JOB CREATION & DEVALUATION

Published in El Nuevo Herald on October 23, 2011

Among the various mechanisms that can be chosen to stimulate job creation in the U.S., perhaps the most important is the increase in tariffs for manufactured goods in China. Since then, the measure faces a formidable obstacle: more than 95% of these factories are owned by U.S. citizens and, obviously, they will oppose such a measure even if survival is at stake in the country
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In recent years there has been discussion in Congress that several countries, especially China, deliberately manipulating its currency to keep it undervalued. This deceptive practice makes it stimulates the import of Chinese products.

With a fierce Republican opposition in Congress, has tried to pass a law criminalizing the artificial devaluation. Specifically, Rep. John Boehner, Speaker of the House, said "this legislation exceeds Congress's role and is extremely dangerous." In response, the Democrat Charles Schumer argued: "There is nothing more important for Congress to defend American jobs." The law ended up happening with 225 votes, of which only 61 were Republicans.

On October 4, Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat of Brooklyn, introduced the bill Currency Exchange Rate Oversight The Reform Act, which among its proposals are: if a nation is accused of keeping its currency undervalued and not set in a period of three months, the tariffs will be increased; prohibits federal procurement of goods and services to those nations; prohibits the Trade Promotion Agency of the United States invest in those countries.

Indeed, if import tariffs significantly increase, you can redefine the domestic manufacturing lead to an increase in employment. We would combat primary labor cost with immigrant labor, which would be compensated by the figure of bonds in lieu of regular wages while processed American citizenship. In this way, we would  face two serious problems: unemployment and illegal immigration. At least it's something we can do.
 





BENJAMIN F DeYURRE
Miami

LUCRATIVE BUSINESS

                                                   
                PUBLISHED IN EL NUEVO HERALD OF MIAMI ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

The late fees and reconnection fees are no longer fair warning to consumers and have become a lucrative business. The costs of delay in payments and reconnections are very high, sometimes 30% of the value of service. The question that arises is: What bank charges interest of 30% financing?

What is the cost generated by this reconnection?  We believe that late fees should be collected only by banks or credit cards, and reconnection fees should reflect the same interest rate prevailing in the market, otherwise business would remain a very speculative indeed.

It is common to notice a marked sacrifice in the face of consumers when they line up to pay the reconnection and the high costs of basic services and cell phone, which often is the only means of communication they have and this should be also considered a basic service.

Many monopolic companies have merged and created centers of power to impose prices and conditions at will while hiring influential political lobbies to set the standard of "deaf ear" to many complaints. In addition, the most feasible way of communicating with these companies is phone to make a purchase.  If the call is for other reasons, hardly communication is achieved.

We believe in free enterprise and Democracy, so we a make public call to politicians with real vocation of service to regulate the costs associated with delays in payments and reconnections, especially now in rampant unemployment and economic crisis in full effect.

BENJAMIN F. DeYURRE

Miami

WARREN BUFFETT AN AMERICAN PATRIOT

Published on September 08, 2011 in El Nuevo Herald of Miami

Besides being one of the two richest men in the world, Warren Buffett for his actions, has proven to be a true American Patriot.

The Oracle of Omaha, as it is also known by his financial genius, has published an OP-ED in the newspaper of largest circulation in the U.S. requesting the he should be charged with more taxes. Even, his friend contacted mega-rich, all agreed they are able of paying more taxes to help with the enormous economic crisis plaguing the U.S.

Of course, a claim of this magnitude, destroys the Republican view that the tax increase in the wealthiest sectors, would increase domestic unemployment and capital flight to other countries.

Additionally, Warren Buffet recently invested five billions Dollars in one of the most important banks in America, with many branches and employees. It would have been catastrophic if one of the biggest banks closed its doors, not only for the new thousand of unemployed people, but by the negative expectations that generate more distrust in the U.S. financial system that could led to a “domino effect” thus breaking down other financial institutions that currently show a poor relation Capital – Assets.

As we see, Warren Buffett is not only a multimillionaire but also a man concerned about his country and the actions taken by him are extremely important contributions to the maintenance of our system as we know it today.

Hopefully our politicians can follow this honorable Patriot and stop thinking of their own profits while adopting the necessary measures to safeguard the Economic model of our great country.

BENJAMIN F. DeYURRE

EE.UU. IN BANKRUPTCY ?

Published in El Nuevo Herald on June 30, 2011. (It is one of the first written opinions alerting people about this dangerous situation)

If by August 2 is not reached a bipartisan agreement in Congress, the Treasury Department will  declare the country's inability to pay its debts.
The Republicans insist on reducing current expenditures by $ 2 trillion and not raise taxes on wealthier class. Under these parameters, debt and the deficit will grow further beyond its highest level in the last 60 years. As a macabre solution, the financial geniuses of Wall Street are offering papers with up to five years protection against default.
In practice, the default is translated as a real catastrophe for the economy, that in the beginning could stop paying pensioners and soldiers, and later to health care (Medicaid-Medicare). To make matters worse, investment banks have threatened to stop selling bonds in the market if it came to default.
The former Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Staruss-Kahn, recently accused of rape in New York, had a plan consisting of two types of dollars, one for U.S. domestic consumption and another external with very favorable exchange rate, while taxing the holders of those dollars overseas. So debts will depreciate.

