"A Latino middle class is key, billionaire says" Associated Press August 18, 2014
HOUSTON— Increasing workers’ earning power and offering Hispanic-owned companies easier access to funding that can be used for growth can help improve the social and economic status of Latinos in the United States and across Latin America, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim says.
In a speech at the annual conference of the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders, Slim spoke on how to better the plight of Hispanic workers and Latino-owned businesses.
Slim, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world’s second-richest person, with an estimated net worth of $72 billion, suggested establishing investment firms dedicated to working with small- and medium-size Latino businesses.
He also said that following recent economic crises, countries need to focus on strengthening the middle class as well as health care and education.
‘‘What is important is that people earn more and that more middle classes are formed,’’ said Slim, who owns America Movil, a cellphone service provider in Latin America.
Slim also reiterated his recent proposal for a three-day work week. He said the idea would mean longer work hours and delaying retirement until 70 to 75 years old. But he said it would mean people having more free time with their families or for personal enrichment.
Last week, Slim’s foundation unveiled Acceso Latino, a free website to provide Hispanics access to information about education, health care, job training, culture, and other areas.
There are more than 53 million Hispanics in the United States, or 17 percent of the population, according to census figures. Slim said this makes the US Hispanic population larger than the populations of many Latin American countries.
Martin Cabrera, chief executive of a Chicago investment firm, said there are already multibillion-dollar pension funds that have investment arms that provide financing to startups and other companies. But ‘‘the amount of business they are doing with Latino [companies] is close to zero,’’ he said.
Cabrera said Slim can use his influence to start a dialogue with pension funds and their investment arms to get them to see the potential of investing in Hispanic-owned businesses.
Cabrera added that these funds and investment firms can also bring ‘‘management and experience to help’’ Hispanic-owned businesses grow and ‘‘get them to the next level and even possibly be the Latino Facebook or the Latino Google.’’
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Even the old allies can no longer be relied upon.
"US warns travelers of canceled Venezuela flights" by Hannah Dreier and Jorge Rueda | Associated Press August 21, 2014
US is at undeclared war with Venezuela.
CARACAS — Come to Venezuela and you might get a longer trip than you bargained for.
The US Embassy in Caracas issued an advisory Tuesday urging Americans to be careful when traveling to Venezuela because of the steep drop in airline service to the South American country.
The number of seats on flights between Venezuela and the United States has fallen by more than half since the beginning of the year, according to the Venezuela Airlines Association.
The three largest US carriers — Delta, American, and United — all slashed their service to Venezuela this summer.
The cause: a dispute over some $4 billion in cash trapped in the socialist country.
Decade-old currency controls mean that airlines need government approval to convert local earnings into dollars.
And the socialist government, running low on dollars itself, has been preventing carriers from repatriating revenue, with some airlines waiting more than a year.
Each successive reduction in service has left passengers scrambling to rebook seats, often for significantly more than they first paid. The scarcity of flights has sent airfares soaring; a one-way ticket to New York now costs more than $1,000.
That's now a bu$ine$$ model.
While most carriers have reduced service, some, including Air Canada and Italy’s Alitalia, have left Venezuela altogether.
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Another nation that has tried (and was once successful) in bucking the bankers:
"Argentina defends plan to pay creditors outside US" Associated Press August 21, 2014
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina will make its next round of scheduled debt payments, the economy minister said Wednesday as he defended a plan to pay creditors locally and avoid the jurisdiction of a US court that forced the country into default last month.
That will steam up a certain power from up nawth!
Under legislation that must be submitted to Congress, Argentina will no longer use the Bank of New York as a trustee for about $30 billion in bonds and will service debt through its own central bank, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said.
Argentina now an enemy.
The change will allow the country to make $200 million in interest payments scheduled for Sept. 30 to bondholders who voluntarily accept the change, Kicillof said a day after President Cristina Fernandez announced the plan.
The economy minister sought to minimize the scope of the plan, saying it amounted to ‘‘a change of venue, not jurisdiction,’’ but it could allow the country to emerge from default while complicating a bitter legal dispute with US investors.
The proposal is intended as a way around a US court order that blocked Argentina from making $539 million in interest payments on July 30, triggering the country’s second default in 13 years.
US District Judge Thomas Griesa, whose order prevented Bank of New York from distributing Argentina’s interest payments until the country settles a decadelong battle with other creditors, has warned that changing the jurisdiction of payments would have ‘‘serious legal consequences.’’
WAR!
The new local payments would apply to bondholders who accepted lower-value bonds following the country’s 2001 default and could further complicate the battle with holdout creditors.
Good a rea$on as any, I suppose.
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"NY judge scolds Argentina, but no contempt order" Associated Press August 22, 2014
NEW YORK — A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday said Argentina’s plans to evade his orders by failing to make required payments to US bondholders is illegal and cannot be carried out, but he stopped short of finding the South American nation in contempt of court.
Judge is a good diplomat. No war now.
US District Judge Thomas Griesa called the republic’s actions toward US bondholders ‘‘lawless’’ at the New York City hearing. However, he rejected requests by lawyers for US hedge funds to make a contempt finding, saying he wanted everyone to concentrate on an eventual settlement.
At an Aug. 8 hearing, Griesa had threatened Argentina with contempt, saying the nation’s leaders were making ‘‘false and misleading’’ statements as they ignored obligations to pay the hedge funds.
Then my government is clearly in contempt!
Argentina’s public statements have grown more defiant. President Cristina Fernandez this week announced plans to make interest payments to some bondholders through its own central bank rather than US banks subject to Griesa’s orders.
Argentina separating itself from the U.S. banking $y$tem.
Argentina attorney Jonathan Blackman has repeatedly told the judge that the country is left with few options because any deal it reaches with US bondholders owed about $1.5 billion would obligate it to pay over $20 billion to other bondholders.
In a letter to the judge Wednesday, attorney Robert A. Cohen, on behalf of the US bondholders, said Argentina’s new proposal would offer his clients the same ‘‘stingy terms’’ that the hedge funds had declined twice before and force them to submit to Argentina’s ‘‘puppet bank’’ or ‘‘Argentina’s patsies’’ for payments.
What chutzpah! Now wonder the world hates the money junkies.
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"Income inequality: Walking the walk" | August 25, 2014
No one can say that Raymond Burse doesn’t put his money where his principles are. The interim president of Kentucky State University, a former vice president for General Electric, was concerned to learn that the school’s lowest-paid employees were making only $7.25 an hour. So he asked the board to cut his own salary by $90,000 — a 25 percent reduction — and use the money to boost the workers’ hourly pay to $10.25.
Burse’s generosity is a shining example of walking the walk. Many people decry inequality, but it is a rare soul indeed who gives up a quarter of his paycheck so janitors and groundskeepers can get a raise. “I didn’t do it to be an example to anyone else,” Burse said. “I did it to do right by the employees here.” Since he is already collecting a generous pension, he explained, he could afford the hit to his pay.
The average salary for public university presidents was more than $540,000 in 2012, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. At nearly $350,000, Burse’s paycheck was below average even before sharing his salary with Kentucky State’s minimum-wage workers. Now it is lower still. But as a result, two dozen employees at the very bottom of the university’s economic ladder are taking home more money — and an educator grateful for his personal success has taught a lesson in what “paying it forward” really means.
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That's some worth celebrating, huh?
