The Obama Administration seems to be heeding to Mexico’s request by openly halting the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Additionally, the administration has a “backdoor amnesty” plan to legalize millions of undocumented aliens in case Congress doesn’t pass legislation to do it.
“Mexico, a country where roughly 40% of
the population lives in poverty, has 10 people on FORBES Magazine's 2008 list
of the world's billionaires. While these individuals have made important
contributions to society via the expansion of services to marginalized areas, job
creation, and charitable donations, this concentration of wealth and economic
power hinders Mexico's ability to realize more and deeper levels of
competition in key industries.”
|
Posted: 09 Mar 2011 07:25 PM PST
The latest Forbes rich list has come out and it’s little surprise that the wealthy got even more money. But before we consider the details, let me bring up an interesting Wikileaks diplomatic cable on Mexico’s rich.
Analysts talk a lot
about how Wikileaks cables have harmed U.S. diplomacy. But I find myself
turning to them for renderings of inequalities in other countries, and tips
on corruption.
In any case, this
July 2007 cable
is titled “Who are Mexico’s Wealthiest Business Leaders,” and it starts out
thus:
“Mexico, a country where roughly 40%
of the population lives in poverty, has 10 people on FORBES Magazine's 2008
list of the world's billionaires. While these individuals have made important
contributions to society via the expansion of services to marginalized areas,
job creation, and charitable donations, this concentration of wealth and
economic power hinders Mexico's ability to realize more and deeper
levels of competition in key industries.”
The wealth of the
richest Mexicans represented 10 percent of the value of the nation’s gross
domestic product, the cable says.
It goes on to say
that some of the richest Mexicans took advantage of shortcomings in its
political system to expand their wealth and create private sector monopolies
while “leaving the average Mexican out in the cold.”
“The
negative aspects of this concentration of wealth and economic power cannot be
overlooked because many of these individuals control the monopolies and
oligopolies that hold back economic growth. SLIM, Salinas, and others have
used their influence to sway economic policy and work the system to further
their business interests and hinder their competitors. A World Bank report
found that billionaire-controlled companies in Mexico are more likely to be
involved in monopolistic practices and win amparos, or judicial stays, which
allow them to delay regulatory rulings against them while they mire the
process in appeals. The result is that SLIM still dominates the telecom
market; GE, NBC and others are unable to break into the broadcasting market;
and the Federal Competition Commission (Cofeco) remains unable to impose
significant penalties on anti-competitive conduct.”
If Forbes is
accurate, the concentration of wealth is increasing. While more than 40
million Mexicans live in poverty, the world's richest man, Mexican tycoon
Carlos Slim, saw his wealth expand ever more, growing to $74 billion. That’s
a rise of $20.5 billion in a year. Slim is in the photo above, to the right
of President Felipe Calderon. Slim’s businesses include telecommunications,
an airline, a bank, a construction company, department stores (including
Sanborns), restaurants, music outlets, insurance, auto parts, and ceramic
tiles.
Coming in at No. 39
on the rich list is another Mexican, German Larrea Mota Velasco and family,
with a fortune estimated at $16 billion. The chairman of copper and silver
miner Grupo Mexico saw his fortune climb $6.3 billion in the past year,
Forbes says.
At No. 66 on the
list is Alberto Bailleres Gonzalez, of the mining concern Industrias Penoles,
with $11.9 billion. At No. 112 is Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the tycoon owner of
TV Azteca, with $8.2 billion. At No. 268 is Jeronimo Arango with $4 billion,
largely accumulated from the sale of Cifra, their self-made retail chain, to
Wal-Mart. New to the list at No. 310 is Daniel Servitje Montull and family,
with $3.5 billion made from Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest breadmaker. At
No. 512 is Emilio Azcarraga Jean, heir to the Televisa fortune with a net
worth of $2.3 billion. Then comes Roberto Gonzalez Barrera and family
with a $2 billion fortune from tortillas. At No. 993 is Roberto Hernandez
Ramirez with a $1.2 billion fortune from sale of Banamex, the bank. With a
slim $1 billion fortune (chump change!) is Alfredo Harp Helu at No. 1140, who
also made a fortune from the sale of Banamex. Tied in last place at No. 1140
is Joaquin Guzman Loera, the head of the Sinaloa narcotics cartel.
