LARRY BURCHALL
Our national debt time bomb is ticking
Why delay the debate on Bermuda's national Budget? Because the Minister for Finance has belatedly discovered a 'debt time bomb'.
NATIONAL DEBT: BRACE YOURSELF FOR IMPACT…
We're living beneath an avalanche of debt
Overdraft: In personal or business finance, a sudden need for an overdraft indicates a cash shortage. It means that a bank account holder knows that there will be 'insufficient funds' in that account.
NATIONAL DEBT
No such thing as a free lunch, minister
TINSTAAFL. Not German. It is an acronym meaning There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Seniors get FREE car licensing because they don't pay the TCD fee.
Tourism's slide will continue without a good plan
Despite the Tourism Minister's recent report of a nominal 1.6 per cent increase in Bermuda's overall tourist arrivals, the 10-year national and strategic trend of a fundamental switch in the industry, and a decline in national earnings attributed to tourism, remains unchanged.
THE BUDGET: REACTION
You'll feel the pain of this Budget - here's how
Hidden in Friday's Budget Statement are some of the reasons you must pay more payroll tax and higher fees, along with evidence of where Government spending is not sensibly managed.
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The Budget's 'income tax' will scare away international business
With International Business now the source of 90c out of every dollar earned from abroad (in 2009 tourism brought in a little over a dime), the International Business 'cap issue' is critically important.
We're now spending more on debt than on tourism
The hike in personal payroll tax - previously at 4.75%, it effectively went up by 21% to 5.75% - confirms that Government spending remains out-of-control.
We're on a debt roller coaster - and it'll only get scarier
Get a pretty Bermuda $2 bill. Holding it carefully by one corner, light a match and apply it to the lowest corner. Put the burning bill onto a fireproof plate. Watch it burn.
Nationality has become as emotional an issue as race to Bermudians
How have Bermudians, particularly black Bermudians, reacted to the social changes caused by the massive economic shift of the 1990s? Initially, black Bermudians demanded a better racial balance.
'We've spent $670m... sorry we can't account for it'
In Bermuda's hour of need, Bermuda Sun columnist Larry Burch pens a spoof letter from the Government to the people on the frontlines.
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You'll start earning less tomorrow - and it's no April Fool's joke
The Payroll Tax increase joins up with the announced increase in the monthly premium cost for Government's H.I.P. Health Insurance scheme. Both increases take effect tomorrow, April 1, 2010.
Drug barons, not gangs, are to blame for shootings
It is entirely possible the murders committed between December and April are drug-related. It is also entirely possible they are NOT gang-related. That is, it is not a war between 'Parkside' and '42'.
Economic boom won't continue... BDA faces tough times
Her death notice said she was 107. Mrs. Esther Allen Bentley was probably the last Bermudian who knew genuine hard times. Born in 1904, she would have experienced pre-1919 Bermuda, when folk were short of money.
We need a new Tourism Minister to tackle downward spiral
Tourism figures for 2009 were awful and it is time Bermudians gripped the awful tourism reality.
OPINION
Local use downgrades our hotels' luxury images
Bermuda has a delicate economic problem attached to sensitive social facts. It is damaging the island's tourism product. It is not immediately visible, nor is it easily stopped or undone. It is Bermudian usage of hotels in Bermuda.
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