1/11 Here we go. @Jamwanda2. Tack the Thatcher approach to these cartels. Its working to this day UK & has been adopted all over the world. For gas, electricity & other critical bedrocks of the economy, Thatcher privatised & REGULATED these. here's how it works & what I'd...
2/11 ..recommend. Take Gas/electricity, e.g. in the UK. Ofgem regulates that market bt doesn't give ANY money to the pvt players. Ofgem sets prices for power/gas taking into account the costs for the pvt players (transport, operating costs etc) PLUS a profit margin, say,
3/11. 10 or 20%. If Zim gvt opened up fuel sector this way & said bring your own fuel in with your own funds & a Zim Ofgem will regulate what you charge, you'd find a lot of takers, BUT for this to work, we can't have an unstable, ever-changing currency, otherwise...
4/11 ..black market will dictate those prices for u, because these pvt players will need to get it from there since banks are dry, you see? So, here's where you think I am convoluting issues. For this sound policy to work, the monetary policy issue HAS to also be addressed...
5/11..not in the way we're doing now, having gvt supply it at a price that is not in sync with what's happening on the ground, in the streets. The value of the $ZWL can be stabilised, but only through tight, focused monetary policy, with a Central Bank that focuses on this...
6/11..& only this, without playing Godfather?Benefactor to pvt enterprise. This is where the term "holistic comes" in. We can't put in place an Zim Ofgem if the monetary policy is weak. It can work, it will work, simple! I saw this with my own eyes...
7/11 ..the few months that you & I know RBZ tried to stick to a pure Central Bank role, the rate stabilised, the economy, even stabilised but for all of 4 months! Nothing else had changed, not forex inflows or anything else! Just discipline at RBZ.
8/11 This was when pvt enterprise shld have been weaned off gvt. But our reaction to a drought, hurricane etc was to think we had no option but to print money & abandon the discipline (policy missteps), which led to chaos in other aspects of the economy.
9/11 Try it today: go back to a disciplined RBZ that does nothing but focus on it's core mandate & when rates stabilise, throw the economy open with a hybrid socialist/capitalist approach like Thatcher's, regulating critical sectors bt not funding them &, guaranteed, you will...
10/11 ...see several players step up to take up the mantle. Except now they will be backed by a stable currency and controlled by a transparent regulatory authority that says: "it costs this much to buy this overseas, this much to transport it, this much for duty/taxes...,
11/11 ....this much for operating expenses, plus 20% profit margin. So your unit price will be this, we'll review it after 6 months or 1 year or whatever". These cartels are enabled by a weak all-round policy framework, dismantle that &, poof!, they'll disappear into thin air.
