THE COST OF LIVING AND THE CONNECTION TO THE WAR ON IRAN

Last week, we reported that the cost of gas in The Bahamas had topped seven dollars. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the issues of cost of living that have been precipitated by the Americans going to war in the Middle East and causing knock on effects in the world that local governments are unable to control. The FNM has been raising hell about the cost of living but what would they have us do? The inputs into our lives are all costed in US dollars and imported from the United States. The US is the cause of the price inflation and while our government has some limited room to tinker with taxes, there is little we can do to actually control the prices. Last week, the bus drivers complained that they are in a price crunch. Last week, the garbage collection people complained that their costs had gone through the roof. No doubt there will be problems for costs for Bahamasair and Western Air.  No doubt BPL costs will going through the roof. Net result is that this note today is a reflection about how helpless we are in the face of world events but we must do the best we can to address this. Perhaps now we will actually turn to solar and be less dependent on fossil fuels in the longer term.