March 15, 2011Dear Sir,Fellow trade Unionist Bro. Calvin Smith once told me that one of the greatest myths concerning governments and the economy is that the government runs the economy.He told me this long before the PLP had won control of the government and while the current political opposition the UBP was in control of the government.To hear Government detractors and critics in the run-up to the presentation of the Government Budget and even before that in the wake of the economic downturn and a failing Bermuda economy; you would have thought that the current PLP Government had Bermuda’s economic fate in its hands and in its hands alone.To hear the Shadow Minister of Finance, Bob Richards, you would have thought that was the case. In fact with his pronouncements that he foresaw the severity of this economic downturn and had warned the Government; that he missed his calling. He should had been on Wall Street, or at the very least been a regular on one of the top economic talk shows that we may have seen on CNN or other news television programmes. He certainly was ahead of the former head of the American Federal Reserve Allan Greenspan who appeared before the American congress to explain what had happened to put the American economy and for that matter much of the world’s top economies in such an economic tail spin.Mr Greenspan had to admit that he had no answers and, the truth be told, he had the appearance of a deer caught in the headlights of an on rushing car.It was interesting too that right here in Bermuda the free enterprise gurus such as Bob Stewart, who wrote the supposed definite last word on how Bermuda’s free enterprise system works in his book, ‘A Guide to the Economy of Bermuda’ – a book in which he sang the praises of the so-called free enterprise for the world as a whole, was himself strangely silent as government after government in the Capitalist world rushed to shore up failing economic interest of leading economic entities such in the American case, American International and America’s leading car manufacturers and real estate firms which, by the way, is where the rot is supposed to have started.The cardinal rule of the Capitalist system as I understand it is that if you open a business concern and it is successful, then the economic rewards are great, but if that business or economic concern fails that your economic fortunes goes down with that business. You cannot expect anyone to come and rescue you. But of course if you are too big to fail than the government with its tax money taken from the people is obligated to step in. Recently we saw such an undertaking entered into by the Government with respect to the Bank of Butterfield when it found itself caught up in this economic whirlwind in the environment of failing investments and loan defaults.But still that is not the role of governments in a free enterprise system as we saw the American government quickly divest itself from control of economic interests, even if tax money had saved them from going under.Still, small business expect Government intervention, such as in the Bermuda circumstance small truck owners expect the Government to protect them from competition from the owners of big trucks and taxi owners expect the Government to protect them from the competition of mini-buses. Or, as in the case of home owners who want to continue to get the big money from renting to international businesses now concerned that these same interests may now consider that if they can own their housing then they won’t have to pay thousands to the Bermudian land owners who have been playing the market for all they can get, even if that meant that the ordinary Bermudian has no chance of competing rent in that market.But one of the strangest aspects of what people expect the Government to do is to tell potential investors where to invest their money in Bermuda as if the Government had the power to tell people where to invest their money. This whole question of the controversy surrounding Tucker’s Point and where any future hotel development should be placed is a case in point. Apart from the environmental protests we hear voices that demand that any future hotel development should not take place at Tucker’s Point but at the old Sonesta site again as if you can tell potential investors where to invest their money. We are all little capitalists who want the free enterprise system to remain free as long as it does not step on our economic toes.Speaking on the Tucker’s Point controversy I admit to being ambivalent about the whole issue. On the one hand given the history of how that land was lost to general Bermudian ownership, I hate the idea that the last of it will pass out of Bermuda’s hands forever, but on the other hand I want to see a revived Bermuda tourist industry, which is in Bermuda’s long term interests. This is where we find ourselves in a Catch 22 situation and I am afraid despite all the protest surrounding the Tucker’s Point we should have been concerned about the development of our economy and land a long time before this.ALVIN WILLIAMSWarwick