Global financial scene

[MikeFisher]

J.D.,
i like that Fernandel Space Center, ha ha
will it be a SRL, S.A. or will they bring up a new company registration form for such high $$$ powered Empresas, maybe a newly formed
EFSR
(Empresa Fernandel Sin Responsabilidad).
Catcher,
yeap, i would say that's what you guys named in prior posts
"Touchet", lol.
time to hit the pier, boats are arriving,
will be back at the F'l Spacelab center later
Mike

 

[PICHARDO]

that coastline aside the computer foto looks like the south western coast, am i right?
i hope they build such, IF they build it, near the capital city, such industry parks should not be build along our beautiful coastlines, or fututr postcard pictures for our presentation would need to be fotoshopped to cut out huge buildings near the beaches.
not to get me wrong, the island needs any kind of industry or technologie park it can get when ready to operate such, but please don't build the huge stuff on our beautiful coastlines.
most oceanfront countries on the globe made the mistake to pull up skyscrapers and such right on the oceanfront, looking on such in spain, italy, the US aso makes me sad.
let's keep our exceptional beautiful island beautiful. we have enough backland to build industry parks, and they are not really far to get roadwise connected with the big ports like the one in st domingo.
happy Duarte Day everybody
Mike

Take Google Earth for a spin and locate the AILAS in the DR, once there take a look at the tree covered terrain right in front of it...

That's going to be the Financial Center of the DR and a chunk of LA as well...

Think DR's WTC if you will...

 

[PICHARDO]

Fernandel... erm sorry, Fernadez Space Center?

Or is it the head offices of the company which planes to compete Micro Soft with their new OS called "Mega So Bentanas Bista Do"?

Jest joking... I love the architecture, except maybe for that crooked stick thingy in the foreground.

Would be interesting to see a more realistic render with all the little wooden barrio shot gun shacks with zinc roofs and old "Plan renove" wrecks scattered around it! Or are those people to be moved in those facilities? :bunny:

... J-D

The crooked stick serves a pivotal role in the project (hush - hush)...

No shanty looking towns next to this at all!
A full mass transit served complex of grand scale with 100% private funding.

When I tell you that the changes taking effect in the biz sector is to solidify their base to future exposure to a global economy, I meant each letter I posted. The Bolsa de Valores Dominicana will evolute as the internal biz sector is adequate with the right tools for the job in the plan.

Medium to large biz will be able to raise huge amounts of liquid short term, while providing the best possible assurances to investors and shareholders of their economic stading in real time.

Large gov projects will be funded via stock options to all citizens with a PC and a mouse to point and click. All with the backing of the CB.

We need these changes as we need a permanent solution to the apagones and overall deficiencies in the public services.

What we don't need nor want is to continue to deepen our debts with the outside world each time we need to undertake massive public works and large scale projects in the country.

When I said that most services today provided and billed by the gov would be shifted to the private sector, I meant exactly that.

If anything, we can truly make gov smaller and more efficient than it would ever be under the present status quo we're under since the fall of the dictator.

When I told you that many successful (very, very) Dominicans are returning home for good to invest into the country, looking to cement our kid's future I meant each pixel grouped into words. Think to the tune of billions coming home to stay for good...

What prompted these changes you maybe asking yourselves? Simply put, the believe that we can change our country without having to be at the mrcy of the administration in power or political party affiliation. When you have power that overshadows the gov times over, you can use it to push those changes ahead unlike before.

When the US markets crashed early on, not less than billions were transferred to Dominican banks within days. This provided the backdrop for the Peso to remain stable as of today still...

Those funds were 99% of Dominican nationals, with power that is being used to move the rusted wheels of our nation's development with great speed.

When the Peso gained too much, funds were transferred to US currency...

That's power that before wasn't there for but a few in the DR. Today we're many, many...

What you see is not Photoshop, but something you'll see developing soon in the DR, just as the Metro today and the general changes that are so confusing to many here to grasp.

If need be, while serving to our needs, this administration may even see a change to allow it to become elected once more; so that we have a smooth going for all the projects in the table till completion 100%...

I'm not asking for you to believe anything, but to keep an open mind as the changes occur all around you and very little info will be put out in the process of doing that. After all it?s said and done, you played an important role in creating the basis for the ausentes with leverage to unite in several fronts, then return home to force the changes we have never ceased to heed from your appreciated opinons here!