Probably will have to reach an agreement before the August 2 to avoid default. This agreement will provide  raising the debt ceiling above $ 14.3 billion and paying interest payments of $ 250 billion for only six months.
This could affect the U.S. credit rating internationally making even more expensive  this debt financing.
If we want to save our country, the economic model we know today can not continue. Private enterprise has to offer jobs and banks have to offer loans because the sacrifice should be for all of us, like it or not.

BENJAMIN F. DeYURRE
Miami

DEBT & CREDIT

                                          Published in El Nuevo Herald on March 18, 2011

The economic crisis we face in the U.S. for the past three years has, in addition to some supporting actors, two main actors: banks and credit bureaus.
As a result of the housing bubble, many consumers assumed impossible to meet financial commitments once the property returned to a value even smaller than the original. To avoid foreclosure, consumers chose to safeguard all your home, delaying other payments such as automobile and credit cards. This results in a severe penalty of the credit bureaus, which drastically reduced the rating of these consumers, severely limiting their access to new credits.
The banks, following the dictates of the credit bureaus, reduced its portfolio of new loans by 90%. Despite new technologies and a broader financial spectrum, many bank executives came to a fantastic solution: auto given larges bond. This came up with a penalty to charge consumers who cashed a check in their offices and clients who did not maintain a certain minimum balance in their current accounts.

Some bank executives, brazenly, have argued that many customers are now asking for changes to their loans because their home price declined, but when the value of their home has doubled, no customer returned some of their profits to the bank. With this in mind,  is very hard to overcome the crisis.
Politicians should take notice of this matter by legislating for the three major credit bureaus do not penalize consumers who have been affected by the crisis. Instead, they would turn to bank financing for these special cases. Also, the government should increase its guarantee to underwrite the new credits. And it should create an oversight committee to regulate the activity of the entities that rarely collaborate on economic recovery.

BENJAMIN F. DeYURRE

Miami

TECHNOLOGICAL UNEMPLOYMENT

                                  Published in El Nuevo Herald on February 08, 2011


According to French chemist Antoine Lovoisier, no material is destroyed only transformed. We may apply this theory to the problem of unemployment in the U.S. today only to face a serious drawback: the jobs that have been displaced by technological advancements can not find where to relocate them. Technology simply making great fortunes grow but unemployment and poverty are increasing. Under these circumstances the question arises as to, How we are going to sustain our economic model ? The following examples illustrate this situation:

-The use of technology in tolls has accelerated the circulation of automobiles but has laid off thousands of workers nationwide.
-The technology online and ATM banking processes have been streamlined but have eliminated thousands of positions in this field.
-Software for declaring taxes have provided useful to the taxpayers but have severely limited the practice of certified public accountant.
-The widespread use of electronic mail has revolutionized communications but has laid off thousands of letter carriers and postal workers.
-The presence of Stockbrokers on the Internet has increased the income of this sector but has eliminated the manual labor of thousands of workers.
-The online edition of the newspapers has improved the information but has forced employers to lay off thousands of workers.

After seeing these eloquent examples is to ask us if whether we should regulate the technology. Obviously yes because otherwise it will destroy us.

FREE IMMIGRATION AGREEMENT

                            Published in El Nuevo Herald on December 28, 2010

In light of the continuing controversy over illegal immigration, the most sensible idea about illegal immigrants currently living in the United States is to integrate them into the production process. U.S. companies which relocate its manufacturing again on American soil, will be able to recruit this competitive workforce, which will be compensated under the bond given in replacement of regular salary. These immigrants in turn, after five years of uninterrupted work, may apply for permanent residency and then citizenship. This is a primary and a basic solution that aims to combat unemployment by encouraging domestic manufacturing, while regulating the unauthorized immigration.
However, authorized immigration could be regulated effectively by the creation of free immigration agreements in the same way that free trade agreements exist. The same rationale would apply for immigration. That is, the treaty would be negotiated with countries that share our basic values ​​of law and democracy, and where is  not expected a stampede of immigration in the medium term. Migrants between the countries signatories of the agreement would have the rights of permanent residents but  retaining their original citizenship.
When you make a trade between two countries generally pursued mutual benefit. In the case of an immigration treaty, several studies have shown that the free movement of people among countries usually contributes to greater prosperity when that movement is controlled.
Specifically, in the U.S. case, a free immigration would benefit from joint trade agreements since it would stimulate the transit of U.S. citizens to other countries.
Many strategies can be thought and some actions can be taken, but certainly something we have to do in the short term to legislate and implement real solutions immigration voting.