* Warning, Moses uses one naughty swear word, if little children are present or you find swear words offensive, please cover your ears!
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Stephen Colbert has taken his show global this week, hosting the “Report” from Baghdad, Iraq.
You should definitely check out the entire episode, which includes U.S. President Barack Obama ordering a 4 star general to shave Colbert’s head from Comedy Central.
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Twenty-nine countries at the World Trade Organization criticized the United States on Wednesday for reintroducing export subsidies on US dairy products, calling the handouts a dangerous retreat into protectionism and warning of “subsidy wars.”
Brazil, speaking on behalf of 23 developing countries, told a WTO meeting that Washington was promoting a “murky protectionism” that weakens the global trading system at a time when global commerce is already shrinking at a record pace.
Australia, on behalf of agricultural exporting countries, said the announcement Saturday by US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack of subsidies for 91.000 tonnes of mainly powdered milk, butter and cheese was unfair to countries trading fairly, and potentially damaging to global economy’s recovery.
The subsidy decision under the US Dairy Export Incentive Program follows a similar move by the European Union in January.
[Source] — MercoPress
I would like to take a moment to reflect on a old post I wrote a little under a year ago, on June 19, 2008. It is one third about Southern Copper Peru (PCU), one third about sky rocketing commodity prices, and one third about a intense protest I witnessed in Tarapoto, Peru in 2002. I was in Tarapoto during a family trip to the region to visit my maternal grandfathers home town of Rioja. I may be a bit biased but the province of San Martín is a beautiful region of Peru I highly recommend people visiting Peru check out.
I’m going to reflect specifically on the third topic—the protest. If would like you can click here to read my entire post from 6/19/2008.
In 2002 I was visiting Tarapoto, Peru. The city is located in the Peruvian province of San Martin, Peru. Rice workers had paralyzed the region because US subsidies had made locally produced rice more expensive than imported rice from the US–which ironically was also widely available in this region of Peru which a large amount of rice.
Tarapoto, PeruBy my fourth day in the city protesters had taken over the town square and blocked the roads to my grandpas home town of Rioja. As a tourist who was fortunate to have family in the city I was able to to get back to Lima before the city was forced to shut down. My family and I were woken up at 6am one morning and quickly informed by my grandpa’s brothers we needed rush through the back roads of the jungle and get to the airport as soon as possible. Once we arrived at the airport we were rushing into a back office with other tourists holding US, Canadian and European passports, until a flight could take us all to Lima… all the while protesters attempted to rush the airport gates.
It is ironic food prices are now so high, Tarapoto’s Rice industry is now growing rice and actually making a profit, although US subsidies still aren’t help the overall market. The fact and main point I am attempting to get across is that all it took for protesters to paralyze the region was to create a blockade one highway–leaving the city isolated.
Click here to view a excerpt from the only link to an English language article I was able to find that still had an active link.
If you can read Spanish, I have found two articles. The first article describes how the situation unfolded. The second article explains the accord which was eventually reached by the protesters and the government.
Benito’s conclusion… The United States needs to re-think their protectionist policies, especially when it comes to such goods as cotton, food and other agricultural commodities. Easier said than done, but no less a necessary change that needs to happen sooner than later.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will nominate Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, a White House official said on Tuesday, selecting a woman who would be the court’s first Latino to replace retiring Justice David Souter.
Obama’s choice of Sotomayor, a 54-year-old judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, was unlikely to change the ideological makeup of the high court because Souter, 69, was part of the panel’s liberal wing.
The court hands down rulings on such divisive social issues as abortion rights and the death penalty as well as deciding business and property rights cases. Its members are appointed for life but require Senate confirmation.
Conservatives quickly moved to criticize the choice but political analysts said that, barring an unexpected scandal, there was little chance the nomination could be derailed.
Sotomayor, a child of Puerto Rican parents, is most widely known for her decision as a trial judge in 1995 to bar Major League Baseball from using replacement players, ending a nearly year-long strike.
Click here to access the full article from Reuters
[Headlines you never thought you would read] — Xinhua
Would-be suicide Chen Fuchao was pushed off the Haizhu Bridge by a passerby after his threat to jump held up traffic for five hours in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Lai Jiangsheng, 66, broke through a police cordon and pushed Chen off the bridge on the morning of May 21, Xinhua said. Chen, who was considering suicide because he was 2 million yuan ($293,000) in debt after a failed construction project, fell onto a partially inflated air cushion, damaging his spine and elbow, and was hospitalized, the report said.
[Argentina Analysis] — Perspective from a recent college graduate with a econ degree
Argentina’s beloved MaradonaWhen I entered American University in 2004, one of the most popular topics of conversation among the students studying International Relations or Economics, was the Argentine economic crisis of 1999-2002.
