Matt Fallaize

This weekend’s Press 🗞️

Friday’s Press 🗞️

Percentage of Americans who are married and own a home at age 30: 1960: 52% 1970: 48% 1980: 45% 1990: 43% 2000: 35% 2010: 25% 2025: 12% Insane.

Wednesday’s Press 🗞️

Monday’s Press 🗞️

From 1947 to 1979, wages and productivity rose in tandem, driving broad-based prosperity. After 1980, productivity kept climbing while wages and compensation stalled. This disconnect defines the Great Regression, a period in which workers produce more but receive far less in return.

This weekend’s Press 🤶

"A new study reveals that young children learn letters and word structures more effectively through handwriting than typing. Researchers taught 5- to 6-year-olds unfamiliar letters and pseudowords using either manual writing or keyboards. Those who practiced by hand performed significantly better on tests of recognition, writing, and pronunciation, especially with unfamiliar word sequences. The study highlights the importance of graphomotor movements in developing reading and writing skills and suggests handwriting should remain central in early literacy education. Key Facts: - Handwriting Advantage: Children who practiced manually learned letters and pseudowords better than those using keyboards. - Motor Skills Matter: Graphomotor movements help imprint letter shapes and word structures into memory. - Free Writing Boost: Among handwriting groups, free copying (without guides) led to the strongest learning outcomes."

@richarddigard @oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Change in the public sector was within 1% of the change across all sectors. I'm not sure that tells us much, though as I've written many times spending in the previous States was allowed to grow rapidly. Change in finance, below the average, is well known & obviously concerning.

@matt_fallaize @oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Yep. What’s that telling you?

Could someone explain to me how @govgg taking more money off islanders via "tax reform" or paying to use the hospital will boost the economy?

@richarddigard @oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress GVA? 19% v 25% in nominal terms?

@matt_fallaize @oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Quite so. Have you noted the disparity in GDP growth finance vs public sector?

@oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Sorry. Here it is. gov.gg/gdp

@matt_fallaize @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Your link was only about rpi not GDP

@richarddigard @oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress In the past four full years for which data are available, GDP changes have been as follows in percentage terms: -7 7 4 -2

@oldfarmhorace @matt_fallaize @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Both. Here's a little 🎄 gift for you... gov.gg/CHttpHandler.a…

@oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress The answer to that is in the links I sent you. The main report is only a few pages long.

@matt_fallaize @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Our Government spending is about 25% of GDP. If Government spending increases by 6% in nominal terms it will increase nominal GDP by 1.5%. But it will not increase wealth. It will tax us into growth? Do we report real or nominal GDP?

@oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress I disagree with you that every politician (incl our 40 States members then) sees tax as the most important thing in the world, but maybe they do. What I was really doing was pointing out that tiny Guernsey can't replicate the economic conditions in the world's largest economy.

As a former politician you see tax as the most important thing in the world. You didn't focus on their light touch employment laws or their light touch on regulation or even their protectionism. You didn't even mention their attitude to risk. Or even the determination of their president to grow his economy.

@oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Their standard rate of corporate income tax is 21%. Ours is 0%. The dollar is the world's reserve currency. We have no control over monetary policy. Their economy is 10,000 times larger than ours. So it's hard to compare the two jurisdictions.

@matt_fallaize @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress As to US growth if we were as business friendly as they are we would knock them out of the park.

@oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Most recent data, which aren't very recent, show a year of contraction. Post-covid recovery & increasingly out of date data make it difficult to establish trends. I don't believe the data are broken down by public & private sectors. Here's the link. gov.gg/rpi

@matt_fallaize @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress If we are truly growing at 2% then we are a stellar European growth model. Why on Earth push economic development any more? We should just lie back and enjoy our growing wealth. How much of that growth was down to increased government spending?

@oldfarmhorace @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Growth in Guernsey averaged about 2% in the period 2021-23, the latest years for which data are available. Canada is expecting growth of about 1.3% in each of 2025 & 2026. US growth, an outlier for years now, may not be easy to replicate in a tiny island between the UK & EU.

@matt_fallaize @rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress You can't expect the EU and because the UK has a lot of EU anti growth measures in place to be growing. But look at Canada and the USA. Still growing. We need to be more USA and less EU in attitude.

@rue_simon @ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Biggest challenge may be proving the concept. Many developed nations with huge financial resources are suffering from low or nil growth. Are we confident that our politicians & civil servants will hit upon the secrets which have eluded their counterparts in the G7, Europe etc?

@ShaneLanglois @richarddigard @matt_fallaize @DavidPiesing63 @Govgg @sashakmiller @GuernseyPress Ok. Policy letter:Think thoroughly about the interests of the tax payer before spending the money and how that value could be communicated to the base that funds your activities on every project over £50k. Fair?

@GarryCollinsGSY @RobCurg @oldfarmhorace @MaryLowe501 @GuyPlummer34449 @YvonneBurford @HaleyCamp @advocategreen1 @GuernseyPress And yet your details were not added?

@RobCurg @matt_fallaize @oldfarmhorace @MaryLowe501 @GuyPlummer34449 @YvonneBurford @HaleyCamp @advocategreen1 @GuernseyPress Sent a chaser on the 14th August….

🇬🇬 To have a by-election; or to not have a by-election? That is the question.

@richarddigard @rue_simon @Govgg @sashakmiller It could be cash only or a mixture of primarily cash with some fee discounts. Something to pursue (again) in January.

@matt_fallaize @rue_simon @Govgg @sashakmiller Give or take, £2,700 a day then. Is that cash in hand or reduced/no landing fees etc and restraining Aurigny from stiffing BA with its monopoly handling fees?