The One-Armed Economist

It is practically impossible these days to sit down in a social gathering in Bahrain without hearing some mention of the impending labour market reforms. It is true that waffling is a national pastime in the Middle East, but some people do tend to go on, and on, and on. The final straw for me was when this blog was being used to present a set of ideas that were entirely contradictory to the spirit the blog was (I thought) written.

So, I have decided to set out the arguments FOR the introduction of Labour Market Reforms. No one will argue with the fact that we need to do something before our nation implodes under the weight of economic and social pressure. I, for one, think the suggestions made by McKinsey are not without merit, but feel they fall well short of addressing the underlying issues.

As I write this, I find myself digressing into various little sub-arguments that are important but not directly connected to the matter at hand. Then again, they might be the root of the entire problem. What is happening is that I end up waffling about what I think the issues are (much in the same way as the fellow who irritated me in the first paragraph).

Instead, I will lay out my ideas in a slightly different format and hope to be able to do this by the weekend. In the meantime, I would like to encourage anyone with any interest in the subject to comment on what they feel are the real issues here and how they are best addressed. Just so I don’t feel like I am waffling in the breeze.

I should point out that there is a vast body of information now available on the EDB website that encompasses all of the McKinsey reports to date and would strongly encourage going through them to get a better feel for the work that has been done and the recommendations therein.

Oh, and sorry Harry. I guess they just don’t exist.