The Editor, Sir:

The Governor of the Bank of Jamaica and at least one of his deputies attended university at the same time I did. We had the same economics professors. I will confess to numerous non-academic distractions which caused me to miss lectures on a regular basis and I suspect that it was during these missed lectures that monetary policy and the 'mopping up' of liquidity were discussed. This truancy problem caused me to rely on common sense when these matters are mentioned. Not that I regret it, since my thoughts are in line with those of everybody else's but the good governor.

The governor is sticking to a high interest-rate policy despite the fact that our economy - like those of the rest of the world - is declining fast. I have been trying, for the past two weeks, to find another country in the world that is doing the same thing. (The numbers for Zimbabwe are a little confusing). That is not surprising, as simple logic dictates that in times like these, we lower interest rates and increase money supply. In an overheated expansion, we raise interest rates and decrease the money supply.

In a news item recently, one prominent Jamaican demanded that the governor be removed. I disagree. All that is necessary is for him to be sent across the street from his office to any of the business places there and run that business for two months.

But when an experienced person's position defies logic, I try to figure out why he is holding to an untenable position. Is it possible that the governor - after years of watching those responsible for fiscal policy use political solutions to try to solve economic problems - feels that he has a duty to the rest of us to do whatever is necessary to slow that process? After all, he would have observed, first hand, the expensive, incestuous, vampiric flirtation with an anaemic airline and what is euphemistically described as a 'sugar industry' which has retained features in its production process that were present when that activity started hundreds of years ago.

Although we could go on, we need mention nothing more than the abandonment of empty and half-empty building owned by government to vandals and duck ants, while the most expensive real estate in the country is rented in an area that has no parking space. It cannot have escaped him that savings from these losers could rehabilitate the road infrastructure of the entire country and take care of shortfalls in the health and education ministries.

I am not letting the governor off the hook. But I fear that monetary policy actions may not be sufficient to fight this particular economic slowdown and fiscal policy - which is often ill-timed - must, for the first time, come under the microscope.

May I suggest, respectfully, that we front-load our own stimulus plan as much as possible, but put in place policies that will tighten both fiscal and monetary policy about the middle of next year. We would not want to set off a new round of inflation ... or worse, stagflation.

I am, etc,,

GLENN TUCKER

Stony Hill

Kingston 9