From Xico

Here's a Sunday ditty for you.  Muy divertido.  Enjoy. 

What a Mess

One of the regular posters on the group Visit Xalapa just posted a link to a very interesting news site called New America Media which is a compendium of "ethnic media."  Here I came across something we haven't often been reminded of about AIG: that it was heavily involved in pushing subprime loans to poor people. This ought to be getting more notice.  As has been said, the bonuses are small potatoes compared to the larger racket going on. Why are we trying to shore up not just AIG but a system that, if it is saved, will continue its rackets and will not work to the advantage of ordinary folks?

My main concern about Obama before he was elected that he had taught law at the University of Chicago and I think gotten his main exposure to economics through conservative economists at U of C.  Austin Goolsbee is one of them, and he remains a close advisor.  Obama has two contradictory influences in his intellect, a definitely leftish tendancy on social issues and a definitely old-fashioned rich-banker Republican tendancy in his economic approaches.  I think these latter tendancies have been proven to be badly flawed by recent events, but Obama seems surrounded by a team determined to put bandaids on the mess because they really don't see the mess for what it is.

BUT we shouldn't as they say cut off our noses to spite our faces.  Here is a good article breaking down into (somewhat) comprehensible pieces the AIG situation by Joe Nocera in the NYTimes.  It preaches, wisely, that we should be addressing the real problems and not simply reacting like an angry mob to AIG.  It discusses those real problems.  And here and here are two Krugman posts which take a more general tack.  None of them are happy posts.  Our government, our Democratic Congresspeople especially, are making asses of themselves and rowing our boat towards the waterfall. Obama seems to be sitting and thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking the same ole same ole.

My brain goes spinning around when I try to understand the economic stuff.  The Baseline Scenario by Simon Johnson, Peter Boone and James Kwak (Yes.)  is a very good site for fairly comprehensible explanation of current happenings, for a primer on gaining some kind of basic understanding, and for commentary. 

Here are who the authors are:

Peter Boone is chair of Effective Intervention, a UK-based charity, and an Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics.

Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.  He is a co-founder of The Baseline Scenario.

James Kwak is a former McKinsey consultant, a co-founder of Guidewire Software, and currently a student at the Yale Law School.  He is a co-founder of The Baseline Scenario.

It really seems we have to rise above the mainstream media and come to some understanding as informed citizens, difficult as all this is to grasp.

Santoral for March 20

From El Universal

Today we celebrate Saints Cuthbert, Vulfrano, Eufemia, Hippolites and Ambrose.

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Vulfrano was born Ramon Mill Aran in 1909.  He was killed in Barcelona in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.  In 2007 Benedict beatified him and about 500 other religious who were  killed because of Republican hostility to the Church.  During the Spanish Civil War, most of the Church sided with the Nationalists and Franco against the Republicans, the latter seeing the Church as representing the elites and the powerful.  Pope Benedicts action was seen as deliberately controversial since a Socialist government had just come into power in Spain in 2007.  You may remember, this was the government that replaced conservatives  following the act of terrorism against a train in Madrid. It was also the government elected in part because of opposition to the country's participation in the Iraq war.  Here is a link to an article in the International Herald Tribune giving an account of the beatification and Spanish-Vatican relations at the time.

What Abrogating the Mexican Trucker Program Will Cost the US

A quicky: From Mexico Trucker Online a list of the costs to the US of canceling the cross-border trucking agreement with Mexico which violates NAFTA.

An almost irrelevant aside. The Teamsters Union had a fair bit to do with this violation of NAFTA.  In the 1990s I worked at a state hospital in Illinois.  I have no idea why the Teamsters was the union of record for a lot of the employees.  I do know that Union drivers earned more than practically anybody else on staff who wasn't a member of the Teamsters and spent many days just hanging out on the grounds.  I know that Teamsters were responsible for various chores and that the rest of us were forbidden, for instance, to change our own light bulbs.  And when lightbulbs needed to be changed, two Teamsters came which lead, of course, to the well-worn joke about how many Teamsters it took to change a light bulb.

Rising prices in Mexico: Hoping it will hurt the US more

Thanks to my new discovery, Mexico Trucker Online, I have here (Download Retaliatory_tariff_english) a list of all items that will now be subject to retaliatory tariffs thanks to the US's cancelling of access to the US by select truckers.  Some of the stuff NOT on the list: corn, rice, beans.  Mexico used to be self-sufficient in these basic food stuffs, before the mid 1980s globalization wrought Mexico dependent on imported food.  NAFTA cemented this.  Thus, Mexico cannot raise prices on these subsistence items.  Jim and I made one of our exploratory trips recently to a pueblo which is now growing its own beans again.  I'd like to go back and learn some more about it.  Will post on that trip soon.

¡Extra!¡Extra! ¡Read All About It!

¡OBAMA TO VISIT MEXICO APRIL 16 TO 17TH!

(¡And the NY Times doesn't seem to know it!)

