DBMA Espanol > Espanol Discussion

Politica-Economia en Latino America

(1/20) > >>

Crafty_Dog:
Disculpen por favor que lo siguiente sea en ingles:
====================================

Why Latin Nations Are Poor

      By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
      November 25, 2005; Page A11

      With hysteria mounting about the political shift leftward in Latin
America and 11 presidential races in the region over the next 13 months, the World Bank's "Doing Business in 2006" survey merits a read. We mentioned it two weeks ago but a fuller airing is in order.

      The annual report, by the research side of the bank, measures the
regulatory burden and property rights in 155 countries. This year's results
demonstrate clearly that despite persistent claims that the region has tried the "free-market" model and found it wanting, Latin America is stubbornly stuck in a statist time warp.

      When it comes to burdensome government and weak property rights,
Latins don't fare as badly as Africans but their freedoms lag behind those
in much of Asia and the former Soviet satellites of Europe.

      It's been 20 years since Hernando de Soto's Lima-based Institute for
Liberty and Democracy published "The Other Path," documenting the burdens that the Peruvian state was heaping on the backs of the struggling underclass. But in two decades little has changed in a region mostly known for caudillo government and its capacity to disappoint. More than ever, the Latin predatory state is driving entrepreneurs underground and forcing the most industrious citizens to emigrate, mostly to the U.S.

      Take for example Mexico, which has enormous oil reserves and open
trade with North America. Its economy is sadly underperforming. Mexican
Finance Minister Francisco Gil Diaz has managed the macro side of things
exceedingly well. But on the micro side, Mexican businesses face crippling
regulation and inadequate legal protections, weakening the potential for
market competition, investment and productivity gains.

      In the category of the World Bank report that deals with "hiring and
firing," Mexico ranks 125th out of the 155 countries surveyed, not least
because it costs a firm almost 75 weeks of wages to fire a worker. Mexico
also ranks 125th in "protecting investors" against fraud, self-dealing and
other corporate abuses. Correspondingly, it ranks 100th in the "enforcing
contracts" category, meaning that when two parties strike a deal, neither
knows whether it will hold up.

      Peru gets a better overall rating than Mexico, but it can hardly be
said to encourage entrepreneurship. In "starting a business," Peru ranks a
low 106th because of the red tape Mr. de Soto wrote about so long ago.
Firing a worker costs almost 56 weeks of wages, discouraging employers from hiring and risking huge costs if business takes a turn for the worse. A medium-sized business in Peru can expect a tax burden reaching almost 51% of gross profits, which is part of the reason Peru has the 133rd worst tax burden. "Enforcing contracts" takes 381 days on average, leaving Peru in 114th place in this category.

      Argentina, still saddled with Peronist labor laws, has an even less
flexible labor market than Peru, at 132nd in "hiring and firing." Moreover,
a medium-sized company must theoretically pay almost 98% of its gross profit to the tax man, which explains a high rate of tax evasion.

      In 25th place globally, Chile has the best business climate in the
region but is inexcusably behind Malaysia, Estonia and Lithuania. It badly
needs to advance reforms undertaken in the 1980s, but instead the Socialist government of Ricardo Lagos has yielded to union activists by increasing labor law burdens.

      Colombia -- at 66th -- has dreadful ratings in "hiring and firing"
(130th) and in "paying taxes," where a medium-sized business has a total
payable tax of 75% of gross profits. Venezuela doesn't enforce contracts
(129th), doesn't protect investors (142nd) and makes paying taxes a
bureaucratic nightmare (145th). There are some notable improvements among small countries. Honduras gets better marks for making property registration more efficient. El Salvador has quickened "business entry" but still ranks far down the list in this category due to the cost of starting a business.

      The correlation between economic freedom and prosperity is clear from reading the World Bank ratings. As one would expect, overtaxing and overregulating economic activity stunts growth, as do weak property rights. Much of the region's stagnation is attributable to burdens inflicted by government.

      Why hasn't democracy in Latin America produced change? The answer can be found in public-choice theory -- a school of economics made famous by Nobel Prize winner James Buchanan. Public choice views politics as a market, where the highest bidders have the power to "purchase" what they want. Deregulation may be best for the majority, but politicians don't have an incentive to do it when their most powerful, best-organized constituents --  the ones who put them in office -- prefer the status quo. That includes not only labor unions but rich, established oligarchs and government bureaucrats. Most Latin countries don't have large enough middle classes to counter these oppressive forces, thanks to the twin curses of overregulation and weak property rights.