Think of them as our Dominicanized versions of your much appreciated years in complaints and outing of useless gov processes.

It's only fitting that you should hear the changes from the horse's mouth first...

Take it as gospel or not! That's the part we love from DR1~~~~~

 

[J D Sauser]

You're pulling my leg, right, Pichardo?
For a moment you almost had me going there.

... J-D.

 

[MikeFisher]

Pichardo,
i read that post fascinated, like i always read each single post of a thread where i am with my own opinion involved of course.
i have nothing to say against a privately controlled finacial market, heck not, everything in case of money where the gubmin has no chance to lay it's hands on is a good thingy. but when the stockmarket crashed and those mentioned Billions!!! been transfered to the DR, where they landed?
or better,
where they came from???
i aould assume that the many abroad living dominican hard working people do not have billions, at least after the crash for many people at all(not meant specifically dominican, but people with big bucks over all) there's not been much left to transfer billions to somewhere, that's why that market crashed.
i hope we do not suggest to transfer some billions of existing drug money over here and let those guys start to run the country's finacial 'privately ruled' system 'cause in that case i would prefer the Jeepetas consuming gubmin system.
i woulod be interested in getting numbers of such transfers after the stock market crashed, i mean Billions!, that's not something which will be done in secret, such should be possible to trace, from destin to source. i did not hear about such transactions before i read the post above.
like written at the beginning, nothing against a private organized and run financial market, but who are the people over here which would/should start such? many of today's $$$ owning guys are also involved in the gubmin, so i am not sure if there would be a big target difference.
and a newly formed financial market would need a time period to get a positive reputation before outside millions/billions find it trustworthy to throw bucks in such a pool. and with outside bucks i do not just mean 'foreigner's money', i include in such also the money of dominicans abroad, they have their big bucks aboroad for some reason or an other and not in the DR.
Mike

 

[PICHARDO]

i assume the picture thingy is clear and we will accept Chiri's rules for future fotouploading of course. with some of my first fotos i linked to i had been in some trouble myself til i figured out how to control that size, lol.
now i use a 'hidden/non public' page of my website, there i can decide myself anytime what size/form aso the fotos will have.
time to educate the new generations so they tell us how to control those 'puters.
Pichardo,
i read that post fascinated, like i always read each single post of a thread where i am with my own opinion involved of course.
i have nothing to say against a privately controlled finacial market, heck not, everything in case of money where the gubmin has no chance to lay it's hands on is a good thingy.

Glad to hear you agreed with a strong privately backed financial center for the DR as main backdrop.

but when the stockmarket crashed and those mentioned Billions!!! been transfered to the DR, where they landed?
or better,
where they came from???

Money market accounts to some degree, stocks in still stable portfolios-sectors, biz liquidation of high risk passives at deep discounts and overall savings in long term securities.

i aould assume that the many abroad living dominican hard working people do not have billions, at least after the crash for many people at all(not meant specifically dominican, but people with big bucks over all) there's not been much left to transfer billions to somewhere, that's why that market crashed.

Not Billions, but millions that add up to billions once they gather in the same vault... Not why the crashed! Overall investor’s lack of confidence in the institutions holding the large amount of defaulted properties ever non stop is one. The unsustainable climb of futures without a logical economic basis, or tangible indication from the real world markets is another. The ever growing support for speculation rather than conservative outlook on projections for the oil prices, based on a fluid political tit for tat between oil producing countries and regional flares is yet one more to add.

And the biggest one for the emergence of the crisis in the investor’s minds:
A trade floor where you could actually sell stocks at overblown prices from a brick and mortar without having one penny in the black for two consecutive Qrs, but all under the expert watch of the SEC...

Throw in the flipping of homes under a self policed and regulated loaning scheme. The massive deportations of undocumented immigrants, in cities were population growth was providing extra cash to the local economy. A war on terror (if it could be called that, since the terrorists were in all places but Iraq) which has actually exposed US citizens that need to travel abroad on biz, into a highly dangerous environment overnight, thus rendering their economic interests possible targets of chance there.

You add all that up, and I can tell you how this crisis was set in motion to the minute...

In a global economy (of sorts) US biz are handicapped seriously against the world; more so since the war on terror made any US biz a juicy target by just moving into foreign markets.