As a young Peruvian-American, studying economics, I frequently found myself debating the event with people from all over the world, including Latinos. It seemed that students, teachers and the authors of our textbooks had all gotten together and decided to use Argentina as a prime example of how
a) The Washington Consensus had failed
b) The IMF and other regional lenders had doomed Argentina by lending money with unfair “strings attached”
Let me make one thing clear… American University is a VERY liberal school.
I quickly came to feel a consensus had been reached within the classrooms of American University (AU). Argentina emerged as the symbolic victim of IMF abuses and the misguided Washington Consensus of the 90′s.
Pegging the peso to the U.S Dollar, initially a wise decision to help stem inflation, was doomed to fail from the start because there would be no way Argentina’s industrial and labor sectors would be able to adjust to a appreciating dollar.
Economists and foreign policy buffs at AU did not argue the value of having a lending system, the global economy after all needs one. However, it became very easy “for the average Joe” to accept Argentina’s default during this era of backlash against the Washington Consensus and also of course in the midst of a liberal University environment.
I will be posting this article on the American University Alumni LinkedIn and Facebook group, hoping to get some feedback from students currently attending. Which I will then share on ChinaSouthAmerica.com
If you have not yet heard or read, there are a few “liberal democrats” in the House of Representatives trying to get Argentina to pay up. I have included a few paragraphs from this MercoPress article which outlines their efforts.
The bill, H.R. 2493, called the Judgment Evading Foreign States Accountability Act of 2009, would bar from US capital markets any nation that has been in default of US court judgments totaling more than 100 million US dollars for more than two years. The legislation would also require the US government to consider the default status of these countries before granting them aid.
“Argentina is ignoring billions of dollars in US court judgments, which has hurt not just US citizens, but also Argentine citizens,” said ATFA Executive Director Robert Raben. “US taxpayers are still waiting to be repaid money they lent to Argentina in good faith.”
The effort is being led by Representative Eric Massa, a Democrat from New York State who was raised in Argentina while his father served as US Naval Attaché in Buenos Aires. Also introducing the legislation were Representatives Paul Tonko (D-NY), Robert Wexler (D-FL), Timothy Bishop (D-NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Dan Maffei (D-NY), Mike McMahon (D-NY), Ed Towns (D-NY), and Brian Higgins (D-NY).
Generally speaking, Latin America was happy with the election of Barack Obama. Many experts believe, and I happen to agree, a new era in U.S-Latin American relations has been initiated. After eight long years of being ignored by President Bush who would argue?
In Argentina, Obama’s election was welcomed by Cristina Fernandez. However, as this MercoPress article explains, Argentina’s President is finding herself increasingly isolated. The most frequent visitor to Argentina has become Hugo Chavez. Fernandez has not been invited to the White House like her Brazilian and Chilean counterparts. Obama also neglected to make a pit-stop in Argentina, as he did in Mexico, on the way to the Summit of the Americas. For the third largest country in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico, this should be insulting, and… indicative of the way the international community and the United States currently view Argentina.
“Che! We got no money!”
Additionally, within the region, Argentina has ongoing political disputes with: neighboring Chile over energy exports, with Uruguay over a bridge that links the two countries, various trade disputes with Brazil within the Mercosur community, and has banned the crossing of Bolivian and Paraguayan soybeans through Argentine territory–which much infuriate two land lock countries trying to export their produce.
Joaquin Morales Solá, a leading political analyst, writing a column in La Nacion recalls, “that there have been no major foreign visitors to Argentina for over two years, precisely since then President Nestor Kirchner left the Queen of Holland waiting at an official ceremony; he never turned up and never apologized. The only and sporadic “business” visits have been from Chavez, Lula da Silva and Bolivia’s Evo Morales.”
Furthermore Obama is not Bush, he’s one of the most popular world leaders and Chavez short of oil revenue can’t attack the US president. Nevertheless says Morales Solá, the only leader visiting Argentina is heading for the perfect dictatorship: a ban on the import of books and only official Chavez, Bolivar and Marx texts at school. The leader of the Venezuelan opposition and elected mayor of the country’s second largest city was forced to take refuge in Peru; the nationalization of industries, confiscation of companies and land advances since “private property” can’t be an impediment for the revolution. Chavez is determined to end with the independent media and has virtually broken relations with Israel and the local Venezuelan Jewish community.
So with all this drama… let me now ask. “Should Argentina be forced to pay back its debt to foreign creditors?
When I was a first year university student I would have answered NO. Five years later, my answer has changed, albeit slightly.
Yes, the polcies put in place by the IMF in Argentina in the late 90′s were extremly unfair. I am not debating this. However, I do not think it is wise for Argentina to continue refusing to pay their debt. Ecuador recently followed in Argentina’s footsteps, defaulting on their own foreign debt as bonds came due. Both countries have offered their debt holders reduced payback (ie: $.50 to the $1.00), but as of now no deal has yet to be reached with Argentina and their creditors.
According to this MercoPress article, a team of Argentine economists concluded in 2006 that Argentina’s default status causes the nation to lose more than 6 billion US dollars in foreign direct investment every year, reports MercoPress in this article.
