odumorun:

PADDY LO's PSUEDO INTELECTUAL VODDO ECONOMICS

Nigeria has always been a hand me down economy, a dumping ground for cheap foreign imports, so its not surprising that it still produces ‘Okrika wake up’ intellectuals like Paddy lo who parrot, with the air of an expert pale imitations of the kind of right wing voodoo economics which  recently plunged the world into the worst financial collapse in a century.

There is not a serious economist anywhere in the western world that now regards the credit fuelled market fundamentalism Paddy Lo advocates as anything but a joke,.

But let’s take a closer look at what he has advocated, peering through the meaningless statistics meant not to clarify, but to intimidate the uninformed into silent acquiescence.



It was the ‘socialistic’ method of embarking on public sector driven construction works as against a credit fuelled mortgage boom Theodore Roosevelt used to pull America out of the Great depression in the 1930’s policies copied successfully by Governments across Europe at the time. Creating demand by boosting employment, putting money in people’s hands and hence reviving the market. The worker thus employed from the public purse spends his money in the market buying goods and services, bringing the factories back to life and restoring numerous small businesses such as dry cleaners,  small shops restaurants etc back to life.

paddy_lo:

and HAVANA still looks like its 1950, with 1950 volkswagon beetle plying its streets
Thats what happens when u allow a Govt to control the means of production and capital

Capital allocation is wasted on meaningless things like weapons and a large army
To the detriment of any real economic activity

If the Government embarked upon 5 to 10 year plans of delivering roads across the country through direct emergency public works doing away with the parasitic contract system, awarding contracts only for design not delivery, it could employ tens of thousands of jobless restless young men, put money in their pockets and boost demand for local goods and services and boost the countries infrastructure,

PADDY LO's PSUEDO INTELECTUAL VODDO ECONOMICS

Nigeria has always been a hand me down economy, a dumping ground for cheap foreign imports, so its not surprising that it still produces ‘Okrika wake up’ intellectuals like Paddy lo who parrot, with the air of an expert pale imitations of the kind of right wing voodoo economics which  recently plunged the world into the worst financial collapse in a century.

There is not a serious economist anywhere in the western world that now regards the credit fuelled market fundamentalism Paddy Lo advocates as anything but a joke,.

But let’s take a closer look at what he has advocated, peering through the meaningless statistics meant not to clarify, but to intimidate the uninformed into silent acquiescence.

He advocates a construction boom to revive the economy. But the only construction booms that work during a recession are those driven by  massive public works, not false credit, public infrastructure projects aimed not at yielding a profit but provide socially useful Infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, dams railway lines, schools, hospitals and soak up unemployment by employing thousands of workers tossed on the trash heap by recession.

It was the ‘socialistic’ method of embarking on public sector driven construction works as against a credit fuelled mortgage boom Theodore Roosevelt used to pull America out of the Great depression in the 1930’s policies copied successfully by Governments across Europe at the time. Creating demand by boosting employment, putting money in people’s hands and hence reviving the market. The worker thus employed from the public purse spends his money in the market buying goods and services, bringing the factories back to life and restoring numerous small businesses such as dry cleaners,  small shops restaurants etc back to life.

No Government in Nigeria has ever advocated such a policy of direct public works to deliver infrastructure because it threatens the very existence of the contract system of delivering projects through which the elite enriches itself.

In reality it is the private sector which fuels corruption in the country, through the system of awarding major public contracts to private contractors who grant kick backs to public officers, employ as few workers as possible and abandon the projects half way through or carry out shoddy jobs.

If the Government embarked upon 5 to 10 year plans of delivering roads across the country through direct emergency public works doing away with the parasitic contract system, awarding contracts only for design not delivery, it could employ tens of thousands of jobless restless young men, put money in their pockets and boost demand for local goods and services and boost the countries infrastructure,  However the right wing conservative cabal that has ruled the country without a popular mandate since independence would never embark on such a policy as it is a direct threat to its interests.

The idea of a construction boom in the country driven by the private sector is a perverse joke. The private sector invests only for profit. That requires a market. The mortgage market anywhere in the world is based on a solid sizeable middle class who can afford to pay long term for the properties they purchase. – Nurses, doctors, teachers, civil servants, professionals, small businessmen. Apart from a few bank workers, those in the oil sector and perhaps telecom sectors how many people in Nigeria can be said to be in a position to pay the going rate for reasonable apartments. If you were a banker would you grant mortgages to low paid teachers, or nurses many of whom never get their salary paid on time?