The SEC needs to clean house before it can even begin to try and fix the leaks. The bailout is anything but aid to the present situation being played out in the internal market. Investors were not losing their money, just the gains they should have never made in the first place had the market been policed as they should had by the SEC and Feds.

You can't reap benefits from a projected and baseless speculative model, which btw was eons away from any concrete economic reality playing out in the street markets. They reaped what they sowed...

Consumer's confidence is gained via one thing and one thing only: JOB SECURITY... Once the gov was unable to deliver on their part to move forward in allowing low waged oriented industry to seek and get the available manpower to satisfy their production baselines, rendering the entire chain of production to hike their prices; the effect was like a falling dominoes scheme...

The most basic goods, staples of our daily intake started to go up in prices, wages remained stagnant while the undocumented workers lifted camp and fled the persecution at gun point with their families in tow.

The effect was immediate as local biz saw their net income slashed by as much as 50% or more in many cases. Counties and municipalities felt the failing biz contraction as revenues from local taxes dried up while expenses shot to the ceilings. State coffers were cut as municipalities and cities reported jaw dropping negative growth and in most cases failed to meet the leanest budgeted alternatives for emergencies.

How I know this? Well as both as a multi state biz owner (past) and employee of a multinational (past) with a wide net over the continental US, I experience the effects both at the personal biz and the corporate level with billions at stake.

Only one of two things can reverse the ongoing economy's catastrophe:

1- An armed conflict breaks out that takes all the elements of a low intensity but with a wide multinational involvement war. The war will provide the US with a chance to remove possibly millions of the most affected Americans and sending abroad for a long period, creating the basis for a resurgence of an internal supportive economy that can provide jobs left vacant by the serving soldiers. As the war draws to a close (winning the US hopefully) it will allow returning soldiers (young most of them) to spend their savings from paychecks in the theater of war in the now stronger home economy. Just ask any merchant marine what that means, as he returns home and collect their wages from months at sea...



2- The US accepts that even while enjoying military supremacy and therefore a military superpower, it's no longer "the" economy power house of the world and most likely will never be again. Just as a new breed of economic agreements abolishes the nationalistic protectorate markets; rendering the global economy as the only true representation of the economic model for the nations that trade with open doors.

i hope we do not suggest to transfer some billions of existing drug money over here and let those guys start to run the country's finacial 'privately ruled' system 'cause in that case i would prefer the Jeepetas consuming gubmin system.

I know this may be a little hard to grasp for some foreigners in the DR, but many Dominicans are very successful biz owners with multimillion dollar/euros biz not financed by Drugs or illegal sources...

i woulod be interested in getting numbers of such transfers after the stock market crashed, i mean Billions!, that's not something which will be done in secret, such should be possible to trace, from destin to source. i did not hear about such transactions before i read the post above.

You can back track public acknowledgement to the case by the CB to local news media during the time of the transfers, which btw took them by complete and utter surprise as the amounts were off the charts compared to their normal operations.

like written at the beginning, nothing against a private organized and run financial market, but who are the people over here which would/should start such? many of today's $$$ owning guys are also involved in the gubmin, so i am not sure if there would be a big target difference.
and a newly formed financial market would need a time period to get a positive reputation before outside millions/billions find it trustworthy to throw bucks in such a pool. and with outside bucks i do not just mean 'foreigner's money', i include in such also the money of dominicans abroad, they have their big bucks aboroad for some reason or an other and not in the DR.
Mike

These people don't need publicity as politicians do and other public figures. Privacy is the golden rule of any self serving person in the high tiers of the financial world in the DR and abroad.

The people behind the Financial Center of the DR are just normal people with a high interest in having the DR perform just as well in a secured and controlled internal exchange market, which will have very little to envy others worldwide in capacity and safety as well.

The exchange center is not envisioned to attract the outsiders as the candy, but to actually enrich the internal market of the DR without the need to sell the soul to foreigners to achieve it.

Foreigners will be able to take part in our trading floors, always that they are entitled to by the regulations that will be called upon to bring liquid into the country's financial center.

Things are very fluid as of right now, and the DR is looking mighty good from every possible perspective Vs the US and other markets. We don't make cars, missiles, shuttles, TV sets, etc... But things that people consume as staples for the most part... Good thing we diversified a lot since the days of Sugar and Bananas mostly...