According to El Universal, Obama will visit Mexico and meet with President Calderón to discuss bilateral concerns including the environment, the economy, security, social well being and migration [and not just narco junk].   Th e agenda will include discussions of issues affecting the hemisphere taking into account the involvement of both countries in international groups such as the Summit of the Americas, the G8, the G5 and the summit of leaders of APEC.

Now back to work.

David and Goliath -- Though David has yet to win. If the US wants to do it, NAFTA rules don't count.

Afterthought below

When they reform US education, they (whoever they are) need to put in some required courses on Mexican history, cultures, geography and economy.  They should require Mexican migration studies. They should make Spanish a required language.  And they should have Mexicans teaching a big hunk of the material, or at least designing it.  And maybe they should do the same with Canada.

I don't know how many of you know this, but the US Congress in its infinite unwisdom just cut a program permitting Mexican trucks into the US.  It was certainly politics --Congress folks and the Teamsters and that great big pork-laden spending bill that just passed, but I'm not sure.  There are blogs on everything, and here is actually a blog on Mexican trucking called, simply enough Mexico Trucker Online which has some pretty interesting links.  One of the links is to this article which discusses just how the plan played out in reality: too many US hoops to jump through for there to be that much participation; no incidents of note attributed to those Mexican truckers who did participate.  Mexico is a developing country, but it has an awful lot that is the same as in the US including large, efficient, well-maintained eighteen-wheelers for shipping the vast amount of stuff that heads to the US.

Here is a picture of the truck-jam on the Mexican side of la frontera.

Below is my translation of an article written for Reuters with a bit more talk about Mexican reaction than you're likely to find in US coverage.

Mexico raises tariffs on 90 US products in dispute
By Armando César Tovar and Adriana Barrera
Wednesday March 18 2009
Mexico DF (Reuters) - On Wednesday Mexico published a list of 90 industrial and agricultural products imported from the US whose tariffs would be raised in reprisal for the prohibition of Mexican truckers on American highways.

Among the products are included fruits, vegetables, wines, articles of personal hygiene, coffee makers, eye glasses, even pet food an Christmas trees.

Mexico, which maintains that the US prohibition against [Mexican] trucking violates NAFTA....and said that the new tariffs would take effect on Thursday.

"The cancelation of the Demonstration Program  [permitting Mexican trucks on US highways] is proof that the US and Mexico have not succeeded in achieving a mutally satisfactory solution to the controversy over cross-border transportation,W said the Mexican Government in a statement published in the Diario Oficial (official government news organ). 

In September, 2007 the US undertook a pilot project under NAFTA which opened the frontiers to limited passage of Mexican trucks.  It was renewed in August of last year for two years.  However, last week the US Congess cancelled the funds which underwrote the plan arguing that the trucks did not comply with safety norms, which angered the Mexican government.

In announcing the measure on Monday, the Secretary of the Economy of Mexico, Gerardo Ruiz, said that the raising of tariffs would cost the equivalent of 2,400,000 dollars. [He added that] basic foodstuffs would not be included.

The list published in Mexico Wednesday included sensitive products like corn, beans, rice, wheat and meat which Mexico imports in large quantity, mostly from the US. 

Mexico imports some 35% of the meat consumed in the country, most of it from the US, according to data from Mexican producers.

Owing to geographical proximity an to NAFTA, Mexico is one of the principle markets to which the US exports beef, port, chicken and turkey.

Total trade between Mexico and the US amounted to $387,000,000,000 dollars last year.

Mexico directs almost 80 percent of its total exports to the US, its principal trade partner, an almost 70 percent of the goods traded between both countries are transported by truck.

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Here is a link to an editorial in La Jornada in Spanish saying the Mexican government's response to an absolutely clear violation of NAFTA, wimpy at best, is just another in a long line of feeble and unsatisfactory responses to mistreatment of Mexico under NAFTA since its inception.  I'm indexing a bunch of stuff at the same time again so I'm not sure I'll get to translating it.  This is already too long!

If you want more, Mex Files has it.  Plus from Mexico Trucker commentary by the Mexican ambassador to the US, Arturo Sarukhan.

Afterthought: It has about as much chance of happening as a 99.9% tax on AIG's bonuses, but how about if Mexico said it wasn't going to cross the border....that US trucks would have to cross into Mexico? Then US truckers could wait the interminable waits to cross in both directions and would have to pay for the gas used in those waits and would have to suffer the customs checks, etc.  As it stands now, Mexico is allowed to cross the border and go a few miles into the US in order to get to warehouses where the stuff is transferred to US carriers.

NAFTA and Tianguis and Public Health

Tianguis are the Mexican equivalent of flea markets.  They are lively places filled with stalls and stores that sell pirated and use CDs, new shoes, watches, and used books.  You can find people skilled at fixing watches and eyeglasses and cell phones and small motors, stuff you'd throw away in the US.  Jim has had his glasses successfully fixed twice following their near death underfoot. 

