Vexed Bermoothes

Every month the media reports that local retail sales have declined 5-6% compared to the previous period a year ago.  Blame the limited selection and higher prices of Bermuda compared to the US?  Or chalk it up to the global recession? Maybe a little of both, but I believe the real reason for the anaemic [...]

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Government spent up to $800,000 on lawyers to propose changing a few lines of the Municipalities Act (in effect enacting a hostile takeover of Bermuda’s quite efficient local government). At the time, they said it was necessary to improve democracy in Bermuda. Now, however, they say the move was necessary “to ensure only Government has [...]

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The circumstantial evidence that Bermuda’s population has declined is widespread.  The list of “for rent” housing is long (leading to a corresponding slump in prices), traffic is lighter, private school enrolment is down, and businesses are reporting sharply lower sales even for essential goods. All of the above, of course, lead to lower tax revenues [...]

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Following Aon’s political risk downgrade of Bermuda, our Premier and Minister of Finance broke her recent silence saying to Bernews: “The Aon assessment is without solid foundation. The Government does not accept this position as it flies in the face of internationally respected ratings agencies…” Ruffled feathers?  A few points to make here: Political risk [...]

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Aon, the well-known provider of risk management services, has updated its “risk map” assessing the political risk of 211 countries and territories. On the 2011 map, in nineteen countries the “severity of the risk has heightened”, while conditions have improved in 11 countries. Bermuda is included in the political risk downgrades, along with Algeria, Benin, [...]

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A few months ago the Tax Justice Network blogged about the difficulties that small island economies like Bermuda will have in re-positioning their economies as the world’s biggest countries to continue to squeeze down on tax and regulatory arbitrage: But identifying a realistic Plan B will not be straightforward. Many small island tax havens have [...]

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Since the downturn began, the real estate agents periodically churn out some optimistic figures to claim that the real estate market is turning around. Their own listings do not support their claims. It makes no sense that the Registrar General, which records the data, does not publish quarterly real estate sales statistics for Bermuda. And [...]

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It is notable that since the PLP leadership shakeup, a few of the ministers have been quite vocal.  For example the Minister of Health has undergone all sorts of procedures – from giving blood to having a colonoscopy – to encourage the public to do the right thing.  The poor guy will be taking Lamaze [...]

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