This pandemic thing

Our leaders still refuse to upgrade our health system. When you go look, this one going for treatment in Ghana. This other one going to Dubai for treatment. They not shame self? Enh? What kind of a message do you send to your citizens when these things happen? Even more of the "Animal Farm" vibes. All the pigs eating dinner at the farmer´s dining room table while all the other farm animals look on through the windows.

"Some animals are more equal than others"

During the years I have often reverted to this novel by George Orwell, Animal Farm. For those of you who have never read it, I can summerize it as follows: The animals on a farm oust its "owners" the farmer and his family and take over the day to day running of the farm. Very soon, the revolution is hijacked by the pigs on the farm that start to oppress all the other animals. Not long after, the pigs start dressing up in the farmers clothes, eating his food and drinking his wine behind locked doors. The other animals peek in at the windows at their nightly feast. This describes the events in our country once again.

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.

Money finish oh!

Print more money! You know what? You do not even have to print it. Just take a piece of paper and write your own amount. That will be the new money. Do not play with economics, because it will mess with you. Right away.

Beware of hyperinflation anno 2020

The two CDC executive members on social media pledged their respective supports to fulfilling the request of President George M. Weah for Legislative approval of the printing of L$35 billion, with Rep. Gray arguing that the printing of money is intended to pay civil servants. In agreement with Rep. Gray, Rep. Koffa also noted that the printing of new currency is inevitable. “I support the printing of money for payment of salaries as a short term measure. (Daily Observer 18th November 2019) Ladies and Gentlemen. Our elected representatives are lobbying their collegues to print new money to pay civil servants!!!!!!!!!!!! If this does not worry you then you should take the time to study similar cases throughout history. German Weimar Republic in the 1920s Zimbabwe inte late 1990s to 2015 Venezuela 2012 to present day.

"We need to stop talking and start working"

That is the truth.

Animal Farm

L$211.7909/US$1.00 During the days of the military regime that engulfed our country from 1980 to 1990 I remember reading George Orwells novel from 1945 called "Animal Farm". Although Mr. Orwell wrote the book with the power struggle between Lenin and Stalin in communist Russia in mind, the same themes were played out in our own backyard. In those days when this played out, we were all in the middle of it. Plot summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm#Plot_summary Somehow, I am getting a deju vu feeling. "Some animals are more equal than others"

The answer is blowing in the wind

L$205.1281/US$1.00 How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly Before they're forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist Before it's washed to the sea? Yes, and how many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free? Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head And pretend that he just doesn't see? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Yes, and how many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? Yes, and how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Lyrics from Blowing in the wind, Bob Dylan.

You can fool some people sometimes...

L$202.4819/US$1.00 ...but you can´t fool all the people all the time. (B.Marley) Nuff said.

Law business

L$194.7185/US$1.00 What make it that we like law business so? Wherever you turn, everybody arguing about law business. This one and that one. Everybody can just be invoking different laws. You go this side, this other one know it. What?! But when you go look, nobody know how to make farm. Nobody knows how to make anything but trouble. We bringing all kinds of foodstuff from abroad. When we go look, our paper money just getting useless. That it now oh.

Bury your garbage, City mayor urges

L$191.5041/US$1.00 Lo and behold. Only in Liberia. "The Mayor of the city of Monrovia, Jefferson Koijee, is urging Monrovians to begin disposing off their garbage by burying them in the earth." Daily Observer

Supply of money

L$190.4475/US$1.00 When a country prints new bills, they are usually meant to replace older damaged notes. It is the job of the Central Bank to collect the old bills and destroy them and infuse the new ones. If you do not replace defunct currency, but just adding to money supply, you undermine the currency. We saw this in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. In Zimbabwe, Mugabwe thought he was smart and started printing money to be able to pay govenment employees. In Venezuela today, Madouru is doing the same thing. In the short term, you may seem to solve a problem, but very shortly after, the currency is soon not worth more than what it actually is, paper. At this stage, when a country issues more money than it has backing for, you get increased inflation. Inflation is the increasing of prices, or really the decreasing of the value of the currency. In Weimar, Zimbabwe and Venezuela the printing of "new" money just kept on and on. This caused HYPERINFLATION. In the end, to buy a loaf of bread, the equivalent amount of money had to be carried in a wheelbarrow. Luckily, we are not here yet, but the tendencies seem to be ther. Wake up now, and smell the coffee.

Another one gets a bank

L$189.4508/US$1.00 Lo and behold. The Central Bank of Liberia has allegedly inflated its payroll by almost 300 people. For what? Are we going back to becoming a banana republic?

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.

In this day and age

L$177.8284/US$1.00 In this day and age we are still writing checks? An employee of the Revenue Authority has managed to cash a check for USD 450 000 and make off with the amount. Are we surprised?

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.

Pro Poor?

Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor! By repeatedly saying something does not make it true. By repeatedly saying something does not make it good. By repeatedly saying something does not make it legitimate. By repeatedly saying something does not make it proper. Go figure.