Furthermore, by the estimates of the President of the American Task Force Argentina (ATFA), Robert Raben “President Kirchner has said several times she’s prepared to negotiate with bondholders, but we’ve seen no action whatsoever,” Raben said. “Argentina has 45 billion in reserves and can afford to pay its 3.5 billion in debts to US bondholders many times over. It’s time to resolve this issue for the benefit of both nations.”
Of course this doesn’t mean they can afford to use their $45 billion to pay off international investors… they need it for many other things like making sure the Argentine Peso doesn’t slip off the fact of the earth. Nonetheless it does not help when you consider the creditors are aware of this, and that Argentina’s leadership has been incredibly unwilling to compromise.
I know one thing, Latin America will continue to need to borrow money. The Bank of the South and other regional lending institutions can not replace the United States or the IMF any time soon.
Argentina can cry about how unfair the loans they must repay are, but reaching some type of deal would at least allow Argentina to gain access to international capital markets once again. For a country with so much potential, the current government really knows how to hold a grudge.
Beijing, China—the capital of the People’s Republic of China, is no place for puritans. The city’s underground scene of sex, drugs and rock & roll is growing faster than Chinese GDP these days.
“China High, my fast times in the 010—A Beijing Memoir by ZZ,” is a new book detailing the adventures of a young expat lawyer who lived in Beijing during the years of China’s fast economic growth since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.
ZZ offers tips on how to navigate Beijing, right down to what the worst swear words mean and how to use them to best effect. He exposes the hidden high costs of doing business in labor-rich China by describing his struggle to start a food- delivery company staffed by locals with little English and no inkling of quality service.
So you get the picture? Beijing is more than the city which hosts China’s most famous historical monuments, shiny new sky scrapers and Olympic arenas. Beijing like other major metropolises in the world (ie: London, Paris and New York) has its own dark side to it.
The book also sheds light onto another, equally important facet of expatriate life in China for a foreigners working or studying in the country’s major cities. The “ego trip,” anyone from the plains of Iowa to a pompous New Yorker or Londoner will experience upon moving to China.
A Chinese-Laotian-American friend of mine was sitting with me at a Mexican restaurant in Beijing one day back in 2006 when I asked him what his thoughts on why the Chinese treat foreigners so well and virtually hand us all this privileged their own citizens don’t enjoy.
“Well Bennett, the Chinese were sitting on top of the world for a few thousand years and one day these random barbarians (Europeans) showed up and knocked China off its pedestal. Political and social turmoil aside, the Chinese pride was damaged so badly, they have been in a never ending state trying to catch up and keep peace at the same time. That is why, at least until China does catch up, foreigners will be welcomed with open arms.”
At the moment, living as a foreigner in Beijing and other big cities like Shanghai has its downsides as all places do. This usually comes in the form of having to deal with bureaucracy, regulations you did not know existed or other headaches that are typical of life in a developing country.
On the other end of the spectrum exist some great perks you can not find just anywhere. The common foreigner will suddenly feel as if they have taken the express elevator up the social latter of life. ZZ explains:
It’s “the perfect recipe for an ego trip,” he writes.
[South-South Cooperation] — China, Middle East — Reuters Analysis — by Alan Wheatley, China Economics Editor
Alan Wheatley is an intelligent journalist with years of experience reporting news in both Taiwan and mainland China whom I respect a great deal. Alan’s article does a superb job of combining hard data with different points of views from experts on all sides to present a unbiased report.
This is the general principle Reuters journalists follow. By providing the reader with the necessary perspectives and hard data to back them up, the reader is expected to make their own decision on the significance of the article.
As there always are, I am sure some bad apples exist. After a internship with Reuters Beijing Bureau back in 2006, I can personally testify that the Beijing staff makes a concerted effort to uphold the journalist’s creed and report both sides of the story.
With no fanfare, a $5 billion (3.3 billion pounds) refinery in which Saudi Aramco has a 25 percent stake quietly began processing oil a couple of weeks ago in eastern China.
The start-up of the Fujian plant, half-owned by top state-owned refiner Sinopec (0386.HK), testifies to the thickening trade and investment ties between China and the Arab world.
China’s exports to the 22 members of the Arab League jumped to $62.3 billion last year from just $7.2 billion in 2001, the year China joined the World Trade Organisation. The share in total Chinese exports rose to 4.4 percent from 2.7 percent.
Imports from the Arab world over the same period grew to $70.3 billion from $7.5 billion, doubling the share in total imports to 6.2 percent, according to official Chinese data.
…
Nowhere is this more in evidence than in Yiwu, a town in eastern China whose vast wholesale markets draw traders from across the globe in search of cheap consumer goods.
“We don’t see too many Europeans any more. These days, most of our customers are from the Middle East,” Zhu Shanshan, a sales representative at Dove Candle, which sells scented candles and handicrafts, said on a recent visit to Yiwu.
