Malta’s debt is Eur5.5 billion, and the Finance Minister boasts that Eur20 million will “reduce it”
Published:
December 5, 2014 at 2:10am
Times of Malta’s headline says that Malta’s debt will go down further with contributions from the Investment Registration Scheme. It uses the Finance Minister’s boast.
It gives the total of those contributions – Eur20 million – yet fails to report what the extent of Malta’s debt is, presumably because the Finance Minister didn’t mention it either (because it doesn’t suit him).
Malta’s debt is Eur5.5 BILLION, next to which Eur20 MILLION barely figure.
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According to the Times of Malta website, ‘he said that more funds from another scheme would be added to the country’s coffers later’
What other scheme?
All government ministers and the prime minister are using this tactic.
They take a small piece of information, preferably a value or a place out of reach to the average person – in this case Eur20,000,000 (when they know that even the Police Minister gets tangled up in his zeros).
They do not give the context – in this case, the Eur5,500,000,000 debt. Then, just in case someone wises up and points to what should have been obvious, they put a hazy back door at the end to use to appease any doubt, in this case his mention of another scheme for which neither the name nor the amount or other conditions are given.
Once you see this pattern, it’s fun really (if we did not have to live the reality of it) to spot the tactic in action.
Chris Cardona discovered a conflict of interest in one of the members of a board, but he does not say who it is or what the conflict was exactly, so we cannot confirm or reject his declaration, and probably even the board members themselves are none the wiser, having all declared that they have no conflict.
He then adds that this was one of the reasons for which he did not interfere (but stopped the process) and he states that he also has other reasons which he arrogantly does not give, the typical back door which he can use if shown up.
Has anyone ever seen a liar put his cards squarely on the table all at once? He wouldn’t because a liar needs to morph his lies according to the evolution of the exposed truth and hazy info and vague promises are his means of survival.
The sooner Simon Busuttil gets there to take the bull by the horns, the better.
This lot keep on busting the jackpot machine.
Debt levels across the EU are only bound to rise, more so now that the only solution to the Eurozone woes is to print more money.
Think about that. The solution to the financial and economic crisis lies in creating more euros out of thin air, emerging out of the ECB as debt, running through the banking system at close to zero interest, yielding them further profits through the fractional reserve Ponzi scheme and on to the plebs and their governments at relatively exorbitant interest rates.
Not bad for money that never really existed. The interest on that debt is paid in hard work, of course. And it’s perpetual.
I pity the savers. But we’re all in perpetual servitude.
Just add to that the rigged markets and the continuous pursuit of lowering the price of gold.
“Currency wars lead to trade wars which eventually lead to world wars”. GC
Oh, definitely, Mike. But then you’d have to add a whole long list and you’d lose them.
This guy is way out of his depth, or he has checked out and is the lame duck waiting to replace Louis Galea.
I do not think he is either capable of dealing with or eager to deal with the financial mess and abnormal deficits that this governments is creating.
Those 20 million euros will not be enough to cover their travel expenses at the rate they are going.
This guy is off the planet. He talks about a 0.36 reduction to the global debt.
That is less than half of one per cent.
The next international financial event – be it resources going up or whatever will have much greater impact on the debt than this minuscule amount.
Not to mention the blow outs of government funded infrastructure projects which are always delayed and always cost more than planned. How much was that estimate for the Gozo bridge?
Incompetence reigns: plans, schemes, and other by-the-seat-of-your-pants Mintoffian delights.
We were warned. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120929/opinion/Avoiding-Mintoffianomics.438842
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t that the equivalent of €20 out of €5,500? If so, we can all put our minds at rest…..not!
He’s been taking lessons in creative mathematics from Cornered Rat Mizzi.
The learned Energy Minister on Dissett could not give a straight answer to the question as to how the government is going to deal with the Eur234 million loss caused by the energy road map delay. All his other answers were the usual ones that he rehearsed back in the election campaign and which remain so dear to him.
People do not believe them anymore and that’s a major problem which they themselves created in a mere 20 months. So now, they reason that might as well keep us in the dark and feed us fertilizer.
Was it not one million euro per person buying a passport. So am I to understand that only 20 people accepted this offer to bring talent to Malta.