Tianguis are also where you find used clothes.  I've bought used clothes in the US at places like Goodwill and at garage sales.  I've always washed them before using them.  But it didn't occur to me that simply handling them might present problems.  Mexico has been at the receiving end of a lot of not so nice used clothes.  In part an ironic consequence of NAFTA as people search for cheaper stuff in economic hard times.  And it did cross my mind that this might just be a little bit of tit for tat over unwanted imports and exports.

Here's an article from El Universal on of all things the importing into Mexico of not such nice used clothes -- thanks to NAFTA.  Translation is mine.

El Universal
March 17, 2009
Health Alert:  Used Clothes
by Ruth Rodríguez

Healh authorities have found bacteria, funguses and bedbugs in used clothing which is commonly sold in the country's fleamarkets causing the government to issue an alert about the health risks of the purchases.

Federal officials have detected clothing coming from Mexico City's cemeteries, but also from asylums, morgues and hospitals in the United States.

The National Clothing Industry Association (CNIV) says that in 2008, 19,350 tons of used clothes came into the country under the terms of NAFTA which allows the entry of garments classified as "damaged or bad clothing," or as "classified clothing."
Furthermore, it was added, huge packages arrive illegally.

Miguel Angel Toscano, head of the Commision for the Protection from Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) said that clothing with bacteria and funguses which could be dangerus to health have been encountered.

Presently the country lacks health regulations for the sale of used clothing.

According to CNIV, in January, the arrival of imported used clothes increased 24% ove the same period last year.  Toscano said the situation is aggravated by the economic crisis and warned that 40% of the clothing sold is for children.

Something I haven't addressed much is the incarceration of immigrants in the US.  This is big business in the US now since most of the prisons are set up in areas in which people need work and out of sight of most of us.  Here is a link to the blog Border Lines where you can see a recent post on this topic.  Here is a link to a piece in the NY Times about a corrido about Sheriff Joe Arpaio which an immigrants rights worker wrote recently.  A few lines:

I will sing a corrido to all those present

that I wrote for Joe Arpaio from Arizona,

a shameless, disgraceful immigrant hater

who has earned the repudiation of the people.

You can follow a link in the article there to hear it.  Arpaio is a hideous Dickensian villain who has been at his job far too long.

As you can see from his own website, Arpaio thinks highly of himself. 

Here is a link to Snopes which tracks down and confirms or denies rumors on the internet.  Snopes confirms the stories about Arpaio's cruel treatment of prisoners.

Lula and Obama meet in Washington

In La Jornada today, Sunday, March 15.(my translation)
from Afp, Notimex and Reuters [no US news service mentioned]

Washington, March 14.  The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met today with his US counterpart, Barack Obama, as spokesman for Latin America.  In his first meeting since the Democrat arrived at the White House on January 20, the Brazilian asked Obama to improve relations with Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia and urged that interregional relations not be reduced to combatting narcotrafico.  He noted that the US has an historic opportunity to construct a new relationship with Latin American countries.

With only a month and three days until the Summit of the Americas is held -- at which Venezuela and Bolivia insist on the presence of Cuba--, Lula is the first leader of South America whom Obama has received in Washington, although Friday the US President had a phone conversaition with President Cristina Fernández e Kirchner in order to address multilateral matters ahead of the Group of 20 Summit in London on April 2.

"What I said to President Obama, and I hope it will happen, is that it is essential that there be a warming of relations with Venezuela, with Cuba and with Bolivia," said Lula during a press conference at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington.

"I think that we must construct in Latin America a new relationship (with the US), a relationship of trust, of not meddling, of getting together good things [compaginar las cosas buenas]," he added.

A few minues before at a press conference that he and Obama gave at the White House, the Brazilian affirmed that Obama has an historic opportunity to improve relations with Latin America.  The US president made no direct reference to Lula's statements, but at another point he said that he admired the progressive leadership of Brazil in the region.

Brazil and the US have sought to strengthen their relationship through cooperation in the matter of energy resources, particularly of biocombustibles. 

However, the two countries have been confrontational because of US policies which subsidize agricultural production and the taxes the US puts on the importation of Brazilian [sugar-cane-based] ethanol, which, as Obama acknowledged, is a source of tension which only will be fixed with the passage of time (the tariffs are not set to expire until 2010.) [And you thought we were champions of free trade.]

Lula, who spoke for a little more than an hour with Obama, reminded him that it was only a few days until the Summit of the Americas -- from the 17th to the 19th of April -- and that at that summit, we're going to find all of us -- all the presidents of the Americas."

The president made no reference to the Hugo Chávez's petition to invite his Cuban counterpart, Raúl Castro, to the meetings.  The Venezuelan said that he had talked about this matter with Bolivian President Evo Morales who took the same position.

[They said a bit more on this topic. Lula's mentioned that he talks frequently with Chavez and that Chavez et al have high hopes of a warming of relations with the US.  Then more on various meetings, etc.  and mention that Lula and Obama talked about the world economic crisis and what they could say at the Group of 20 meetings. And some pro forma stuff.]