Marlene Farrugia has become so damn full of herself. She’s been coming across as ridiculous for quite some time now, especially when her sanctimonious and highly hypocritical articles (she sits with Labour, lest we forget) are illustrated with the standard “Marlene the strict headmistress” file photo.

And the woman doesn’t even write well, for God’s sake. Have we no one else to fill our column space with?

Not to mention, that he seems to be doing his damnest to lose the money from the EU. Not one new field has been energized in the past year.

The money being loaned to the government is not even going into public infrastructural projects which will increase the stock of public goods for a higher national economic productivity in future: no new industrial estates or science parks, no new ports or airports, no new communication projects (major arterial roads, bridges, tunnels, passenger or cargo ships), no government owned power infrastructure – nada.

As you say, it is money going into recurrent expenses, down the drains: Taghna Lkoll iced buns, national celebrations, the CHOGM 2015, visits by the prime minister and a massive entourage including ‘selected media’ to distant countries to sign a worthless MOU and to taste a Peking duck, high teas for the high society and more waste.

No wonder the public debt has exploded.

Absolutely.

Then you take a look at the Malta Stock Exchange, and there’s no liquidity at all. There’s nothing to buy. So the Maltese idea of “investiment” is either the traditional massive house, for posterity, or if you’re modern and trendy, giving your money to the government so it can squander it on free concerts and iced buns.

And if the 725 former Arriva employees ‘return to the private sector’ which receives millions in subsidies, what difference does that make to the Treasury?

Can’t wait for the undeclared but preferred bidder, aka Autobuses de Leon to start service after illegal contact with Joe Mizzi during the adjudication process.

Then we shall see how happy the 725 will be and how much of a guarantee they will get regarding wages and benefits, now that the GWO has fallen silent and turned into a bowl of jelly and a gaggle of ‘yes men’.

So what are the banks doing instead? They lend money to the government – hence the Treasury closing an auction of a stock issue of Eur 100 million a full 4 days ahead of schedule because both the issue and an over-allotment of 80% were oversubscribed.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140801/local/Stock-issue-is-popular.530076

http://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2014/issue-oversubscribed/

Does Prof. Scicluna think that this is reason to celebrate?

So basically, instead of driving economic growth in the productive commercial sector, the banks are investing savers’ monies in the non-productive government sector. We now have the banks fuelling an inefficient and incompetent government which, to make matters worse, is in recruiting mode.

Way to go for our economy to be the “bust in Europe.”