Passing the Buck

Two lawyers are having lunch in a restaurant when armed robbers burst in. As the robbers start taking money and valuables from the other customers one lawyer presses something into the other's hand under the table.

Without looking down, the second lawyers whispers, "What's that?"

"That's the $100 I owe you".

That's the way the new private finance initiative is going to work for Cayman - everybody looses out except the crooks but by manipulating the timing of repayments the smart people loose no more than they stood to loose anyway.

Maybe the smart people don't loose at all in the long run, what if the crooks from the story get caught and the lawyer who borrowed ends up representing them ... on legal aid.

Lord how the money goes round - until it runs out, which is has.

The word "tax" is not to be used in polite company on Cayman; the expression "live within your means" is akin to profanity too. Civil Servants seem to have become a protected species - though Mac's attitude to whistling ducks leaves the worth of protected status open to doubt.

No pain no gain. The central issues of how Cayman will control public expenditure and repay borrowing have been daintily stepped over like a sleeping drunk and the focus has shifted to who it will borrow from in a bid to continue to live beyond its means.

Hopefully the financial backer for this "Borrow your way out of debt" strategy will be a fool, from whose money we can soon part him, and not a rogue.

Meantime better add another storey to one of the new government buildings for the section that is going to deal with PFI tendering and compliance issues and the entourage of lawyers, accountants and consultants that attend it.