Then there is the issue of supply at what rate will be these houses be sold considering most of the components will be imported with hard currency, considering that these houses will have to be linked to a none existent national grid and water and sewage system or is paddy lo suggesting that the private sector supplies this too.

The views of paddy lo are symptomatic of many educated Nigerians who have read a few western books or perhaps taken a few business degrees in the west and then obediently try and apply their policies  in Africa regardless of local conditions. Learning that it snows in Europe they duly purchase a thick winter coat to use in Lagos and wonder why they end up fainting in the heat  “Wetin happen now, shebi Oyinbo talk say e go snow for November”.

Most of the medium level third world nations he mentioned are actually heavily regulated economies with massive levels of Government intervention unlike the gangster capitalism in Nigeria where the poor are left to rot. In Countries like Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Brazil, Peru and Indionesia basic subsistence foodstuffs are heavily subsidised by the government, ensuring a level of nourishment for all and leaving enough money in the people’s pockets to sustain other industries. How many Nigerian families don’t spend at least 80% of their family budget on food? These countries have the type of infrastructure that we in Nigeria can only dream of. They don’t take the lights in Cairo and the Government not the private sector supplies electricity.

Paddy lo talks of China and India as success stories of deregulation betraying how little he knows about these country. Perhaps he does not know that the Chinese have never allowed their currency to be determined by ‘market forces’ much to western displeasure,  thus maintaining competitiveness in the international market. In China there are basic rules meant to protect the poorer classes like price and rent controls.

Moreover China and India maintained a major state dominated economy for decades building thier basic infrastructure, educating their populace in good public funded universities unlike our own underfunded ones and did not just start producing the goods it does now overnight.

It learnt by trial and error for 30 years by protecting its local market from competition while perfecting local technique. Who has forgotten how we used to laugh at made in China and India, in the 1970’s their thick irons, their funny shoes, their shapeless clothes. Now they produce 60% of the world’s clothes for the most fashionable brands on the planet. If rather than laughing at them we had protected the ex Biafran craftsmen and workers the way the Asian giants did theirs– we would be close to where the Indians and Chinese are now. But not us, how could we forgo the imported wonyosi, would we be seen dead without the Italian shoes Wetin those babes for talk.

What the Chinese and indians did for 3 decades was dismiss the nonsense of market forces and free trade for the self interested western tricks they are, (america imposes heavy tariffs for instance on imported cotton from africa to protect its own inneficient cotton farmers, but demands we lift tariffs on the clothes they export back to us and unpaid apologists the paddy lo's of this world parrot such trash to us) close their markets and ensure thir people bought the chinese and Indian equivalent of aba made until the local manufacturers perfected their game then and only then did they open up to the world, so also did the Indians that is why they are on the verge of overtaking the Americans and Europeans as the most productive country in the world. They only deregulated their economy after 3 decades of intense regulation had had prepared it to conquer the world not be conquered by it. We opened up too early and like all girls who open up too early we got mercilessly screwed and dumped. It was the protected omo mummy, who we laughed at as a square or egbe who became the beautiful bride because she came out when she was ready and was taken on her own terms.

We have been following the mantra of free market forces for 500 years now, from the time we sold ourselves (slavery) through the time we sold our country (colonialism) to the time we sell our wealth (so called independence). At every period we allow the west to decide the price of our goods. We end up indebted, impoverished and ruined and it is always those who preach these policies most zealously who get rich from them not we who bear the burden of them. The doctor imparting the medicine survives the patient reciving it dies. We are tired of being fooled 5 centuries of lies, theft and oppression is enough. We need a change

paddy_lo:

Indonesia and brazil are economic powerhouses in their respective regions. . .
I can bet u that Govt spending on welfare as a percentage of GDP is less than 10% in both countries
the real growth drivers are on the Jarkata stock Exchange. . .or the Exchange in Sao Paolo
The various companies that the govt taxes to get money to spend are what makes growth and development happen
TBContd. . .

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Historically in this country, the best results have come from the few left leaning governments we've had not the dominat right wing ones. The Yoruba’s today are arguably the most educated section of the black race on earth due to the left wing polices of free education pursued by awolowo after he lifted them verbatim from the manifesto of the most radical  British Labour in British history the  party of Clement Attlee in 1952 introducing free education in Western Nigeria just 5 years after it was introduced in Britain which had a 400 year start on the country. TThe best roads ever in the country were built in the country by his public corporations with minimal contractor involvement.

