Bernardo Vega, the distinguished economist and historian, joined forces with five other economists in urging a faster pace towards tax reform. Vega says that there are some members of the current administration who wish to shun the IMF accords and substitute a new sovereign bond issue for the funds that would have come from the IMF and the other international lenders. This would prevent having to face limits on government spending and contracted debts as per the IMF’s stipulations. Vega calls this idea “a mirage”, saying it would create more problems than it would solve and in the end would lose more votes than the party could hope to gain. The former ambassador suggests that the only solution that makes political, economic and even party sense for the PRD and the PPH would be to negotiate a new agreement with the IMF, no later then by the end of December. The new agreement would have to be more flexible than the one signed in August. Since new income is needed immediately, we have seen the “patches” of a higher exchange commission and “voluntary contributions” from other sectors. Nevertheless, according to Vega, the real solution is the urgently-needed tax reform, which he says will alleviate some of the problems without scaring off investments.