Thomas Sowell could not have said it any better … “It is
hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by
putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being
wrong.” If this year the economy continually drifted from showing so much
promise when Mills was in charge, then I cannot sincerely expect any better
from our government - one which shows little commitment to administer any form
of retribution to corrupt officials - in the coming year … an election year! I
comment and predict those aspects of the economy which affected me the most.
- Power & Fuel
Karpower’s 215.22MW addition to the
national grid has stabilized the supply of electricity to my area for the past
five days. I expect this to continue throughout the first quarter of 2016.
Paying more for power is obvious now; mismanagement beckons, but the sight on
elections will probably ensure that power supply is sustained. Why this
government scrapped off subsidies on fuel when commodity prices were falling
still baffles me (IMF can side-eye me all they want). It wouldn’t surprise me
though if we see a sudden drop in fuel prices somewhere next year.
- Exchange rates
There were reports early this year that
investors were not enthused about our bonds. Well, if anything at all,
macroeconomic indices have worsened. When my best friend wanted to sell me some
dollars somewhere in the third quarter of this year, our negotiations on rates
turned out to be a full blown economic dialogue; I was firm about the depreciation
of the Cedi by end of year even though we witnessed what seemed like a
miraculous gain by the Cedi against the Dollar. I expect the Cedi to
continually depreciate in 2016!
- Inflation
“Inflation is taxation without legislation”
we all know who said that, but taxation with or without legislation is still
doom for us. The recently read Budget Statement forecasts some tax hikes, worse
so in withholding taxes. I completely agree with Reagan … "we don't have a
trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar
debt because we spend too much" and this coming year will probably witness
an all-time high inflation in this country!
*drops mic*
[*thoughts* I'm no right-wing, not even low-key *pensive*]