 

[MikeFisher]

sounds great but the actual facts look sorrily different.
the internal dominican market is milleniums away from beeing able to feed it's people on it's own.
the LA market has some little contracts about some import/exportations/petroleum(most still "fiao" and not paid since a while) but very far from the point where i would name them a organized and united market, the biz for the DR within the LA market of today would not even feed half of the campesinos on the Isle and sure not be able to pay the Jeepetas of the Capital crowd.
so i still see the huge need of that foreign influence, without which even the Capital Jeepetas would not exist but still ride on a Burro today's.
such nice sounding ideas are not realizable by the lil Isle alone and not by an 'enemy-styled' LA union, there's a much bigger market needed for that and that market sorrily crashed to he$$ last september.
in case of actual development in the country i can only speak from the point of view of my own little business and what i hear from long term friends(expats and dominicans alike, most are dominicans) the 2009 biz will be compared to the 2008 biz be down by minimum a 30% and i expect for myself a 50% to stay on the saver side of the short term calculation. a mid or long term calculation is from my business point of view at this moment completely impossible. i await from now til summer 2009 a very rough time, hopefully on that way a light at the end of the corridor blinks up to promise a future bettering, but actually i9 have no idea who would be able to switch that lil light on.
Mike

 

[PICHARDO]

As many of you are following the recent posts I placed here in DR1, let me introduce you to several things that are happening as of some good 3 to 4 years back in the country.

First let me say that, although I enjoy the raging debates (some more than others) that many of my posts induce in some DR1rs; I'm most certainly NOT a member or agent of any political affiliation with a secret agenda...

With the air clear on that issue, let’s go to the facts of this post:

There are several changes taking effect step by step in the country. Some are very clear to the naked eyes, whilst others are completely under the radar of 99% of the population (which includes highly educated expats here).

Let's begin with some of those that were clear to the naked eye:

The ban on carrying a weapon last Dec (Even while gun owners had their legal right do so with their concealed gun permits) was a very simple test performed to gauge the citizen's compliance with strict regulations and limits to which gov can legally enforce them.

As I posted before, the DR will be adopting the solely use of smart handguns to permit holders in the country. These weapons are not anything new or too old; in fact, the models that will be allowed to enter the DR's market, share one important aspect among them: They're foolproof to unauthorized tempering and discharge...

Unlike some models, the ones envisioned for our citizens are afforded an extra layer of protection, against tampering with the Hi-tech mechanism that provides the safety.

The compliance of the citizens was very successful and as expected. This provided the groundwork to forge ahead with the next step:

The creation of a weapon's DNA databank. That's to say ballistics’ profiles of both, the gun's barrel markings on bullets as well as the imprint let on bullet casings after discharge and ejection. The databank needs are not what the present conditions of the National Police's resources can deal with as equipped.

The creation and funding for such division within the dept will be funded via loans that will be recapped with ease. The gun permit holders at the time of renewal (a shorten date to all gun permits will apply to all those in existence today), will pay all the related costs to obtain each gun's profile by the Dept plus regulatory fees.

The program will pay for itself completely, without becoming an issue to the gov's budget at all.

Along new guns, come to play new regulations and codes. As I explained, permit holders that are brought on charges of domestic violence or aggravated assault, will be subject to having their gun's permit temporarily suspended and the gun MUST be turned in for safekeeping. Once the charges against the permit holders are dismissed, the gun will be returned at not charge to him/her. If the charges result in a criminal/civil conviction, the permit holders must then comply with a restrictive program in order to be able to carry a gun again; this will be accomplish only after an independent judging panels approves such step. Others will see their permits revoked for life...

Since the program is planned to be applied not only in our civilian sector, but also to all our gov, police and military; the program is far reaching and with wide implications to the Law, which today is not fit in light of the changes to come with the roll out of the same.

The changes are taking place step by step in our gov and judicial system...

On the front of changes taking place in the biz sector:

Many already know about all the changes that were pushed retroactively in the financial ladder of the country, which embarks just as well the re-structuring of our corporate systems and by-laws.

The changes are NOT something that came out of a few weeks in the chambers of congress or our judicial systems...

These changes have been taking place, by steps since almost 4 years back!
You only got wind of it, b/c of the urgency in the need to obtain information on the subject as the local media started to place coverage of the changes in their news.

As I said, there will be little to none data on many of the changes and/or projects until they're in their way to full implementation. Some snippets of information are let out from time to time (most of the times in very occasional articles here and there) to comply with legal requirements in the judicial process these projects are limited under.

