Crisis? What crisis?

The president of the Inter-American Development Bank Luis Alberto Moreno gave an interesting interview in the Colombian economical daily Portafolio. Well, interesting, not because his speech is revolutionary and contains miracle solutions for the development of Latin America. But because his tone has quite changed between the beginning and the end of the interview.

And if the Venezuelan crisis was deeper?

Bad days for Hugo Chavez and even more for the whole Venezuela. Since the beginning of the year, the economical crisis which had been latent for months, erupted. And now it threatens to become a political crisis as the parliamentary elections are coming (September 2010).

Our own responsibility

Media talk about the huge wave of solidarity toward Haiti around the world. It is probably true but I am afraid to say it is not so simple. All the governments, for example, do not seem to have realized the immensity of Haitian drama. When Brazil will send a 15 million dollar aid and Australia 9 million dollars, others like France  have not announced yet any financial aid.

Where is the real power?

Forbes has just published its classification of the 100 most powerful people in the world. No surprise: Barack Obama is at the top of the ranking, before Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin. What about Latin America? Well, it seems that money makes power, as the first Latin American in the Forbes classification is also the richest one, Mexican businessman Carlos Slim.

Couldn’t we send Cristiano Ronaldo to El Salvador ?

El Salvador has been hit by hurricane Ida. More than 130 people have been killed, thousands of bridges and roads have been destroyed, houses must be built again and 10.000 people would need an emergency food supply… Experts evaluate the cost of reconstruction about 80 million dollars. It could seem not so much if we compare to other natural disasters like the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Work more, earn more

Some workers are now paid according to their productivity. This is the result of a reform adopted last year. A staff will monitor and measure the work of each employee and will determine their level of pay based on production. In theory, this measure would boost economic development and growth, motivate and involve workers, eliminate corruption…

“Sucre”: the financial future for Latin America ?

It is a recurrent issue, an old dream that is coming back in the news in an unexpected form. The Bolivarian revolution Hugo Chavez has made his banner for several years could take an important step in the coming months … creating a single currency. The economic crisis, a weak dollar, the political context that brought left wing majorities to power… All this has given a big boost to the “sucre” project.  

Brazil’s turn

World Cup 2014, Olympic Games 2016… All the sports fans around the world now dream to go to Brazil in the next few years. But of course the designation of Rio as the host of the Olympic Games goes beyond sport.

Clinton and Haiti, an old story

Logan Abassi / Minustah.org

Interesting case of diplomacy in Haiti. Bill Clinton went to Port-au-Prince for a third visit in the last few weeks. It is at least a proof that the former American president is doing his job of special ambassador in Haiti quite seriously. During the visit he admitted that he hated the embargo against Haiti he had to decide when he was president.

And the winner of the crisis is…

It seems to be the confirmation that the international crisis will hit the most fragile economies. Again and again. And the confirmation comes from the study of… a financial organization ! It is a very interesting study that the analysts of UBS just published. The report talks about the prices and earnings in the biggest cities in the world. Those days the only statistics that the media have highlighted is the “big mac stat”, i.e. how long people have to work to buy a Big Mac. Good standard but it is not the only one in the study.