Anybody notice that dollar slide?

The tabling of the over $830-billion budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year is out of the way, but there are so many things that we as a people have virtually ignored, yet, the pain that these things have been causing in recent weeks will have a humungous effect on the economy.

Let’s look at the value of the Jamaica dollar, as against the United States dollar. The last time I checked, it was taking 151.70 Jamaica dollars to buy one United States dollar. What a scandal!

Now, that same devaluation of the Jamaica dollar has already led to many things happening, one of them being the price that consumers pay at petrol stations for gasoline and other petroleum products, which have gone up for the 10th straight week.

Now, I know that the minister of finance does not like when certain people raise issues like this one, but what is this country coming to? Reality is reality. Jamaicans suffer more and more when the dollar devalues. It triggers a domino effect and forces people whose backs were already against the wall to push themselves further against the hard surfaces.

Those who chase the United States dollar don’t give a damn about what happens to the rest of Jamaica… all they are concerned about is the profits that they will continue to make when they enter the daily trading game. And when the Bank of Jamaica closes the gate when the horse has already bolted, by entering the market and selling US dollars at a specific rate, it usually has little or no effect.

At a time like this, it would seem like there has to be a collaborative effort by the State, through the central bank, and private sector interests, for there to be stability in the foreign exchange market. Has anyone ever stopped to think that the Barbados dollar and the Eastern Caribbean dollar have remained stable against the US dollar for over three decades? Why?

This is a time I wish that Edward Seaga was this country’s finance minister. He would not tolerate this rubbish that is going on in the market. But then, who am I? ...just a little man on the corner who, according to some political people, knows nothing about finance.