In the DR we have a very serious problem with lots of good projects and fervent political disparaging. Some projects are falsely maligned, since the investors are not going to provide any kickbacks to the other parties, not in power at the time of the initiation of the project. These problems are notorious for the vicious way they're conducted by all political affiliations, even within their own ranks.

Large groups of Dominican investors have dealt with this problem effectively, by just ignoring the political base and demands, while using an apolitical grouping of interest to pursue the plans in the projects envisioned. That's to say, we just barrel through the political barriers using sheer economic power!

Case in point: The Independent Financial Centre of the Americas (DR's WTC).

This project encompasses more than just the local and regional markets of LA. This project is the labor of love of a Dominican of foreign parents, who like many others with a strong financial background, believes in the prospects of our nation.

The International Financial Zones IFZs (aka Financial FTZ of the DR) pushed in the chambers of the DR's gov (Law 480-08), is nothing short of the baby steps to the implementation of the IFCA.

If you think this is nothing but a dream for the DR:

Work is already commenced for this project!

What this will mean to the DR's economy:

The evolution of the Internal Bolsa de Valores of the DR, into a multi-level privately secured financial tool for the development of our medium and large biz's expansions.

Private is the key in all of this! Absolutely no political intervention or pressure will be exerted onto the financial system...

This is the area in which the trade center will be built...

For more information and to read on the project, go to the website for the IFCA; where you can also watch videos on the project as well as interviews.
http://www.ifcamericas.com/
Enjoy!

 

[PICHARDO]

You're pulling my leg, right, Pichardo?
For a moment you almost had me going there.

... J-D.

J-D, What iF I told you these projects are not even the big ones in planning for the DR?

With the local services of our telecommunication providers stretched to limits, would you believe me when I tell you that the DR is going to own one of the most sophisticated telecommunication systems in the world, deployed in the entire national territory? All private?

JD: Within the next 25 years the DR will be "THE" place to live and work, most coveted in this Hemisphere...

There will be new changes to the regulations in place to obtaining the Dominican residency and Nationality. Something that most expats here should listen to me on; if they don't have Dominican Nationality to this date, should take advantage of the way things are to get it now...

The Dominicans returning home from their living overseas, are not the ones driving taxis in the streets of NYC or toiling for the home services in Spain; we can even count among the ranks, retired NASA engineers with extreme exposure to highly developed systems in the World.

We're all coming home for good and will render the expertise gained on foreign soil, to the future of our kids and later generations w/o any public funding whatsoever.

While other countries are getting brain-drained by well financed foreign countries, the DR is receiving more expert brains than the current structure of the country is able to cope with. So it was decided (think tank) that something had to be done to cure the brain-ache affecting us...

We don't want a Xerox of the US NYC's global city, the EU's elegancy, Japan's futuristic society/skyline or any other copied reference to define our nation. We want the DR to continue as always, a warmth and beautiful place to live and work for generations; only that this time around, things will be REPLACED by other things that work as they should and intended. Oh! And that includes government as well...

And believe or not, the expat communities will play a role in the national ente as well! We want our country to be a globalize society, one that breaks away from a uniform language of acceptance. Just b/c you don't speak Spanish would mean that services you seek will be unavailable to you as it's to Spanish speakers in the country. We believe that those intense opposites are what provide for a rich culture and successful integration to the global citizen.

As I explained before at length in other posts, the evolving national Cedula will be a smart card with multilanguage capabilities. Even when our citizens travel abroad, infrastructure there will be able to provide services to them w/o idiomatic deficiencies.

We want our kids not only to learn from other cultures but also experience them at home, work, school and general living. A nation that limits the communication potential of its citizens is not providing as it should.

Why say here! English, French and Spanish are of importance to our kids and citizens, when the world owns over six thousand of them! With no less than thirty widely spoken everywhere?

As it stands today, our educational model (itself a Xerox of the ones used all over the world) is in shambles. One that's unable to provide the basics of a formal education that has evolved from simple arithmetic, reading and writing. Today there are people that seldom use a pen to commit in paper as their medium, just as the evolution of the writings in clay gave way to papyrus and later to modern times paper, today's electronic environment has reached the fundamental transition of our time.

