Any uncertainty is caused by the fear that Joseph & Mish will be running the country soon (with Karmenu and the brontosauruses, and the random turnip)
One of the main causes of fear and uncertainty is the thought that the man on the right will be helping run the country again soon.
Another frightening and disheartening example of Joseph Muscat’s poor judgement: last year, he criticised the prime minister for not following Cyprus’s example on the economy.
Yesterday, Fitch downgraded Cyprus to just one notch above junk status.
Has there been a statement from the Labour Party? No.
Joseph Muscat is waiting for Edward Scicluna to put in his batteries or wind himself up and chug out a set of excuses.
Karmenu Vella? Hopeless.
The only thing he knows about the economy is how many blocks of flats he has to build with Charlie Mangion before he can live off the rent and retire (please God, make it soon).
Fitch left Malta’s rating untouched. So much for the instability in the country that the poor sods would have other poor sods believe there is.
Oh, and another thing, Godfrey Grima (for you were there like the ubiquitous mejda tal-qubbajd on John Bundy’s tedious show last night, with sad-sack Jeff): you’re supposed to be a wordsmith, right?
Instability and uncertainty do not mean the same thing. A unstable country is one that is on the verge of bankruptcy, where there are riots, or where there is a civil war or has just been a civil war. You know, like Libya.
What we are experiencing now is not INSTABILITY. It is UNCERTAINTY. And do you know what the cause of that uncertainty is, Godfrey, Joseph and company?
It is fear of the unknown, fear that Labour will be elected, fear of what Labour will do, fear of the fact that we don’t yet know what Labour’s policies are or what their performance is likely to be. We have a pretty good idea through past experience, but that only serves to fill us more with fear. And uncertainty.
So the more you press for an early election, the more fear and uncertainty there will be, and this fear and uncertainty comes from the very real probability that Joseph & Mish will be running the country. And we don’t think they’re up to it. The usual story: at the thought of Labour getting elected, people stop spending money because they don’t know whether they’re going to have money to spend next year.
And I’m not talking about your average Mintoffjan-impjegat-mal-gvern, either.
NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) –
Fitch Ratings on Friday downgraded the sovereign credit ratings for Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain, indicating there is a 1-in-2 chance of further downgrades in the next two years.
In its statement, Fitch said these countries have near-term vulnerability to monetary and financial shocks.
“Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch’s view, accrue the full benefits of the euro’s reserve currency status,” Fitch said.
Fitch cut Italy’s rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving that island nation just one notch above junk status.
Ireland’s rating of BBB-plus was affirmed.
All of the ratings were given negative outlooks.
“Overall, today’s rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB’s three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures,” Fitch said.
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“Instability and ucertainty do not mean the same thing. A unstable country (…)”
Check your spelling.
[Daphne – Not spelling, Richard, but typing. Obviously. Still hovering over this blog waiting for updates, are you? You vote Labour but find an anti-Labour writer more interesting.]
Just like I read The Guardian yet pop over to The Sun once a day for my fix of tabloid news.
[Daphne – Well, at least we agree on the subject of Maltastar/Malta Today being the equivalent of The Sun.]
timesofmalta.com yesterday just reported it in the world news section. I don’t know about the print version. The Labour elves at The Times are doing a real good job.
” The usual story: at the thought of Labour getting elected, people stop spending money because they don’t know whether they’re going to have money to spend next year.”
You hit then nail on the head. I have always known it that way and sorry to say I am one who will definitely do it. Sorr ghall meta tigi bzonn.
“One of the main causes of fear and uncertainty is the thought that the man on the right will be helping run the country again soon.”
The MAIN cause of fear and uncertainty is the thought that the person who will be running the country has the same ideology as the man on the left.
I simply tremble at the thought that in 400 days’ time I might have a 38 year old ‘kid’ as my prime minister.
Anybody wants to know why?
I am a 1967 baby.
I lived through the glorious years of Deserta, Catch, strike tal-linja, inkeccu l-Blue Sisters, indhil barrani, SMU, 20 punt, ma ghandniex bzonn partiti f’Malta ghax ghandna l-Labour (the words of wisdom prize in 1983 by KMB), cintorini issikkati…. and the list goes on.
The wannabe PM is talking about the glorious Mintoff, is-salvatur ta’ Malta, il-font imbierek tal-gherf.
I think he is speaking like that about Mintoff simply because he was too young to remember the reality as it was. He was too mollycodled to remember the harsh brutality of those years.
And no, time has not healed the wasted years that these were.
While Socialism is good on paper, it is put in place by imbeciles for the benefit of lazy layabouts, so that the wise guys get richer quicker.
When will we ever learn?
Up to a year ago, joseph Muscat used to say that he wants to model Malta’s economy on that of Cyprus.
He used to present / quote various statistics from Cyprus and compare them to Maltese statistics, while he barely mentioned the relevant data and the one that counted.
Now, he barely mentions Cyprus, given that it is graded one notch above junk (which means that international lenders judge that the economic policies are not credible at all).
Not only does the MLP did not come out with a single policy, but they also glorify those policies that drive countries into bankruptcy.
Joseph Muscat has no experience in business or any productive work, and his repeatedly wrong judgment proves that he has no skills whatsoever in the areas that matter in order to be PM material.
Joseph’s great success stories: Cyprus and Cyrus.
Eagerly awaiting, the elderly ‘Professor’ Scicluna’s response. Fitch’s economists and analysts, although so mewhat younger and up to date with respect to recent economic research and theory, are not politcally biased,
Does anyone know at which University he received his ‘Doctorate’, and when? Quite important, when one ascertains credibility.
[Daphne – Toronto.]
Not a bad school, if it is U of T, (I went there) and not Ryerson, for example.
Praise for Mintoff means more votes from those who did not vote Labour after he was called a traitor. That’s all – Muscat does not give a hoot for Mintoff or his policies.
What I personally fear the most about Labour being in government (apart from their past; yet being too young to experience it first hand does make it seem “less-real” when compared to those who have lived through it), is how it seems that PL is not even a political party to being within.
They speak of instability yet when listening to their “prospective ministers” individually, it becomes clear that some are on different wavelengths.
I have come to the conclusion that PL is a group of different tribes with different ideas of what it means to be “Labour”.
There are the “Mintuffjani”, the more recent “Old Labour”, and the new “Liberal” labour (for those thick enough to fall for it) .
There could be many more conceptions of it, but from what I gather, the very idea of the political party (what it stands for and whom it represents) is constantly being redefined by Mr. Muscat in a way that shows deep insecurity as to how to deal with present events and the present Maltese society.
Muscat makes his “party” seem like a cure to instability, but he’s doing what he’s expected to do: sell his party with buzz words and generalized statements to the masses (he claims to be a politician after all).