      At the cost of a civil war, El Salvador has had some success in
awakening the power elite to the need for change. But most of the region is more like Mexico, where labor unions and a handful of wealthy individuals --  like telecom mogul Carlos Slim and media giant Ricardo Salinas Pleigo -- see no need to reform a system that serves them so well.

      On reviewing the World Bank study, it is worth noting that external
forces also militate against reform. The International Monetary Fund, the
U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank loan officers and the United Nations provide easy money -- "aid" -- to support failed governments and an entrenched ruling class. "Conditionality" has been a dismal failure.  IMF assistance to Argentina worked against challengers to Peronism in the 2003 election and ensured victory for the present anti-market government.

      Rich-country bureaucrats also often tie their handouts to objectives
favored by rich-country pressure groups, such as environmental and labor "protections" that in the name of "social justice" add more red tape and further destroy individual initiative. All the while, Godzilla government is leaving Latin America's underclass living in the shantytowns and favelas
with little opportunity or hope.

LazMartinez:
Dejame traducir:
 
   La cosa esta jodida en todas partes.   :wink:

LazMartinez:
Para los que no saben:

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2005/01/15/040n1con.php

http://www.laborrights.org/press/coke_span_040305.htm

Parece que los lideres de Cocacola han tomado unas lecciones desde sus "primos" en otros negocios de "coca".

captainccs:
Vargas Llosa: "No hay valor en nacionalismo. Es puro desvalor"
Por admin - Fecha: 2005-11-28 15:52:57

Guadalajara (M?xico), 28 nov (EFE).- El escritor peruano Mario Vargas Llosa afirm? en M?xico que "no hay ning?n valor en el nacionalismo", una ideolog?a aberrante a la que considera "el gran obst?culo" para que Am?rica Latina sea democr?tica.

"Desde mi punto de vista, el nacionalismo es una cat?strofe para cualquier pa?s, en cualquier circunstancia", declar? Vargas Llosa anoche en la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara (FIL), que este a?o, en su XIX edici?n, tiene a Per? como pa?s invitado.

Ante cientos de personas que acudieron a escucharle durante la inauguraci?n del ciclo "Di?logo: Convergencias y divergencias entre Per? y M?xico", Vargas Llosa se expres? con rotundidad y dijo que, a pesar de que la globalizaci?n marca una necesidad de apertura que muchos pa?ses han entendido, ?sta no se ha producido en la regi?n.

"Am?rica Latina da el triste espect?culo de que todos los intentos de crear organismos regionales fracasan uno tras otro por el lastre del nacionalismo, del que ninguno de nuestros pa?ses ha conseguido liberarse", se?al?.

Seg?n el escritor, "no hay ning?n valor en el nacionalismo. Es un puro desvalor", al tiempo que llam? a no confundir el nacionalismo con "el amor natural que uno tiene al medio en el que naci?, en el que creci?, que le da toda su referencia cultural".

"El nacionalismo es una ideolog?a colectivista que convierte en un valor el accidente m?s banal, que es el lugar de nacimiento de una persona, y hace de eso un valor y, en alguna forma, un privilegio", indic? Vargas Llosa.

El novelista considera que los nacionalismos de la regi?n desencadenaron buena parte de sus guerras y fueron la excusa para que los Gobiernos de esos pa?ses "gastaran inmensas sumas de dinero arm?ndose, llen?ndose de arsenales para combatirse, defenderse, uno del otro".

Record? que en esas circunstancias los ej?rcitos jugaron en muchas ocasiones "el papel de partidos pol?ticos" y se?al? que "un partido pol?tico armado de ca?ones y de fusiles es siempre un ganador".

"El nacionalismo est? detr?s de las dictaduras, que ha sido la raz?n mayor de nuestro fracaso en los intentos democr?ticos que hemos tenido y en nuestro atraso econ?mico, desde luego", recalc?.

Vargas Llosa consider? que el nacionalismo de cualquier clase "est? esencialmente re?ido con la cultura democr?tica" porque hace que las personas no existan como tales sino s?lo "como parte de una tribu, como miembros de una sociedad, de una naci?n, que es el valor supremo".

