WHY MALTA’S DEBT INCREASES BY ABOUT 3 MILLION EUROS DAILY

by a Blog Reader

Rosianne Cutajar’s “titħanzer” (i.e., “pigging out”) comment is an apt description of our government’s modus operandi.

The difference between a party in government and a party in opposition is that the party in government has the license to plunder the proceedings from taxation and bond sales. Under Labour, Malta’s debt is increasing by about three million euros every day. Increasing interest rates will widen this gulf further.Finance minister Clyde Caruana predicts that next year, the gross government debt to GDP will cross the 60% threshold. This is problematic. 

One day, it will dawn on Maltese bond investors that the only way that they’ll ever recoup their money is if new Maltese investors step forward to buy new bonds which the government will use to pay back the previous bondholders. It’s a model that is common in pathological gambling. The gambler accumulates debt. He chases new suckers. He begs for fresh loans. He takes a fraction of the new money to repay some of his previous creditors to put their mind at rest that one day he’ll pay them back in full, plus interest. In the meantime, he squanders the rest of the new money, and his gambling debts continue to soar. In the end, everyone suffers. What initially looked like a safeinvestment or loan turns out to have been a donation to a swindler. This is why the rich in Malta are buying foreign real estate rather than Maltese government bonds.

Labour’s corruption is ongoing because the party remains in government. As the pigs fatten themselves, they can’t blame each other for the waste. They are all in it, a den of thieves.Ministers’ partners are promoted to public boards. Some of the stratospheric promotions are nothing more than prostitution payments to cover a minister’s sexual indiscretions. In the meantime, the minister continues to shop for other prostitutes in faux fur coats. The addiction intensifies. How many partners does a minister need to parade in front of us before we realize that these are loveless relationships. Such is Labour’s heritage for the history books. Rosianne was right on the money when she described Labour parliamentarians as pigs. Give her credit for being a straight shooter.

Labour is not a workers’ party but a political hedge fund that offers great financial returns to its inner circle shareholders. This type of investment acquires money through shady means and uses various strategies to generate more profits. The main objective is to make a lot of money with minimal risk for the top shareholders. The top brass is usually recognized by official titles. To achieve this goal, any position within the organization is expendable if it serves the long-term interests of the major mafiosi. Robert Abela couldn’t be blunter. Rosianne Cutajar will be banned from contesting the general election. She gave the game away when she put the thieving strategy in writing. What should have been, at most, a hush hush comment became a written communication for public consumption. Cutajar broke the secrecy rule, speaking the unspeakable.

Our government leaders continue to misuse public power for personal gain. They abuse their authority through bribery, extortion, nepotism, and other illegal means. They accept bribes for special treatment, stealing public funds, manipulating public media, awarding government contracts to inner circles, and silencing opponents.

Seeing the Nationalist leadership proceed to the police headquarters, begging the police to initiate an investigation about the fraudulent theft of hundreds of millions from our healthcare system, is a manifestation that even the police force is muzzled by the government. In our banana republic, the government keeps the police and military under control by changing their leadership at will. It adds to them an ad hoc paramilitary group, highly placed in the government, which is responsible for money laundering and assassinations. Covert action is critical to maintaining the public’s faith in a transparent democracy. However, the paramilitary model is opaque by necessity, and its existence is denied in public. If things go bad and the beans spill in the press, the big shots, from Joseph Muscat to Rosianne Cutajar, resign, to be replaced by like-minded others to keep the show going. And the national debt keeps hitting new highs.