Anybody can start a political party...

... but that does not mean that it is a good thing. Now, in our beautiful country, it seems that as soon as some people learn to write their names on a piece of paper that they qualify to become politicians. And do not give them small government job because then you nah spoil it. When you go look, they will force their crowd of boys to join their new party. Before you go look, some obscure, never heard of group will step forward and endorse them. That is when the infighting starts for who is who in the party. Egos get stepped on. All this, and no one has yet proclaimed a political doctrine, not to mention registered the party with the National Elections Commission. The common denominator here is the blown up egos, crowd of boys, no political doctrine other than opposition. So after a while you have the same amount of political parties as you have egocentric maniacs. The next step is these weird coalitions with just as strange acronyms. When you go look again, the infighting starts again over the different posts in the coalition. You all see the pattern here right.

Supply and demand

L$187.6225/US$1.00 The more demand for any product, the more will be the price of it. The less the supply of something, the more the price. These are the two major facts in economic theory. The important lesson here is that to solve the problem you have to supply more of the scarce product. Or find a way to decrease the demand of the scarce product. There is unfortunately no piece of legislation that can do anything about this. Solution: Find a way to make the flow of US dollars into the country increase. Produce things that can be sold abroad to bring in foreign currency.

Our neighbor

L$182.6281/US$1.00 Meanwhile in Sierra Leone. After eleven months in office, the new Sierra Leonean president has put measures in place to encourage a boost in agriculture. They have also implemented a central govenment account for the collection of revenue. These measures have gained approval from the IMF and World Bank. Things are looking up for our neighbors, for us, not so much. We are concentrating on building mansions for ourselves.

One, two, three

L$172.5305/US$1.00 One, two, three.

New money, old problem.

L$170.1264/US$1.00 and counting. Our Finance minister has proclaimed that in order to solve our currency problem we will have to change our currency. Changing the currency will do nothing but make it worse, and it will not solve the real issue. We import almost everything that is consumed in our country. For this the importers need foreign exchange (US dollars). If the importer cannot get a hold of US dollars, they can´t import goods and go out of business. So, to insure a steady supply of US dollars, the price will continue to increase. In order to counter this, you have to either stop importing all your goods and producing your own goods or even begin to export your goods for foreign exchange. This is simple economics. There is nothing that the government can do about this except encourage people to produce goods to export.

Freedom of speech

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please listen up. The cost of living gets so high, the rich and poor, they start to cry. Now that we must get strong, they say oh, what a tribulation. Them belly full but we hungry. A pot has cooked but the yield´s not nuff. L$166.0221/US$1.00 Today the minister of State for Presidential Affairs has sued the host of the Costa show!! Can you imagine.

Banana republic

If only we could once again become a banana republic. That would be a great step up from what we have become. The problem is that a banana republic produces and exports bananas for foreign exchange. We will never get this far. We do not produce anything that is worthwile to export, so we have to import everything. We import everything that we wear, eat, drink, communicate with. Ladies and gentlemen, we import eggs, orange juice, rice, meat, chicken, fish, beer. The list goes on and on. If you can buy it, it is imported. All these items are imported by buying them abroad with the US Dollar. You cannot take Liberian dollars abroad to change into other currencies. Anybody who is importing stuff to sell here in Liberia has to pay for it with US dollars. If they cannot get US dollars, they cannot replenish their stock. If they cannot buy more goods to sell, they will evetually have to close their businesses. This constant demand from importers to aquire US Dollars is what is driving up the demand for the US Dollar. The more something is in demand, the higher the price of it. This simple economics, people. The Liberian dollar will continue to depreciate as long as this continues. There is nothing anyone in goverment can do about this. Not imediately anyway. In order to curb the increasing demand for the US Dollar, we have to change our ways. You heard that? We have to change our ways. We have to encourage local farmers to produce what we eat. We have to buy local products. If we make it profitable for farmers to produce say eggs or tomatoes, they can concentrate and scale up production. This will take care of all the US Dollars being spent to import food. Even more ideally, these farmers might produce more than needed, which could be exported. We also have to find ways to produce goods that could be exported. We need to attract foreign investors to open factories here. We have to find ways to add value to local produce in a way that the quality is of international standard. We have to lift our eyes above the pettiness that usually consumes us. We have to rise above the fact that everyone wants a job in government. We have to find things that we are good at, and exploit them. We have to stop being traders and become innovators. Until next time.