As a former corporate banker, holding an MBA degree in international finance this fresh candidate believe in numbers, because: Numbers don’t lie.
Over the past months, Eddy has been collecting a strong following with his articles published on his blog, via FB.
He has been writing eloquently about our economy, raising red flags and making good financial sense to many. https://eddyparis.wordpress.com/
Basically the country’s finances are in the toilet. Our GDP numbers have not been adjusted since 2002. So if GOA acknowledges a national debt of 85% against outdate GDP, it means that in reality our national debt is probably somewhere around 130%, which is totally unacceptable, and dangerous.
It makes us vulnerable, if Aruba gets hit by some external calamity such as a hurricane or an economic downturn, or Venezuela implodes, we have no financial buffer, no ability to help ourselves, and who would lend us money to rebuild after a storm?
Think about it.
Aruba is paying interest.
Awg 600.000 a day, on a 4.2 billion owed, perhaps more.
Imagine what we could do with that money.
Build 4 houses a day.
Then have 1,460 houses at the end of each year.
Then in just under ten year we’re done with the list of 12.000 people waiting for housing on the DIP list, and it would all be paid for.
According to Paris, and we can all confirm, people are having a hard time, our buying power has diminished, the Dori is no longer 100 florin, it is not worth much anymore, and our economy has had no growth in almost 3 years.
When AVP took GOA over in 2009, the world was in a global recession, but Aruba had a bit of a financial reserve. Our national debt against GDP was 45% and the WHOLE world was in financial crisis.
Then AVP created all that debt, MISPENDING the funds borrowed. Remember: Three hundred and four million were lost in hedging along, courtesy of WEB!
The move to invest in the economy was the right move, but the MISPENDING mortgaged our future, and leveraged the country.
The spending on the PPP projects? The bridge, the roads, it has been structured as Public-Private-Projects, in order to keep it off the books, but upon completion, we will be charged for it. All that construction, the roads and the hospital are a direct liability structured to be hidden from the balance sheet, now. But they will show up later as a heavy burden.
The decision to join MEP resulted from the knowledge that MEP “no tin dono,” no rich sponsors or investors, expecting to collect a handsome ROI, immediately post-elections.
AVP, says Eddy, is a dead horse. All that talk about 15 seats is delusional propaganda, all campaign promises are lies, because of our sucky economy; so here is a good reason to get into politics. To clean up the mess.
Where does one start?
Reduce the number of ministers. Send all coordinators back to their original government jobs. Don Mansur turned our economy around with four people in the office. Cut at least 50 million in inefficiencies, just focus on fixing the economy, it’s our #1 concern.
Everything else will come into place when the economy is churning.