Most probably. People in the know tell me that the IIP is a flop.
Hey was it not planned that these funds would be used for a specific purpose, like research and development or something in this line.
It was meant to plug holes in the budget. I stand to be corrected.
Not enough to pay for the public bus transport losses of one year.
0.36….%
Wahda minn hafna kretinati li jghid il-Profs ta’ l-ekonomija. Imsieken dawk l-istudenti li ghaddew minn taht idejh.
Qisek mort fuq il-mara jew ragel tieghek u ghedtlu, “Veru ghandna dejn ta’ 500,000 ewro imma din is-sena sa ndahhlu 20 ewro extra biex inkomplu innaqsu id-dejn.”
Nista’ biss nimmagina ir-reazzjoni fuq wicc il-parti l-ohra.
Expect a press release next time he finds 10c on the street.
Hello, Greece and Cyprus, here we come.
Tonio Fenech gave them quite a bashing yesterday in parliament regarding the public debt.
He had figures for the increase in public debt per month going from the pre-Sant PN administration, through the Sant disaster and right to the present day, showing that the debt is currently increasing at a rate unmatched over the last 25 years and at a rate almost double the rate when he was in charge.
The debt is only 27,500% more than contributions from the Investment Registration Scheme. What’s the fuss?
Maybe it’s worth pointing out again that government debt finances payment:
. to the prime minister for the use of his personal car and to his driver
. for Michelle Muscat’s car and personal driver even when she’s on one of her many shopping trips
. to Michelle Muscat’s pointless minder who walks ahead of her rather than behind to literally protect her back,
. to Paul Sheehan and his replacement (with or without a Glock) even when he’s babysitting the police minister’s children
. to Sheehan’s boss the police minister’s outriders who would be more usefully redeployed on real police duty
. to you-know-who-he-is despite his dubious personal and professional record
. to Willie Mangion who’s still looking for a garage
. to Sai Mizzi who is still looking for an office and needs a house, car, driver, healthcare, school fees and a hefty salary to do so because she needs to buy her own pillows and sheets
. to Owen Bonnici who’s had to move into his office full time to escape his real home and indulge his Super One mistress
. to Ramona Attard and Kurt Farrugia to issue the occasional press release and evade questions most of the time
. to convicted criminal Cyrus Engerer and his boyfriend Randolph so that they can feel important in Brussels instead of Valletta
. to various lackeys, sycophants, and hangers on to reward them for putting this ship of fools into power.
.
My fear is that we are heading to becoming a third world country, by destroying the middle class like many infamous dictators did, Malta will end up by having a privileged moneyed political elite and a giant lower working class.
[Daphne – Malta already has a giant ‘lower working class’. These things are not defined by money. In the European (non-American) context, social class is not assessed on the basis of money, work and accoutrements, but mainly on values and attitudes. Remember that homeless man in Dublin I featured in a video on this site last year? He was undeniably middle class, perhaps beyond that, despite being homeless on the streets. Meanwhile, Philip Green, the billionaire clothing magnate, is undeniably working class. People like Joseph Muscat and the massive, great swathe of the population which he epitomises just don’t understand this.]
I was intrigued to read in Dominic Fenech’s obituary of Lino Spiteri that his friend hailed from “the lower rung of the working class”.
I never realised that the working class was divided into so many strata.
I suppose Fenech should know.
.
Just two strata. Or he’d have said “lowest”.
And if Lino Spiteri is from the lower rung, where does that place the rest of us? At ground level, beneath the ladder?
Don Manwel weighed in. According to his calculations:
20, 000, 000,000 Euros (20 million) – 5.500, 000, 000 (5.5 billion) leave Malta a profit of 19999999994.5 Euros.
Daphne, get your facts right before sullying his reputation and vast intelligence. Xiz-zigg !
Another 274 ingenious schemes like this one and the debt problem is solved.
Edgar, this is not the sale of passport scheme, but registration of undeclared investments. Apparently another registration scheme was added, towards the end, for undeclared cash.
Oh, it’s a scheme for scoundrels.
By the time that €20m reaches our treasury, the effects of inflation, discounting and expenses incurred (commissions included) would have eroded a huge chunk of it.