Often, it is the case that in T&T good sense does not prevail as the choices that the country's leaders make are often at odds with the population's sense of what is right and in the country's best interest.
An example of good sense not prevailing can be found in the decision by former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to offer herself for the position of leader of the official opposition party, the United National Congress, when she has led that amalgamation to five consecutive electoral defeats in the past five years. On the other hand, one small, but significant, example of good sense prevailing is the decision by the Central Bank Governor, Jwala Rambarran, to conform with the specific directives of the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert with regard to the allocation of foreign exchange to the country's authorised dealers.
One question that the previous minister of finance may wish to address is why he failed to give the Central Bank similar specific directives in a way that may have promoted a resolution to this thorny and long-standing issue much earlier.
There had been much public trepidation about the Central Bank Governor ignoring, or failing to comply in a timely fashion, with the lawful directives of the current Minister of Finance Mr Colm Imbert since he made statements in the 2016 budget about clearing the backlog, ensuring that legitimate demand for foreign exchange was met and re-instituting the allocation system that was in place before the April Fool's 2014 changes.
Given the failure by the Central Bank to specifically outline the steps it has taken to ensure the stability of the exchange rate–which was also mentioned by Mr Imbert in his budget presentation–it would be both useful and sensible for there to be some official pronouncement on why T&T needs some modicum of exchange rate stability.
In the local context, the reason for a preference for exchange rate stability may be based on a real fear that allowing greater exchange rate flexibility might be quickly seized upon by the business community as an opportunity to unleash a tsunami of price-gouging increases in the cost of living that could quickly reduce the quality of life of thousands of citizens across this land.
Given the predatory behaviour of some taxi drivers and doubles vendors following the presentation of the 2016 budget, such fear might be justified.
But some may argue that the most significant contributor to inflationary expectations in T&T is straight out of the economics textbooks: too much money chasing too few goods.
One of the problems of addressing economic problems such as inflation and the availability of foreign exchange is that far too often politicians and other leaders avoid engaging the population in mature discussions on these sensitive issues.
This leads to another national tendency that should be avoided: failing to deal with problems immediately, but instead putting plasters on the sores of public affairs and hoping that someone in the future provides the surgical intervention that may be necessary.
Given the statesmanlike way in which the Central Bank has acquitted itself in addressing the foreign exchange issues, it may be useful for the institution to give serious thought to leading the engagement of the public on the issues of inflation and foreign exchange, both of which are issues that are squarely within its mandate.