THE TRUMP' VIRUS SPREAD TO THE UK

Published by El Nuevo Herald on July 03, 2016

Since the UK joined the European Union (EU) saw their exports increased dramatically. Although in the first three months of this year, EU imports exceeded exports to it and reached a deficit record of 23,800 million pounds, the British economy is one of the world's most powerful. It is even considered the world center for finance, because there is set daily interbank interest rate known as LIBOR, which is a global reference for all banks.

In addition, there are the largest reinsurance companies in the world, as Lloyds, which is used by companies like Citizens to guarantee its operations in case of massive claims for catastrophes such as hurricanes or tsunamis.

The withdrawal of the UK from the EU could be of poor prognosis in the first two years, and even a global meltdown could be generated in the economy.

It seems that low-tolerance policy towards immigrants was what justified the Brexit. That is, the anti-immigrant wave, strongly led by Donald Trump in the US and deftly spread around the world, eventually contaminated the UK.

The British prime minister David Cameron had promised to keep immigration in less than 100,000 a year. However, the last record was 362,000 immigrants last year. For that reason, Cameron renegotiated with the EU in order not to grant contractual benefits to immigrants for four years.

The hostility of many British   to immigrants became even more evident after  March 22 this year when a terrorist attack was committed in Brussels, Belgium, killing 35 people and 230 wounded. There it was referenced that due to EU treaties, authorized immigrants have free movement within the 28 countries that comprise it, and this certainly is a magnet for terrorist attacks.

Those who supported the withdrawal of Britain from the EU argues, like Trump, immigrants punish the taxpayer, living in social welfare, cluttering health services and education, challenging job opportunities to the natives while reducing their salaries.

What happens in fact is that the employment rate in the UK was 74.1% in 2015, the highest in its history since 1971, according to the NSO. At this rate, it is unlikely to harm an immigrant natives in search of employment.

However, it is important that immigrants in the UK, over 15, have a higher education,(level university) than natives in a ratio of 2-1.

Surely, this disastrous decision taken by the United Kingdom immediately generated massive losses at major US conglomerates. Companies like Ford, Wal-Mart, Caterpillar, etc., lost millions transfering to the United States its gains in Britain, due to the current weakness of sterling pound.

Still, not all are bad news for American consumers. The price of gasoline has fallen two to four cents per gallon since then. This is due to the lack of action on speculative trading in hedge funds on the London Stock Exchange, which, as we know, collapsed.

Hardly the UK may recover in the short term as the EU itself not want to accept their terms for fear that other countries can emulate, such as France. In turn the British, with their action, eventually cripple the fledgling Transatlantic Investment Agreement between the US and the EU (TTIP). Probably, they will try to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

As the former EU Commissioner Lord Mandelson said "treaties do not come free, not cover everything and take years to implement." In his view, the UK will have less and worse treaties which previously had.

The British thought that reducing immigration would enrich the country. not realized the effect it would achieve by the reverse, that is, impoverishing the country first, so that immigrants then leave.

Definitely the Trump's epidemic reached the UK.

BENJAMIN F. DeYURRE

Economist and Journalist

HOW TO CONTROL WEAPONS SALES

Published by El Nuevo Herald on June 27, 2016

It is said, repeated and it happens again. How long more multiple massacres? And every time appear  proponents and opponents to really control the sale of firearms .

Those who intend to continue or start in the lucrative business of selling weapons, apparently, they care little for human life of others. What is really interesting for them is that the business thrive. The rest is secondary, as in other types of businesses, such as selling cigarettes, for example, where despite proven to be carcinogenic, the still selling.

Logically, in the case of weapons, few buy them to auto- inflict harm, so, while cigarettes are harmful to the user, weapons do more damage to third parties.

There are many reasons behind massive attacks committed against a defenseless crowd, for instance, international terrorism, discrimination based on origin, race or sex, drug addiction or religion. However, they all have one thing in common: the mental imbalance.

Obviously, to commit a massive criminal attack, for whatever reason, the offender must suffer from mental disorders. Hence it follows that the treatment of mental illness should be a priority in the US and not as is currently happens in the great American nation, where there are simply no public psychiatric hospitals.

For effective control on arms sales, if there is political will and bipartisan agreements outside the business, you could do the following maneuvers:

▪ Examine in depth federal approval to carry weapons. That is, anyone who requires a license of this type, should make an appointment with a psychiatrist federally approved. Subsequently, you must make another appointment with a psychologist, also certified. Once these steps are achieved and after a thorough background check by the FBI, an authorization to the competent municipality where the applicant resides will be sent. The acting mayor then send the buyer the final order to acquire the weapon, after checking as a good citizen.

In turn, the armory completed the sale, send copy of the gun registry to the Mayor , to be shared with the law enforcement agency in the area.

▪ Any person who attempts to purchase more than 50 ammunition every three years for self - defense, should follow the same steps in the previous section. Why do we need more than 50 bullets? Are we going to war?

▪ Pawnshops simply should not sell firearms. Does anyone can sell cocaine or heroin? Weapons sales can't be done by anyone either.

▪ Illegal weapons dealers should be treated rudely. If they sell illegal weapons that end with human lives, then the life of the dealer should also be at stake in those states where the death penalty exists? At least monetary reward should be offered in neighborhoods to denounce clandestine arms dealers.

Finally, when the US Constitution was drawn up, it was ensured that the population would have access to weapons for self-defense. However, at that time there were no sophisticated weapons that exist today. In other words, the actual purchase of a variant of machine gun to protect our house is unjustified. It should be prohibited, period.
BENJAMIN F. DeYURRE
Economist and Journalist