Chris,
First it's comforting to read that you want more discussion regarding the current market's decline in the US and it's effect on the DR.
Second, it's pretty difficult to reply to the above when the thread was closed. That said, the most immediate effect is going to be a decline in US tourists coming to the DR as many of those are middle to upper-middle class wage earners, those very people that are getting slammed by the big drop in the DOW. These people just happen to be the very market that much of the DR's tourism promotion efforts are aimed at. Translation: hotels will lay off workers and a second high season will not be as good as hoped, especially after the US passport debacle affected the last one (and is still affecting us). Tourism is over 10% of the DR's GDP. With the American segment comprising about half of this the implications are clear. With the declining market and world market instability, tourism this summer has already been off, about 80% at this end of the Samana peninsula. The rest of the country is also experiencing a decline although the government won't admit it. Ask hotel owners in your area for the real scoop.
The big brokerage/money houses are a large source of international development funds, the kinds of monies that fund developments in the DR. With the beating they are taking it follows that funding is drying up as they are trying to maintain liquidity at this time. Foreign markets are also finding the going rough. And as I said in my original post replying to the question about Florida mortgages, the Chinese market's practice of allowing people to borrow from a bank and then invest those funds in the Asian stock market because it pays more is really scary. Also, China's manipulation of international money is slowly wearing the US down and if continued in conjunction with their other market practices, will result in China's capture of the US without ever firing a shot. I hate to think of the repercussions of this and maybe the DR better cozy up to the Chinese even more so than they already have (although they'll probably end up owning the DR, too).
Finally, maybe this should have been posted in the Debates forum but the implications for daily life in the DR are clear: a volatile US market is already affecting us and it's going to get worse.
First it's comforting to read that you want more discussion regarding the current market's decline in the US and it's effect on the DR.
Second, it's pretty difficult to reply to the above when the thread was closed. That said, the most immediate effect is going to be a decline in US tourists coming to the DR as many of those are middle to upper-middle class wage earners, those very people that are getting slammed by the big drop in the DOW. These people just happen to be the very market that much of the DR's tourism promotion efforts are aimed at. Translation: hotels will lay off workers and a second high season will not be as good as hoped, especially after the US passport debacle affected the last one (and is still affecting us). Tourism is over 10% of the DR's GDP. With the American segment comprising about half of this the implications are clear. With the declining market and world market instability, tourism this summer has already been off, about 80% at this end of the Samana peninsula. The rest of the country is also experiencing a decline although the government won't admit it. Ask hotel owners in your area for the real scoop.
The big brokerage/money houses are a large source of international development funds, the kinds of monies that fund developments in the DR. With the beating they are taking it follows that funding is drying up as they are trying to maintain liquidity at this time. Foreign markets are also finding the going rough. And as I said in my original post replying to the question about Florida mortgages, the Chinese market's practice of allowing people to borrow from a bank and then invest those funds in the Asian stock market because it pays more is really scary. Also, China's manipulation of international money is slowly wearing the US down and if continued in conjunction with their other market practices, will result in China's capture of the US without ever firing a shot. I hate to think of the repercussions of this and maybe the DR better cozy up to the Chinese even more so than they already have (although they'll probably end up owning the DR, too).
Finally, maybe this should have been posted in the Debates forum but the implications for daily life in the DR are clear: a volatile US market is already affecting us and it's going to get worse.