Recently, I was reading about the Budget 2010 in Barbados, and the serious financial state of that country. The Budget revealed a deficit of $ 814,634,684 Bd or $ 1.1 Billion XCD. This is a staggering figure for a country with a population about twice the size of St. Lucia. However there are some important lessons to be learned from Barbados. Tourism arrivals were down about 5.3% and are now on the upswing, and thus it is clear to any observer that this fiscal crisis was not caused by the decline in Tourism arrivals. The past robustness of the Barbados economy has been led by foreign direct investment in the high end villas and condominiums within the island. It is primarily this decline that has caused this shortfall in revenue. Our economists in St. Lucia would do well to observe the Barbados model and see how robust economic growth can be achieved and how to avoid the mistakes. The...