Lying to the credulous again….my, my, my
'Every day I wake up and thank God for making me lucky enough to marry an ekonomista.'
Unbelievable. There Joseph Muscat goes again on Inkontri, telling us that he is an economist when, and I repeat from my previous post, his degrees are:
Bachelor of Commerce in public policy
Master of Arts in European Affairs
PhD in management research
Not only that, but Muscat ACTIVELY AVOIDED economics. Those who take the Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) course must choose whether to major in management, marketing, economics, banking and finance, public policy, or insurance and finance.
Muscat specifically chose public policy, not economics.
But even if he had chosen economics, a first degree in the subject does not make you an economist. Nor does a second, or even a third if you don’t work or research in the field.
Joseph Muscat doesn’t even have one degree in economics (so, no academic background in the field) – and, precisely because he has no academic background in the field, he couldn’t work in economics either (so, no work background in the field).
And yet he and those around him tell us repeatedly that he is an economist.
How can anyone be so stupid as to lie blatantly about something which, to quote his deputy Anglu Farrugia, is on the record?
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Daphne, seriously, being an economist, public policy maker, kennies, bennej, whatever, doesn’t change my and I think any reasonable person’s image, about Joseph Muscat. the fact that he brings better arguments, ideas, and a better form of govt alone, willl suffice to vote for his party and his ideas in 2013 (if they are based on the same principles as today’s)
[Daphne – Yes, I know. Labour voters are very undemanding. Their party can sell them pretty much anything. The Nationalist Party has a hard time with its electors for the opposite reason.]
Ahhhh at last my comment that I posted at 10 am this morning was adhered to. Thank you for that Daphne.
[Daphne – I do not employ elves to upload comments. I do them myself, to be on the safe side and so this website doesn’t end up looking like others that will go unmentioned. When the freaks crowd into the bar, the better customer moves on. This applies to comments-boards as it does to bars. Try to be patient and not so….Labour.]
True True the elector really give the PN hard time, hearing the PN supporters defending a failed transport sytem, which is still a fail after 4 months shows this, no :P. By the way, wikipedia seems to be serving you right….my teacher when I was 10 used to tell me don’t copy paste from wikipedia because anyone can edit that information……but I excuse you for no one telling you this because computers were not even invented when you were a student….
[Daphne – I don’t use Wikipedia, my dear. That’s the first port of call for people who don’t know how to work their way around the internet. You know, people like those who vote Labour.]
But the fact that he makes himself out to be an economist when he’s not is unfair to voters, irrespective of whether he’s worth voting for or not.
Matthew, may I ask why is it unfair ON VOTERS, if he forms a more suitalbe govt than the current, wouldd it change your image of a person whether he is a manager or an economist even though he provides better solutions for our country? COuse if that is the basis on which you vote, man you have a problem…..
[Daphne – The problem is not that he isn’t an economist (two lawyers have made this country what it is today, if we’re talking prime ministers), but that he lies repeatedly about it and lets others to do so too.]
“Two lawyers made this country what it is today”- Bet they are FA u LG….lol two persons who benefited and are still benefiting from investments guaranteed by il-Perit……..erga uza wikipedia sabiha u fittex fuq il Perit u skopri kemm hajtek setet tkun differenti minghajr l interventi tieghu….m ghandiex aptit nsemmi x ghamel u x m ghamilx, never ending
[Daphne – Look, this blog is for people with some brains (regardless of how they vote). There are enough comments-boards, blogs, social networks and forums for people without them, so don’t come here cluttering up this space as well. Bye.]
Michael – follow the first rainbow that you see – you never know, maybe you’ll find a pot of gold. But be careful, because there might be the leprechaun who owns that gold, hidden behind a rock.
James Tyrell doesn’t own any gold.
Forsi ghax ghandu il-low level?
[Daphne – Jien ghandi l-ay. Jigiferi jien ekonomista ukoll? Ahhh! Nista naghtija ghal-leader tal-Partit Laburista wara l-2018.]
Yes. I can see you addressing a PL meeting with a party scarf round your neck. You have Marisa and Jason on one side and ….. Don’t tell me… you kept Anglu as your deputy. The Labour crowd is shouting … Viva Daphne, Viva Daphne, hej, hej.
[Daphne – Oh you know them, they’ll vote for anything, even a man in a wig.]
Mur arak tispjegalhom il-mittelklass waqt xi tombla…..
Hahaaa, what a joke of PM would we have, “gvern immexxi minni”
He knows he can get away with it, Daphne. Even you continually state that this cretin is in all probability going to be elected prime minister in less than 18 months’ time.
With that in mind, conjuring an image of himself that is not true is not worrying at all. The majority of the electorate seems to be buying it anyway.
Poor Malta.
Even more poor, when this ‘intellectual economist’, with his ‘economic guru’ sidekicks, an architect and an accountant, tank the economy.
