Is anyone missing Hippo, Part II

[gringito]

He Restricted Fiscal Expansion?

Borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to build a metro that does very little to solve the real problems of the country is restricting the fiscal expansion? Buying pesos to artificially keep the peso/dollar rate below where it wants to be (40-1) is restricting fiscal expansion? The roads are sufficient? Everything is lovely and looking better every day? Not perfect? Not perfect? The DR is perfectly the same as always, a few people at the top making millions screwing the little people who believed in them. And you just keep promoting it my man.

 

[Porfio_Rubirosa]

What Leonel and the IMF are attempting to do is to foster the conditions that would facilitate more lending by the IMF and its corroborators ... Eventually the debt will balloon, interest rates will rise again. And we will have another crisis. That is the cycle of life with the IMF and Banana Republics.

Brilliant perspective. Tragic, but brilliant. I would have used the word "collaborators" rather than "corroborators", though. Better yet, let's just call it a cabal.

I wish some country somewhere would have the guts to go head to head with the G7's financial instututions, A.K.A. the IMF.

 

[GilbertArenas]

This is just a sad situation.

With thousands of people on the streets begging from car to car, the government wants to build a useless train which spans a tiny fraction of the capital.

However, after all the tunnels........faro a colon........overpasses etc....I guess the government is running out of projects from which they can skim money.

It's really depressing..........millions of impoverished people who could be fed with this money. Instead it's going to be ciphoned off into Swiss bank accounts.

There just isn't a way out of this cyclical corruption without some sort of MAJOR social upheaval. I could say revolution, but a revolution in the DR would just produce a corrupt general in power and nothing would change.

It's just sad. Anyone who would want to seriously protest this in public would have to get thousands of people in the streets. But that person would likely get killed within a few weeks in a tragic "drug incident" or drug bust.

There's only one political agenda in the DR........STEAL MONEY. That's how it's been for decades.......and it's not changing unless a situation so drastic occurs UN peacekeepers suddenly appear.

How people can defend this government, or the one before it is assinine. Comparisons can of course be made, with one coalition being "better" than the other but are any of them looking out for the good of the general public? Definitely not..........they put as good of a face on their terms as possible and steal as much as possible.

 

[NALs]

Where did you get these numbers?

Federal debt held by public in 2004 was 37% of GDP .....not 61%.


Japan's 2004 debt is 90+% of GDP ....not 43%.
Those are 1997 numbers , Nal0whs.

I did posted the sources underneath the data.

 

[mondongo]

I would have used the word "collaborators" rather than "corroborators", though.

Good point, Porfio. That is a much better choice.

 

[mondongo]

Nal0whs, I was trying to point out that some of your "Sample 3" data is not correct, not backed up by your source.

Your "Sample 4" data falls under the term: "anachronistic".

But don't mind me. I am the anal type that likes to check his work.

 

[NALs]

Nal0whs, I was trying to point out that some of your "Sample 3" data is not correct, not backed up by your source.

Your "Sample 4" data falls under the term: "anachronistic".

But don't mind me. I am the anal type that likes to check his work.

You can also check here as well. All countries of the world's public debt as a percentage of their respective GDP is listed on this link...

Much of the data is from 2003, keep in mind that public debt in both DR and US has been growing unabated since 2003 to today with US reaching a record of trillions of dollars in debt and the largest deficit since the depression era...

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2186.html

 

[mondongo]

Your last link is accurate. But it refers to total debt as a percentage of GDP. Your "Sample 3" data is not total govt debt, but just that portion of govt debt that is held by the public. There is a big difference between the two. As I posted before, the 2004 number for your "Sample 3" category should be around 37%.

On the other hand, the "Sample 4" data refers to total net govt debt as a percentage of GDP. That number is around 60% for the USA in 2003. But, again, those numbers you posted in "Sample 4" are from 1997 data....not current data.

You are mixing and matching these two concepts of debt.

 

[tizi]

from bad to worse

I agree with the contents of yr thread about economics.I'm not qualified for the rests..sorry

Living in the DR becomes a nightmare as prices are more expensive at least 50% from year to date in terms of strong currencies.
We pay from 2 to 10 times more expensive than in the USA for nearly everything.
The artificial exchange rate of euro/us$ to peso is economiclay unsustainable.new escalade in debt will force the peso to collapse once more and consumer prices will meet stratospheric levels before deflation takes its toll on the economy.
Export and tourism sectors are already hit very hard ready to collapse.
There are very rough time ahead for this country and unsecurity will increase dramaticly.

 

[Texas Bill]

Well now, I don't have proof positive, but------

We are not F---- as you put it.

The reality is that this is as good as it gets for the moment. Any other guy in power would have sunk this country so fast its not even funny.

Leonel is giving the country some breathing space and the country is responding. Look, today reports came out that automobile sales are up!

I know suchthing is not a clear indicator of wealth, but if people are beginning to buy luxuries (such as new cars), then its obvious that things are on an upward swing.

Afterall, from the day Hippo took power, car sales have been sliding and now all of the sudden with Leonel in power, car sales (as everything else) is starting to pick up and move forward.

Leonel is the best thing to happen to the DR, period. People may complain, but we are moving forward and that is all that counts.

I just wonder if all those people who are buying those new cars aren't ex-White Party syncophants who are now relatively sure of not being accused of corrupt recipients of ill-gained wealth!!! After all, a resonable time has elapsed for all short-sighted Dominicans to have forgotten their complaints against Hippo and his ilk.

You may be right in some respects, nalOws, but wait until the payments on all those loans start coming due and take another look at the TOTAL INDEBTEDNESS of the country before you start singing "blue birds" over the state of the economy. Remember, the quotas on exported finished textiles were cancelled as of 1 January. Where does that leave a huge number of the "Free Trade" manufacturers? Already there has been a 40% reduction of force in the US as a result. And that is only the tip of the iceberg for forecasting the labor crunch here. In my book of economics, the "factors of production" just aren't there for a reliable long term recovery unless the government starts showing consideraable restraint in it's expendatures and quits relying soly on ever-increasing taxation to take up the slack. Right now, they're taxing themselves into a deep, deep depression when those businesses start going into bankruptcy.

Texas Bill

 

[RubioVargas]

Regardless of how bad "el guapo de Gurabo" was, he always gave me a good laugh.

Has anyone seen "Santo Domingo Invita" on Telemundo? Well, one episode comes to mind where they presented a five-minute clip of Hipolito speaking on various agricultural projects that his government was initiating in the interior part of the country.
You should have seen the man, they don't call him "el guapo" for nothing!
A white chacabana was stylishly only partially buttoned to reveal the president's masculine chest hair. Forget the standard formal suit that has become the standard attire for western leaders (even Fidel Castor sometimes puts away his olive green fatigues for an elegant suit)! Hipolito knows how to relate to the common man!
At the start of his highly articulate speech, "ei guapo" removed the microphone from the stand and proceeded to walk around the platform. Personally, I've never seen a president remove a crefully-placed microphone and carry it with him much like a comedian would do. After his speech, they played clips of Hipolito and a few other important officials tossing sand on each other's feet to commemorate the start of this wonderful government initiative.
I wonder how many times during his appearences on American television have people mistaken the man for one of the aging members of Buena Vista Social Club.

My family hates the guy. As for me, I can only say that I've neved laughed so much with a president!