2014 - The year of confusion

As I see it, 2014 is also shaping to be a year of confusion where nobody seems to know what is going on.

The government and bnm said that the economy is good and going to be okay. But then inflation going to go up. Interest rate is also going up.

The government predicts growth in the coming year. inflation have been low in the past and people are having it so good that they can now afford to pay more taxes. That came in the form of gst. But then on the other side comes the story that it is not about the people can afford to pay tax at all. It was about the government needing more money to pay for its expenses. Subsidies also have to take a back seat to the government expenditure. No worries. The people can afford it it seems.

Next come the news from bnm, economist and other analysts saying in the papers that it is all good. We are okay. All the policies and new taxes are fair and good for the economy and the rating. We are going to be alright.

So alright that we are supposed to be able to afford new toll rates. If you are too poor, you use the trunk road. We are supposed to be able to afford new electricity tariffs. This is going to hit our long term inflation. The multiplier effect will cause a widespread price increases. We would have to learn to live with less things.

And then now the people are saying "hey idiots, we don't have that much money to begin with". We are not going to be better off next year. The economy might look good in numbers but it is not looking good for us the people. We and our children are going to have to eat less travell less drink less elelctirified less wired less and with the cost of doing business going up maybe have less jobs and income. This beginning to look like a situation in a recession. What the hell! How did we ended up here?

And the the government went on to show some token austerity drive after a lot of people make noises. Now it really feels like we are going to be in a 'recession like' environment. But are we really???

Businesses are doing well. People are spending. The economy WAS on the right track. We were doing okay. Reduced subsidies here and there a bit, we were still alright. We can cope, just.

We don't need all these sudden and hard brakes. We don't even need them at all if we brought all the officers and ministers responsible for the leakages to court. It is their mess and now we look like we are living in a recession trying to clean it up.

So what is it going to be for 2014? Are we growing? Are we going thru a recession?  What? Someone please tell me and hopefully then we can ask the government to make consistent and coherent policies and measures to reach a solid objective. Otherwise it all seems ad hoc and reactionary. Which unfortunately have a feel of incompetence to it.

I think it is not right to ask those who critise the government to leave the country. It should be the other way around. Those who does not like being criticised for incompetent governance should step aside and if it true that you have caused this damage to 25 million people then we won't miss you.