sure Dr Drake could shed some light on this guy.
.
He’s the future of politics in Malta.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120920/local/labour-renews-promise-to-cut-energy-tariffs-without-new-burdens.437741
Some buzz words and a load of crap unless we find oil, in which case it is a whole new ball game. I bet the Great Leader believes he can pull it off.
Whoever wins the election next time will have a very tough job.
I would not like to be in their shoes.
Poor Simon leaving his MEP job to become a member of parliament/minister. I am sure that he has other aspirations,such as being declared leader of the party.(hopefully after an election)
Oh dear! Listening to Labour takes me back to the ‘dark’ ages. Dr Busuttil thanks for shedding a ray of light. Sliemizi show your worth by casting your vote.
Are you people FUCKING SERIOUS???!!!!! My God, I have never seen such brainwashed people!!! The only reason why the PL will request a bailout is cause of the 6 BILLION euro debt that your corrupt government got us over the last 25 years!! Mela ma tisthux jew??
Now let’s see if the fugly roadkill bitch running this blog has the guts to publish my comment
Simon is giving up a lot in taking up this step. He is giving up his position as an MEP, one which he has taken very seriously and is very passionate about, to contest the election on the NP ticket where even if he is successful he is very nearly assured a place on the Opposition benches.
At a personal level to choose to do this, to give up what is obviously a challenging and exciting job, not to mention extremely lucrative, to assist the Nationalist Party at the next election which it is most certain to lose, is nothing short of commedable. Simon’s selfless actions only highlight Joseph muscat’s opportunism even more.
He stayed onas MEP as long as he could to ensure he was on the gravy train and would get his lucrative pension. He then returned when his leadership of the MLP was all but assured purchasing a seat in parliament from the hapless Cuschieri.
Of misguided souls who want change for the heck of it.
The bailout comment does sound like an exaggeration!
I always remark that LP are never concrete (like in that article about being them most femminist government – nothing concrete). But here, there’s nothing concrete in what Simon says:
– What promises is he referring to?
– How would they be of detriment to Malta?
I can guess what he’s referring to. But we need more concrete discussions, less speculation.
Santo Subito!
What Simon forgot to mention is that it is consecutive Nationalist governments and their dismal handling of the public coffers that brought about such a possibility.
Suffice to have a look at what’s happening in Italy. Our neighbours themselves too were close to knock on the EU doors to ask for bail out funds, but it can hardly be stated that it is Mario Monti’s incompetence. It is actually previous governments’ squandering of public funds and spiralling of debt.
Just like what has happened during Gonzi’s reign. Just check the numbers.
What Simon forgot to mention is that it is socialist leeches like you and your constant demands for free government services and subsidised utility rates that brought about such a possibility.
Yes, the government is squandering public funds, but it is merely following the people’s wishes.
What the hell do you know or pretend to know about me, you pretentious twat.
My wife and I send our kids to a private school, we both work full time, have our own family health insurance paid out of our own pockets, and pay our taxes to the last cent.
And apart from this, by your own admission, the Government is squandering my (and presumably) your money. And that doesn’t sound good does it?
[Daphne – If somebody with the mental age of 13 has a wife and children, then it’s time to call in social services, I think.]
A rich socialist eh? That’s even worse than a leech.
‘My wife and I send our kids to a private school, we both work full time, have our own family health insurance paid out of our own pockets, and pay our taxes to the last cent.’
L-ezempju tas-success ta’ GonziPN.
Bougainvillea mal-bieb ta’ barra, Renault Scenic u skiing Livigno mal-Euro Tours kull ma jonqsok.
So the goverment is SQUANDERING public funds because of the socialist leeches.
Good one Baxxter.
And the new parliament is being build because the socialist leeches just had to have it as well.
Anna Caruana, you seem to think I’m some Nazzjonalist imgiddem. I’m not. I hate socialism, and PN is getting more socialist by the minute.
Yes, PN is squandering money in an inefficient way. By inefficient I mean handing it out to those who contribute nothing to the economy and who weigh down the nation. Or spending it on useless projects to create jobs in the construction industry and keep the bazuzli happy.
But the biggest chunk of government spending (look at the figures) is wasted on free health care and stipends, the two pillars of socialist evil in Malta. Both of which Labour has promised not only to keep, but to strengthen.
In other words, Labour will be just as wasteful as PN, with the addition of subsidies on utility rates, which it has foolishly promised to lower. They need to be RAISED, not lowered.
Between socialism (PN) and greater socialism without a plan (MLP), I choose PN. Holding my nose of course, but I still choose PN.
‘Jalloud shouted at Mintoff that even the waters in Malta’s Grand Harbour fell within Libyan waters. Mintoff gave as good as he got.’
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120921/local/-Gaddafi-asked-Mintoff-to-help-him-buy-nuclear-sub-.437749
Nazzjonalist Imgiddem, dan xi kliem hu.
Let s keep it civil please.
. I think you re a conservative prickkkkkkkkk