Just for di rekort, the Marketing and Insurance and Finance majors certainly didn’t exist back then, and I’m not sure about Banking and Finance either. For di rekort.
If Joseph Muscat is an economist, then I’m an orthopaedic surgeon.
One does not have to have a Phd or even a Bachelor degree in economy to be a prime minister, or a successful prime minister for that matter. Both Thatcher and Merkel, successful political leaders of powerful countries, have degrees in science, and coincidentally both in chemistry.
Of course they benefitted from a pool of economic consultants, and may themselves had a flair for it.
Also, it does not mean that non-economics B.Com graduates do not have ‘any’ academical background in the subject. Such courses may contain introductory modules in economics even if it is not the main area. So though economists they are not, its not that they do not know what they are talking about. In fact Dom Mintoff, Eddie Fenech Adami and Alfred Sant can all be said to have some academic background in economics.
[Daphne – Sandro, I KNOW that you don’t have to be an economist to run the country. In fact, it’s a whole lot better if you’re not one. The point I make is something else entirely: that Muscat and those around him are lying.]
It is also debatable to say that such politicians, especially leaders in government or not, being actively involved and decisive in the macroeconomics of the country, are not actually working in economics. Christine Lagarde, an ex-French minister of Economic Affairs and now the new IMF boss, has only a Masters in Political Science.
[Daphne – Again, the point is NOT that Muscat is unfit to become prime minister because he is not an economist. The point is that he is lying about being an economist. I trust this is now clear.]
The point is that if he saw fit to lie about this, only God knows what other lies he mightl resort to in order to attain his ambitions.
The end justifies the means – Joseph Muscat
Can anyone explain what Dr Joseph Muscat meant by using the formula ‘Return of Capital Employed’ as a way to lower water and electricity tariffs?
‘Capital employed’ is a term which is difficult to define especially when out of context.
Dr Muscat used this term several times including in today’s budget speech, saying it’s one of his methods to decrease expenses thus reducing power tariffs.
Does this mean he will be excluding the cost of capital used in production of electricity?
Depreciation is an accounting method for allocating cost over its useful life. An annual deduction calculated as an expense, in this case allocating the cost of the power station over period of years. Does he mean excluding depreciation of assets employed in the production of electricity?
Ciccio inti smajta din?
Leonard, unlike Joseph, I do not claim to be an economist.
But, from my understanding of finance, for any project investment, e.g. in a power station, to be viable, and hence to be financed by external creditors, it has to show that it will pay back the original investment and a rate of return.
This is tested via a business financial plan that must show that the revenues (net of costs) will sustain the desirable rate of return, like an interest rate of return. A better term is the “rate of return on capital employed.”
For some reason, Joseph has been convinced that he as a Prime Minister can reduce that rate.
Now that rate as I know it is not a political rate. It is an economic rate.
Therefore, Joseph as a politician and MP, (and we now also know that he is not an economist) cannot interfere with that rate which, I understand, was proposed by experts. Actually, I wouldn’t trust a politician who ignores expert advice.
If the rate of return can be scientifically reduced, then one can afford to reduce the revenue, the tariffs in this case.
But there is a serious risk that if the rate of return is reduced arbitrarily and politically, solely to install someone as Prime Minister in Castille, then the project can become unsustainable, the foreign capital will be withdrawn or there will be pressure for its early repayment.
Now that would be what I would call the “return of capital employed”!
Joseph Muscat should explain that himself. He used the term in an explanation of another nebulous concept: ‘inbaxxu l-kontijiet tad-dawl u tal-ilma’.
Forsi ser jaghmel bhal-dawk il brillanzi tal-Labour ta’ qablu, jibaxxi d-dawl u anke il-pressjoni fil-kannen tal-ilma, allura ninies jigu mgiela juzaw inqas, ergo, il-kontijiet tad-dawl u tal-ilma jitbaxxew ukoll.
Did anyone else hear Joseph Muscat on TV yesterday, saying “niddekriminalizzaw l-omosesswalita”?
[Daphne – Oh thank God you heard it too. I thought I had imagined it, and when I turned to my husband for verification, he had tuned him out already. I thought he was referring to Labour’s obsession – and other lie – that it ‘discriminalised homosexuality’]
Allura l’LGBT tal-PL qed thaddan il-kriminali?
Jiena se niggenen: The Times, page 13, quoting from Dr Muscat’s speech: ‘ there was also social injustice when it came to the elderly who would only benefit from the grant if they lived on their own and not if one of their children lived with them ‘
OK. Now over to page 15 BUDGET 2012 advertisment ‘elderly persons aged 80 years or more residing at home or with their family will be granted a new € 300 allowance per person per year. I wonder if the economist read the budget properly.
That is another lie that they have been repeating over and over again on One Radio . According to their interpretation , only octagerians living ON THEIR OWN will get that new allowance.