O&C, the DR is experiencing extreme growing pains as it transitions into a democratic, free market society. It can take several generations. The key is to keep from relapsing into some form of autocratic government, which is what Mejia desires.
Hippo sucessfully performed a US$2+ Billion heist. It is as simple as that. He got away with it. As I have posted over the last 1 1/2 years, this money has been mainly stolen from the low to middle class. One of the reasons I make this claim is inflation. Prices have nearly doubled, but incomes have not. Those whose worth was in DR$ were screwed.
Unless you can round up Hippo and his friends and force them to give up the cash, there nothing you can do to get that money back.
What concerns me for next year is that workers will demand income increases to compensate for inflation. The only way this can be done quickly is by printing more money, and therefore igniting real inflation.
WAGE INFLATION
Per Alan Greenspan, wage inflation is the real monster. This is beacuse it is a recurring price increase. It becomes a sel-regenerative process: you get a higher salary, your company increases prices, you ask for another salary increase, and so on...this is the cycle that the DR cannot fall into. If it does, then the sky is the limit for inflation.
LEONEL
If Leonel and the Legislature do not give into these pressures, then I think next year will see marked improvement.