So which one is the
most admirable and which is the biggest rogue?
|
*
“Among the commodities that Mexico exports is labor power. US corporations
depend on a supply of labor power from Mexican workers for their plants in
Mexico and the United States. The remittances of the latter, a major source of
income for millions of Mexican families, are crucial for Mexico’s GDP. Those US
and foreign plants that operate on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border,
across from US cities such as Laredo, McClaren and El Paso, Texas, and San
Diego, California, depend on a constant migration of low-wage workers from
southern to northern Mexico. Despite the draconian controls on immigration, the
integration of the labor markets is such that, according to one estimate, a 10
percent increase in wages for unskilled workers in the US over time results in
a 1.8 percent rise in Mexican wages.”
*
Mexican economy in free-fall
By Rafael Azul
26 August 2009
The Mexican economy shrank at an annual rate of 10.3 percent in the second
quarter of 2009. This is the worst economic performance since the National Statistics
Institute (INEGI) began issuing quarterly numbers in 1981. This statistic
signals a continuing deceleration for the economy, an increase over the
six-month average decline of 9.2 percent for the first half of 2009.Were one to predict a 7 percent decline for the entire year—a wildly optimistic estimate, given the above figures—Mexico would have faced its worst year since the Great Depression. Among the worlds’ major economies, only that of Russia has contracted more than Mexico’s, about 10.9 percent.
The third second quarter contraction follows a drop of 8 percent in the first quarter and 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. So-called secondary activities—construction, manufacturing, mining and utilities—fell by 11.5 percent. Tertiary activities, such as transportation and storage, fell by 10.4 percent. A somewhat positive result was generated in the primary sector—agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishing—which rose by 1.1 percent of GDP.
By far the largest drop was in services associated with tourism, 17.1 percent, followed by manufacturing, 16.4 percent. This grim statistic is a direct result of a slowdown affecting the most industrialized parts of the country.
The drop in GDP has been accompanied by a crisis in the peso/dollar exchange rate. The rate changed from approximately 11 pesos to the dollar at the beginning of 2008 to 15.50 at the beginning of 2009. Only massive intervention by the Mexican Central Bank and the fall of the dollar itself restored some value to the peso, back to about 13 per dollar.
The social consequences of this dramatic decline are being felt. Mexico City residents report increases in nearly every measure of social unrest. Youth crime, drug use and corruption—all driven by increases in youth unemployment—have escalated.
Since the imposition of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1992, the economies of the United States and Mexico have become much more closely integrated. Mexico transformed itself from an economy that relied mostly on domestic demand—less than 10 percent of GDP was involved in foreign trade—to an export platform, with over 30 percent of its GDP involved in foreign trade. This is particularly true for northern Mexico. Sixty percent of Mexico’s imports—mostly of manufactured goods—and two thirds of capital investments come from the United States. Over 90 percent of Mexico’s exports go to the US. In 2008 the total value of exports fell by 34 percent, while imports fell by 33 percent. This includes a 54 percent drop in the dollar value of oil exports.
Among the commodities that Mexico exports is labor power. US corporations depend on a supply of labor power from Mexican workers for their plants in Mexico and the United States. The remittances of the latter, a major source of income for millions of Mexican families, are crucial for Mexico’s GDP. Those US and foreign plants that operate on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border, across from US cities such as Laredo, McClaren and El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California, depend on a constant migration of low-wage workers from southern to northern Mexico. Despite the draconian controls on immigration, the integration of the labor markets is such that, according to one estimate, a 10 percent increase in wages for unskilled workers in the US over time results in a 1.8 percent rise in Mexican wages.
The impact on the border economy has been devastating. The loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in industrial centers such as Ciudad Juarez, Laredo and Tijuana has affected the economies of the industrial corridor that stretches on both sides of the border from San Diego, California, to Brownsville, Texas.
Consequently, the current US recession had an immediate impact on the Mexican economy. Exports, investment and remittances fell. Commodity prices, including the price of oil, also fell in response to the global drop in demand.
The collapse of exports, investments and remittances, however, are only part of the story. Food prices were on the rise throughout 2007, affecting living standards.
The official rate of unemployment, 5.2 percent of the labor force, up from 3.5 percent last year, obscures the actual state of affairs. Even before the crash, the economy was unable to create enough jobs to occupy new entrants into the labor force, a chronic problem for the Mexican economy.
Those that did not emigrate found employment in the so-called informal sector, which consists of what are euphemistically called “micro-enterprises.” This underground economy employs some 20 million people, 45 percent of the entire labor force of 45 million people. (Mexico has a population of 107 million; the labor force is officially defined as those over the age of 14.)
