Financial Fustications #nlpoli
If we had Equalization, we’d have a budget surplus. On Friday, 20 Mar 20, Premier Dwight Ball wrote to the Prime minister to say that the financial arse was out…
public finance
All around in circles #nlpoli
Going around in circles must be frustrating. Plummeting crude prices have dropped refining margins to negative numbers and so it isn’t surprising that Come by Chance refinery announced Sunday it…
Bank of Canada to help GNL make payroll #nlpoli
Bank of Canada234 Wellington St, Ottawa The Bank of Canada announced today that it will purchase up to 40% of money market securities with terms to maturity of 12 months…
Borrowed Money and Borrowed Time #nlpoli
Tom Osborne was in Ottawa on Tuesday with his fellow finance ministers trying to squeeze some extra cash out of the federal government. The wealthiest provinces in Canada – Alberta,…
No change in the weather? No change in we. #nlpoli
The problem we have is not a lack of options and opportunities to sort out the government finances ourselves. The problem facing Newfoundland and Labrador is that the leading people…
Osborne whistling past financial graveyard #nlpoli
Moody’s delivered a clear and serious message to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador on Wednesday night by lowering the government’s credit rating. The credit rating action came after a…
More beige than beige #nlpoli
The Premier had a carefully rehearsed message when reporters asked him on Thursday why he had appointed everyone in cabinet back to their old portfolios despite an election that had…
Deficit *is* higher than previously announced #nlpoli
The House of Assembly will have to deliver a budget that keeps access to new public debt for the foreseeable future. The politicians must satisfy the bond-rating agencies, not the…
Deficit $250 – $300 million higher than announced before election according to Premier #nlpoli
In the episode that aired on 26 May 2019, Premier Dwight Ball told NTV’s Issues and Answers that the deficit for the current budget is between $800 – $900 million.…
The Financial Reality of Election 2019 #nlpoli
The reality confronting any administration after May 16 is the same regardless of which party wins the election. The government is unlikely to balance the budget in 2022, regardless of…
Budget 2019 – revised trends #nlpoli
Budget 2019 was an election budget in the sense it contained a lot of little goodies, but there was nothing to get overly excited about. While everyone else is focused…
Budget 2019 Context #nlpoli
Most of the commentary about Budget 2019 on Tuesday will be focused on the short-term. Here are some slides that show longer-term trending. We’ll update them later on with the…
Praying for a miracle #nlpoli
People are talking about austerity but the simple truth is the people talking that way have a vested interest in exaggerating what is going on in the provincial government. Yes,…
Things are THAT bad #nlpoli
David Thompson is an independent economist in the same way that Jerry Earle and Wayne Lucas are independent human resource consultants.But the problem isn’t that CBC couldn’t make a factual…
Newfoundland government finance, 1832 to 1949 #nlpoli
Before Newfoundlanders stopped governing themselves in the early winter of 1934, they’d run a sometimes arduous course.Newfoundland gained a limited form of self-government in 1832 and in 1855 gained Responsible…
The Endless Supply of Sacred Cows 2015 #nlpoli
On the first day of the session in the House of Assembly, the finance minister tabled an interim supply bill for slightly more than $2.7 billion. Supply is the word…
The Elephant in the Room, the Astigmatic Seer, and other horrifying budget tales #nlpoli
Has anyone noticed a small problem in all the discussions about next year’s budget? On Point’s David Cochrane had both NAPE’s Carol Furlong and the Conservative’s pet economist Wade Locke…
Double-down Locke #nlpoli
“I didn’t see this coming,” Memorial University economist Wade Locke told the Telegram’s James McLeod the other day. Locke was talking about the dramatic drop in oil prices over the…
The Whizzo Quality Assortment #nlpoli
On the outside, the spring budget for 2014 looks like a delicious assortment of goodies for everyone. You can tell it is delectable because everyone is shouting for joy and…
The Vibrant Unsustainable Super Energy Debt Warehouse #nlpoli
The Conservatives used to say that Newfoundland and Labrador was eastern North America’s energy warehouse. Once Danny Williams ran for the hills and left Kathy Dunderdale in charge, she kicked…