Paddy lo gives tghe same guff about the need to deregulate inneficient bodies like NEPA and NITEL to make them more efficient. But how can NEPAbe eficient when the people running it are also the biggest importers of generators in the country and when these same people will loot its money to buy the company for themselves after it has been privatised

you really are clueless, the idea that the capitalist model as demonstrated by indonesia should be held up as  a model to aspire to indicates to me that you are either completely ignorant or morally bankrupt.

i dont think you are used to critical analysis and therefore i have posted this link that may help you to understand more about what capitalism meant for Indonesia, this country is held up as a model of capitalism but  the world bank and IMF conveniently leave out the backdrop to this supposed success story , the genocide that took place first in order to usher in this system, the destruction it has sown, this is what you are advocating for nigeria, and i can tell you that the stage has been set for the same thing to happen in nigeria by the international financial instititutions (IMF, world bank)  I suggest you read this link and try and understand what capitalism is really about rather than parrot this neo liberal garbage that you were fed in college:

Funny this guy used China as an example. China is more regulated than anywhere in the world!!!! Oh wait you mean the deregulation they tried that had their baby market flooded with tainted milk that killed about 4 thousand babies? Yeah deregulation.Dude you are clueless. No nation practices capitalism. Do you know how much Indonesia owes IMF? Hahahahahaha Dude you are extremely clueless. Go pull out a wiki link to prove Indonesia is better than Canada.

We need to help the poor in Nigeria. I myslef am poor abroad so I know what its like. I have seen the slums the suffering of poor Nigerians must end. We need to build new housing to house slum dwellers and provide factory jobs for them. If the poor work in efficient factories with good pay they will be able to survive.  Poor Nigerians need help. The hypocrisy is too much it must end. People say one thing and mean another. God bless Nigeria's poor.

paddy_lo:


u saying something 100 times doesnt make it true. . . .am sorry
what do u know about canada, what kind of economic philosophy does it practice
How is it different from Indonesia?

Indonesia owes Foreign debts, well so does the USA,and Japan and every major Economy in the world
It is how u finance growth,and every major company on earth(esp manufacturing companies) also has some form of debt on its books

Canadas leader Stephen Harper is actually right leaning

u have to understand the difference between a capitalist based society that has safety nets inbuilt
and a purely socialist based economy

Canada is not your example for a capitalist society

paddy_lo:

See the problem i have with people like u is that u choose to be deceptive  when u argue. . .

There is no country in the world without some rules to guide its system of economics. .
However the underlying system is a capitalist one. . . .there should be no arguements about that. . .

As there is no arguement that cubas economy is based on socialism/communism
Here is a quote from this weeks ECONOMIST on an article about cuba. . .

"But it is the home front that is Raúl Castro’s main worry. He insists that he understands the problems Cubans face in their daily lives. But changes are happening very slowly. His latest move is to allow small barbershops to operate as private businesses, with employees paying tax rather than receiving a state salary. Meanwhile, the head of the aviation authority, a former revolutionary hero, was abruptly sacked last month amid rumours that several planes belonging to Cubana, the national airline, were unofficially lent in operations that brought tens of millions of dollars to a handful of officials.
http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15911203
"

so basically in cuba,u cannot own a private business, (even a barber shop),Here the means of production and capital formation is controlled mostly by the state. . .
Canada is no cuba. . .ok. .

For the last time nobody is arguing the degree of capitalism with u. . .i am talking about the things u take for granted in canada or wherever u are
the ease of opening a business,open markets like NAFTA,functioning capital and money markets,credit bureaus,Foriegn investments,car loans,mortgages,Independent central banks
derivative trading,Hedge Funds,Ability to move capital in and out of the country with ease and so on. .
This is the basic outline of the canadian economy. . . and it is capitalist in nature. . .

paddy_lo:


u had to go back what 10yrs to get a story about indonesia that u can place here?
come on,
Indonesia faced a communist upheaval in its early yrs,
The period in your arcticle was immediately after the Asian financial crises of 1997
All the major Asian economies were affected by reduced output from factory's and slump in GDP

However Indonesia is a better place today,its people are more prosperous, Its GDP growth is solid
It is no longer a member of OPEC, Hence its not a purely commodity based economy
and its due to again a good economic model. . .based of capitalism,strong capital markets,Corporate Bond Markets and so on