Since June 2008, the Mexican economy has lost 232,000 jobs, while the informal sector gained 99,000. If one adds this last group to the unemployed, the actual rate of unemployment would exceed 20 percent of the labor force. Such rates approach those of the 1930s and far exceed the jobless rates generated by the economic crisis of 1994.
The reaction of President Felipe Calderón’s National Autonomous Party (PAN) government to the new economic news resembles that of a US state governor, rather than the leader of a sovereign state. After dismissing warnings that the Mexican economy would be hard hit by the recession as “catastrophe mongering,” the Calderón administration proceeded to impose contractionary policies that reduced internal consumption and added to the unemployment rolls. The federal government will reduce spending by 85,000 million pesos, roughly US$6.5 billion, in the 2010 budget to be presented September 8.
At the same time, the Central Bank, with its policy of selling dollars to prevent the collapse of the peso, in effect has drastically reduced the money supply, increasing interest rates and further restricting economic activity. Central Bank officials have made it clear that the recovery of the Mexican economy depends on the recovery of the world economy.
The contractionary measures have been dictated by Wall Street. Last November, Fitch Ratings, a Wall Street Bond rating agency, gave a “negative” assessment of Mexican government debt. In May of this year, Standard and Poor’s also gave a Mexico a negative rating. Both agencies had threatened to reduce the government’s bond rating, presently at BBB+, three steps above junk bond status. In effect, the banks and the Obama administration are denying Mexico, a semi-colony of the US, the kind of bailout they have granted themselves. That the measures being imposed will result in increasing hunger and unemployment is of no consequence to the US ruling elite.
CALDERON’S ONLY JOBS PLAN IS TO EXPORT 38 MILLION ILLEGALS TO GRINGO LAND TO WAVE THEIR MEXICAN FLAG, AND LOOT!
“Wherever there’s a Mexican, there is Mexico!” Calderon
However, the union bureaucracy stopped short of calling on Calderón to rescind the budget cuts and to use the resources of the state to create jobs. Instead it demanded that whatever budget cuts take place be shared equally among all the government agencies. On Friday, Calderón placed a wage ceiling on government officials; from now on no government official will be allowed to earn a higher salary than the president himself. “Before we ask for further sacrifices from Mexican families, it is necessary that government officials show transparency in the efficient use of government resources,” declared Calderón, signaling further cuts in living standards.
*
MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com
EXPORTING POVERTY... we take MEXICO'S 38 million
poor, illiterate, criminal and frequently pregnant
........ where can we send AMERICA'S poor?
The Mexican
Invasion................................................
Mexico prefers to export its poor,
not uplift them
March 30, 2006 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0330/p09s02-coop.html
Mexico prefers to export its poor,
not uplift them
At this week's summit, failed
reforms under Fox should be the issue, not US actions.
By George W. Grayson WILLIAMSBURG,
VA.
At the parleys this week with his
US and Canadian counterparts in Cancún, Mexican President Vicente Fox will
press for more opportunities for his countrymen north of the Rio Grande.
Specifically, he will argue for additional visas for Mexicans to enter the
United States and Canada, the expansion of guest-worker schemes, and the
"regularization" of illegal immigrants who reside throughout the
continent. In a recent interview with CNN, the Mexican chief executive
excoriated as "undemocratic" the extension of a wall on the US-Mexico
border and called for the "orderly, safe, and legal" northbound flow
of Mexicans, many of whom come from his home state of Guanajuato. Mexican
legislators share Mr. Fox's goals. Silvia Hernández Enriquez, head of the
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for North America, recently emphasized
that the solution to the "structural phenomenon" of unlawful
migration lies not with "walls or militarization" but with
"understanding, cooperation, and joint responsibility." Such rhetoric
would be more convincing if Mexican officials were making a good faith effort
to uplift the 50 percent of their 106 million people who live in poverty. To
his credit, Fox's "Opportunities" initiative has improved slightly
the plight of the poorest of the poor. Still, neither he nor Mexico's lawmakers
have advanced measures that would spur sustained growth, improve the quality of
the workforce, curb unemployment, and obviate the flight of Mexicans abroad.
Indeed, Mexico's leaders have turned hypocrisy from an art form into an exact
science as they shirk their obligations to fellow citizens, while decrying
efforts by the US senators and representatives to crack down on illegal
immigration at the border and the workplace. What are some examples of this
failure of responsibility? · When oil revenues are excluded, Mexico raises the
equivalent of only 9 percent of its gross domestic product in taxes - a figure
roughly equivalent to that of Haiti and far below the level of major Latin
American nations. Not only is Mexico's collection rate ridiculously low, its
fiscal regime is riddled with loopholes and exemptions, giving rise to
widespread evasion. Congress has rebuffed efforts to reform the system.
