DOES THE MINISTER OF FINANCE KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING?
The Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest has taken a beating. There is a video going around of Peter Turnquest expressing condolences to the people of Bimini following the news of the first Covid 19 death last week. He was unshaven and overweight and his voice was grim. He looked like he had just been through a storm and was beaten down into the ground.
One thing they say the Englishmen used to do when they were exploring or trying to tame the jungles of Africa, you know as they were stealing other people’s lands and trying to subjugate the local population, was to ensure that they as far as they were from England kept up their traditions. And so no matter what, they dressed for dinner and carried out certain rituals so that they could protect their home civilization, even as their own home of course moved away from that version of civilization.
What is the lesson in that? As a public figure, you have to always look the part. The country takes a cue from what you do and how you look. Lesson is you can’t come on the public stage looking scruffy and defeated. That means to most of us that you are scruffy and defeated.
The financial community they say have that impression of Peter Turnquest these days. Mr. Turnquest pronounced in one newspaper headline that it was not possible for the government to save everyone. He said that the government does not intend to borrow any more for this crisis. We find these all strange things to say. If he thinks that government cannot save everyone, then he should resign now and go to a monastery. If the government does not borrow money then it will have no cash in a millisecond.
In fact all through the financial community last week the talk was that the banks have lost confidence in Mr. Turnquest and his Ministry of Finance because they simply cannot depend on the work of the ministry and its data. The talk is that people keep asking the question does the Minsker of Finance know what the hell he is doing?
There is a serious cash crunch in the country. This is an undisclosed fact and at the end of the day the Government will look to its Minister of Finance to solve the problem. Will he be able to step up to the plate?
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