Clyde Caruana admits that the party is over

Global economic growth forecasts are being revised down yet Minister of Finance Clyde Caruana still thinks that he will be able to pay the ever-growing public spending bill with revenues from a bigger economy, only he is not so sure of this so he is beginning a cost-cutting exercise over all government entities. Malta’s government debt is set to increase by more than 100% under Robert Abela’s premiership.

Robert Abela entered office thinking he was going to ride the rent-seeking boom of Joseph Muscat best of times. Now, he is riding us down to economic ruin. Both the Minister of Finance and the Central Bank Governor, Edward Scicluna have finally realised that the government’s expenditure is not sustainable. The government is keeping energy and food prices down by subsidising the suppliers and distributors, a practice which can’t go on forever and won’t solve inflationary pressures in the long term. A proper and responsible government would have found strategic ways to address our structural economic problems, but none of this is happening. Instead, the Labour Party engaged in a politics by marketing gimmicks such as the 1000 ideas political manifesto. None of these ideas includes rehabilitation of the agricultural sector, the unravelling of the corrupt Electrogas contract, transferring profits from Shanghai Electric and Electrogas to Enemalta, securing cheap food sources, securing cheap energy, creating new economic sectors to increase economic growth, increasing the minimum wage, cutting down precarious work.

I’m betting that the rent-seeking regime won’t save the economy, but I’m not being “positive” here. Labour is exercising a massive effort with both public and privately-funded propaganda to convince people that all is right while the economy crumbles. The Shift will give you a regular update on how the government is wasting taxpayer funds to pump its narrative and propaganda. Our political system is a fraudulent scam where the Labour government prioritises the economic sectors of its major donors, namely the construction industry, while the whole system rots to the core. Nothing is going to change in the next five years other than things will get worse.

Joseph Muscat is not stupid, so he understands what is going on, yet we don’t need him to tell us that inflation is high and can not be sustained by government expenditure, either. We know that already, but we also know that inflation was also very high under his premiership if we were to factor in housing costs. He is also partly responsible for the result of the statistic shown below: a Maltese single adult would need at least 44-hours of work per week in order to cross the poverty line. Muscat knows of the serious economic risks ahead and that is why he is betting on a get out of jail free card by speaking about serious economic risks. He knows that an economic crisis is a great opportunity for him to make a come-back in politics in his attempt to avoid prison.