Insufficient revenues mean that Mexico spends relatively little on two key
elements of social mobility: Education commands just 5.3 percent of its GDP and
healthcare only 6.10 percent, according to the World Bank's last comparative
study. · A venal, "come-back-tomorrow" bureaucracy explains the 58
days it takes to open a business in Mexico compared with three days in Canada,
five days in the US, nine days in Jamaica, and 27 days in Chile. Mexico's
private sector estimates that 34 percent of the firms in the country made
"extra official" payments to functionaries and legislators in 2004.
These bribes totaled $11.2 billion and equaled 12 percent of GDP. ·
Transparency International, a nongovernmental organization, placed Mexico in a
tie with Ghana, Panama, Peru, and Turkey for 65th among 158 countries surveyed
for corruption. · Economic competition is constrained by the presence of
inefficient, overstaffed state oil and electricity monopolies, as well as a
small number of private corporations - closely linked to government big shots -
that control telecommunications, television, food processing, transportation,
construction, and cement. Politicians who talk about, much less propose,
trust-busting measures are as rare as a snowfall in the Sonoran Desert.
Geography, self-interests, and humanitarian concerns require North America's
neighbors to cooperate on myriad issues, not the least of which is immigration.
However, Mexico's power brokers have failed to make the difficult decisions
necessary to use their nation's bountiful wealth to benefit the masses.
Washington and Ottawa have every right to insist that Mexico's pampered elite
act responsibly, rather than expecting US and Canadian taxpayers to shoulder
burdens Mexico should assume.
*
FROM JUDICIALWATCH.org
*
“The Obama Administration seems to be heeding
to Mexico’s request by openly halting the deportation of hundreds of thousands
of illegal immigrants. Additionally, the administration has a “backdoor
amnesty” plan to legalize millions of undocumented
aliens in case Congress doesn’t pass legislation to do it.”
*
MEXICO ASKS U.S. TO STOP DEPORTING SERIOUS CRIMINAL… GUESS
OBAMA’S LA RAZA I.C.E WILL SIMPLY LET THEM GO?!?
*
Mexico Asks U.S. To Stop Deporting Serious
Criminals
Last
Updated: Mon, 09/27/2010 - 11:14am
In a
flabbergasting request, a coalition of Mexican lawmakers has asked the United
States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious
crimes in American courts.
The
preposterous demand was made at a recent southern California conference in
which the mayors of four Mexican cities that border the U.S. gathered to
discuss cross-border issues. The only American mayor who attended the biannual
event was San Diego’s Jerry Sanders, evidently because his city hosted it this
year at a fancy downtown hotel.
Among
the cross-border topics that were addressed at the conference was the
deportation of Mexican citizens who have committed violent crimes in the U.S.
The felons are persona non grata in their communities, say the mayors of
Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nogales and Nuevo Laredo. They want U.S. officials to
stem the deportation of such convicts to their cities, according to a local newspaper report that covered the conference.
To
support the request, the mayor (Jose Reyes Ferriz) of Mexico’s most violent
city, Ciudad Juarez, pointed out that of 80,000 people deported to his
community in the past three years nearly 30,000 had committed serious crimes in
the U.S. Around 7,000 had served sentences for rape and 2,000 for murder. The
criminal deportees have contributed to the escalating drug-cartel violence in
his city, Mayor Ferriz said, so he wants the U.S. to make other arrangements
when prison sentences are completed.
If this
seems unbelievable, consider that a few years ago Mexico’s government formally
complained that too many Mexicans had been repatriated from the U.S. and that the entire country was
overwhelmed with demands for housing, jobs and schools. Various Mexican
legislators publicly chastised the U.S. for sending illegal immigrants back,
explaining that the country could not accommodate the “repatriated.”
The Obama Administration seems to be heeding
to Mexico’s request by openly halting the deportation of hundreds of thousands
of illegal immigrants. Additionally, the administration has a “backdoor
amnesty” plan to legalize millions of undocumented
aliens in case Congress doesn’t pass legislation to do it.
*
MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com
WE ARE MEXICO’S
WELFARE, BIRTHING CENTERS, JOBS AND …. JAILS SYSTEM!
THEY SAVE MUCHO, WE
SPEND EVER MORE!
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