Our older generation is stuck in an evolution link of precedence. This age and time belongs to the next evolutionary link of electronics. We're forced to utilize two generations in the communication evolution, mostly b/c more than half of the world is stuck revolutionarily to meet the other part that embraced the new one already.

When I said that the education model for the DR will change, I meant a drastically brake with the old. Many jumped on a tirade (based on the old link's educational experienced in the world) against such thing, without ever stopping for a second to understand that their world, as they know it, is changing ever so faster.

The Laptop is the evolution of the paper based notebook in the classroom.
The pencil and pen, replaced by the finger tip atop a gliding surface or mouse. The blackboard at the center wall of the classroom, by the LCD flat screens. The classroom has met the next evolutionary link in the internet.


We just need to accept the natural evolutionary process and make good use of it, to the benefit of our kids and the future of our nation as well.

A teacher will not be replaced by a Laptop, but their classroom's size will grow to numbers never contemplated in their wildest dreams. So in effect, a teacher will not be proud of the kids under their tutelage but thousands of them... As they say: Each new generation will surpass the old one in great manners, but will always rely on their priceless teachings...

 

[Lambada]

only that this time around, things will be REPLACED by other things that work as they should and intended. Oh! And that includes government as well...

Splendid ideas Pichardo and a soul stirring cry to educated Dominican expats to return. Just one small question. HOW will government be replaced? The Government here controls the Armed Forces (well, those not controlled by the drug barons :cheeky. Are you talking coup d'etat? Bloodless coup maybe? How?

 

[PICHARDO]

Privatization of 90% of the gov's duties to the State.

Only a 10% of what today constitutes the DR's gov will be left to the cyclical electoral process...

That means that the office of the Presidency, Security Administration (former Armed Forces and Police) and Foreign Relations will remain as State entities; all other branches/depts will follow the same privatization models that result in an efficient well regulated institution.

Education should be funded directly w/o any intervention from within the political/administrative body of the presidency. That means ample resources from both public and private origins will be the financial backbone of it. The internal industry of the DR will have a direct influence in the churning out of well educated/related field needs of highly prepared professional onto the evolving industry. Just take a look a the video from the earlier posted link on the IFCA's interview with Gaetan Bucher, as well as the description on how skilled human resources will be obtained.
This link will take you to the video links:
Independent Financial Centre of the Americas


The steps are simple and non violent, like the coup d’etat your list suggested...

The privatization of public offices is only the logical step to the present developments being played out in the world.

Oh! But this is NOT even close to a call to those well prepared and well established Dominican individuals to arms! The beach head was already established and the supply constant! We have more than enough brains + money... What we need is time to roll out and implement the changes w/o causing major waves that could panic the roosters in their political coops...

Like some suggested dumping millions more into the existent educational model, so to create a change for the better of our children's education and formation. The answer is that the model is not going to work regardless of how many billion and zillions are dumped into it. The solution is that a new model must be implemented that's based on a sound and proven system; overall and most importantly capable of meeting the changing world's requirements to the minute they evolve.

Call it a fully customized educational program, that each industry/related sector will provide actual formative information that each field requires at the moment. A formal education is going to be reached at individual stages and not at preset stages, which today deny the variances between individuals and their natural developmental progress.

This will create a comprehensible flow of human resources, one that will not create more demand than supply of trained professionals/personnel is available to the industry and vice versa. That model provides a sustainable internal economy the workforce required at minimum expense of an unemployed pool like today.

The problem with most models in use today, is that each encompasses the left over of the evolving needs played during the last century and industrial revolution. We have complete educational institutions, which have little in common to the reality of the industry evolving around us today.

The education models in use are based on the now long gone sustained prodding of an industry phase, which evolved since the closing of the last decade. Instead of complementing a decreasing need within the sector of industry/service the model seeks to provide human resources for, the newcomers are finding the same saturated and overflowing with little chances of overcoming the stagnant stoppage.

The new model will evolve together with the sectors it seeks to provide for and the continuance of a developmental criterion, supported by a changing world that ages and transforms with time as well.

The changes will be hard to notice in instances, while others will jump out at you sudden and unexpectedly with little notice before, during or after.

Each change sought is part of a greater plan, one that will take the better quarter of the new century. The only reason changes didn't take place as they are now, is that the know-how was on a limited supply to our denizens. Today, much has changed as the world has as well.

