“Any differing views?”, asks economist Karm Farrugia (April 2), when referring to his stand that “an economy that fails to invest at least the equivalent of 20 per cent of its GDP, whether private or public, over a stretch of seven years” will not be subscribing to Warren Buffet’s tenet of “the tree today is the tree planted a long time ago”.

Yes, I do differ, on the basis of some other elements.

First of all, isn’t the apparently out-of-thin-air figure of 20 per cent possibly too dogmatic? Why not 15 per cent, or 30 per cent, or even more or even less.

Secondly, which year’s GDP? Or are we thinking in terms of some rolling average, in which case over only seven years?

Thirdly, what types of investing, domestically sourced, FDI, deficit-financed or what?

Fourthly, why over just seven years? Couldn’t it be less or more?

These types of statements often fail to consider an economy as, in reality, a continuum.

Economic management today is much more about ‘the cycle’, about the short, medium, and long terms. (Hence the often too hard to reconcile with the political timeframe spectrum.)

Great minds known to be “close to the heart” of Farrugia (like, say, both Adam Smith and J.M. Keynes) did have something to say about issues like these. But, anyway, Farrugia always makes fine, even if debatable, points.