"Yo creo que al nacionalismo hay que atacarlo frontalmente como lo que es: una aberraci?n ideol?gica, una forma de religi?n laica nacida apenas en el siglo XIX, pues comienza en el XVIII pero nace en el XIX, y que s?lo nace para producir cat?strofes en la Humanidad", afirm?.

En particular, el escritor hizo referencia al atraso que esa forma de pensar y hacer pol?tica ha causado en Latinoam?rica.

"(Si) nosotros no hemos llegado a adoptar la cultura democr?tica, que es el ?nico instrumento para desarrollar, para crear un sistema de vida humano, una legalidad, para que la libertad sea una realidad, se debe fundamentalmente al nacionalismo", indic?.

"Ha sido el gran obst?culo para que seamos democr?ticos", a?adi? el escritor, quien pidi? cotejar la experiencia de dos de los protagonistas de la FIL de este a?o: Per? y M?xico.

Ambos tuvieron civilizaciones prehisp?nicas de vanguardia, pero hoy son "pa?ses pobres, atrasados, que una y otra vez fracasan, pierden el tren y se quedan en la estaci?n".

Tambi?n lament? que, ante los cambios y el progreso, la reacci?n en los pa?ses de la regi?n fuera cerrar fronteras y tratar de desarrollar "econom?as nacionalistas para defender nuestras identidades".

"Identidades entendidas en t?rminos colectivos no existen. Son ficciones", a?adi? el escritor peruano.

"Yo estoy a favor de las ficciones, soy un escritor de novelas y nada me gusta tanto como las ficciones, pero las literarias. Las ficciones pol?ticas no. Son peligrosas, mentirosas, no hay una ficci?n m?s mentirosa que la de una identidad colectiva. Eso no existe", concluy?.


Vargas Llosa: "No hay valor en nacionalismo. Es puro desvalor"

Crafty_Dog:
Summary

Bolivian President Evo Morales signed a decree May 1 by which Bolivia nationalizes its oil and gas resources. Nationalization was one of Morales' main campaign promises. While Morales had apparently flip-flopped on his policies to allow the unrestricted growing of coca, he was facing increasing pressure to act soon on some of his campaign promises. Now he is starting to deliver.

Analysis

On May 1, Bolivian President Evo Morales signed decree 28701, which nationalizes Bolivia's oil and gas resources. This was one of Morales' main campaign promises and sets Bolivia on a course similar to that of countries like Venezuela.

Even before winning the presidency, Morales said he intended to nationalize Bolivia's oil and gas resources. In that sense, this announcement is not a surprise, especially after reports emerging in the first days of April said a law to nationalize the resources was ready to be proposed. If anything, Morales just caught the local media by surprise, having announced it on a holiday. Using the figure of a decree instead of a change in the law, which can come later, also gives Morales an element of surprise to protect the announcement from potential legal challenges. At the same time of the announcement, Bolivian troops took control of several oil fields. The deployment of troops is intended both as a symbolic way to signal that Morales means business and to prevent any attempt to shut down production. Even if the nationalization was not unexpected, the way in which Morales' government has acted shows some heavy-handedness and not much willingness to compromise.

The decree's first details establish that the firms operating in the country will need to hand their production to the state-owned Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), which will take over selling the private firms' production as well as its own. The decree further says that private companies have 180 days to sign the new contracts in order to keep operations in Bolivia. Morales had said from the time he was campaigning that he would not confiscate companies' actual facilities and investments.

The main foreign energy companies operating in Bolivia are the Spanish company Repsol YPF, the Brazilian company Petroleo Brasileiro and the French company Total. Morales' decree establishes that those companies that had produced more than 100 million cubic meters in 2005 would only benefit from 18 percent of the production, with the rest of it going directly to the Bolivian government. Companies like Repsol YPF, which had registered the largest amount of reserves, will be affected most by the nationalization. If those details turn out to be true, then it will not leave those companies with many incentives to keep operating in the country.

Morales was facing increased domestic pressure to act quickly to fulfill some of his campaign promises, after having initially flip-flopped on the promise to allow unrestricted coca growing. This seems to be a way for Morales to reconcile himself with the other Bolivian political actors, and it will likely be well received by Bolivia's new partners on the just-signed Peoples' Trade Agreement: Cuba and Venezuela.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page