When was the last time you had guests at home and you were witness to an aerospace engineer, a photovoltaic engineer and a fusion and plasma physicist installing a ceiling fan in your living room?

I tell you! We really needed to find these guys something to spend their time with, which provided a bit more value to the country... And we did after much, much, much debate and think, think, thinking...

A great idea with the right funding can be a great thing to watch developing!

 

[Lambada]

Privatization of 90% of the gov's duties to the State.

Justice system (Courts) & Procuraduria would also be privatised? Senate & Chamber of Deputies also?

That plus your post above involves a) complete change of legislation b) probable changes of Constitution & c) those who have power being willing to give it up. While leaving 'enforcement' in the hands of the Government.

See anything wrong with/potentially dangerous about this picture?

Are you familiar with the work of Jeremy Pope: PRIVATISING THE STATE: COMMERCIALISATION AND ITS RESPONSIBILTIES?

'Certainly there are very special problems when it comes to selling off ? or leasing of ? the provision of monopoly services. There must and do call for strong regulators or we find ourselves in an even worse position ? of a monopoly in private hands ? something which is arguably the only thing worse than a monopoly in public hands.'

http://www.u4.no/document/literature/pope-privatizing-the-state.pdf

Are you also familiar with the Network for Integrity in Reconstruction
Tiri - Tiri post-war reconstruction

Tiri - History

 

[BushBaby]

I am reluctant to posting more than a few words here for fear we get involved in another (PICHARDO) version of War & Peace!! :cheeky:

Why am I hearing the immortal words of 'Citizen Cane' here

:bunny::bunny: POWER TO THE PEOPLE :bunny::bunny:
:ermm::ermm::ermm:​

 

[catcherintherye]

I'm afraid I see the bright and colorful dressing of peace, progress and freedom covering the dull, dark and dangerous stark reality of the underlying neo-techno-fascism, with an exuberant Orwellian twist and a pseudo-populist shout.

"Here's to the new boss, the same as the old boss."

 

[BushBaby]

"Here's to the new boss, the same as the old boss."

Hmmmmmm, .... you may have something there Catcher, ..
Do you think Maybe Leonel is 'IN' on the secrecy side, knows what is going to happen & has done himself a deal to become KING Leonel?? We KNOW he has aspirations for when this Presidency comes to an end so maybe he will be allowed (by these influential businessmen that no-body knows anything about) to turn the DR into a 'KINGDOM'?

Today the Dominican Republic - tomorrow the WHOLE Caribbean!! :ermm: irate: As you say ......:ermm:.....

Hail to the King (or Caesar or Magnifico or ............)!! ~ Grahame

 

[Lambada]

Why am I hearing the immortal words of 'Citizen Cane' here

:bunny::bunny: POWER TO THE PEOPLE :bunny::bunny:
:ermm::ermm::ermm:​

If only..............!!

Pichardo's model sounds like one of commercialised plutocracy. And they have a stunning history in Latin America...............:ermm:

 

[suarezn]

The one thing that has been sustaining The DR and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future is all the drug money being laundered. Why do you think there are a gazillion apartment buildings popping up everywhere and this was even true during the last Hippo years? Fortunately or unfortunately the drug market is one where consumption has not dropped here in The US...these guys have to invest that money somewhere...easiest way to launder it is through the purchase of real state.

 

[MikeFisher]

The one thing that has been sustaining The DR and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future is all the drug money being laundered. Why do you think there are a gazillion apartment buildings popping up everywhere and this was even true during the last Hippo years? Fortunately or unfortunately the drug market is one where consumption has not dropped here in The US...these guys have to invest that money somewhere...easiest way to launder it is through the purchase of real state.

through purchase of real estate and construction of huge strong conglomerates of privately owned and controlled financing monsters who's actions can noy be 100% overseen by authorities, specially when the money and the controllers come from all around the globe with financial powers which can pay of the 10% gubmin powers left easily.
a kingdom would have the possibility for the People to stand up and kill the bad King, like done often in human history.
but a huge finacial $$$ conglomerate under private control, who could the People fight there?, would nobody be present to hang.
the IFCAmericas is a good overthought vision of a mid-long term future innovative and financial ceter, such is doable and will be done. but it will not be one center in one country to control privately the LA marketplace/financial place/education and development place.
hopefully not, that would be worse than a new dictator in town, because like written above, that King could be shot or hanged up in case of needed changes.
Mike