Building a Strategic Trade and Industrial Policy for Puerto Rico in the Context of Colonial Exclusion and Lack of a Development Strategy
Showing posts with label Economic Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economic Development. Show all posts
June 10, 2020
Abstract, Building a Strategic Trade and Industrial Policy for Puerto Rico in the Context of Colonial Exclusion and Lack of a Development Strategy
:::::: Abstract ::::::
Building a Strategic Trade and Industrial Policy for Puerto Rico in the Context of Colonial Exclusion and Lack of a Development Strategy
by Maribel Aponte-García and Karen Orengo-Serra
Given Puerto Rico’s colonial exclusion from Latin American and Caribbean regionalism and its ruling parties’ disregard for stimulating an industrial base of small and medium-sized local enterprises rather than U.S. multinational corporations, Puerto Rico needs to construct new pathways to inclusive socioeconomic development. One approach is articulating strategic and industrial policies to stimulate these enterprises from below by promoting value chains focused on exports or export potential. A proposed systematization draws on the experience gained in a project carried out under an agreement between the University of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico’s Trade and Export Company to generate strategic export plans and map value chains for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Building a Strategic Trade and Industrial Policy for Puerto Rico in the Context of Colonial Exclusion and Lack of a Development Strategy
October 24, 2019
LUZ DE GAS UTILITY PRICE HIKES AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY IN MACRI’S ARGENTINA
By
Alexis Dritsos and Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli
Photos by Lucas Chillemi
Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at
Soka University of America, California, USA. He is an associate producer of
ITVS and POV, from the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States. He is
on the editorial board of the journal Latin American Perspectives (LAP),
of which he is co-editor of the film section. He is co-editor of Film and
Genocide (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012) and El documental
político en Argentina, Chile, y Uruguay (LOM Ediciones, 2015). He also
co-edited two special issues for LAP: Political Documentary Film and Video
in the Southern Cone: 1950s-2000s (2013), and Media, Politics and
Democratization in Latin America (2018). He is currently co-director of the documentary
film journal Revista Cine Documental.
Address: Soka
University of America, 1 University Avenue, Aliso Viejo, California 92656
Alexis Dritsos is a member of the National Economic Commission of the
Socialist Party and was a candidate for National Deputy for the Socialist and
Popular Front, in 2017. He currently works for the National Treasury Department Council of
the Judiciary of the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. He publishes weekly
articles on politics and economics and appears regularly on radio and TV as a
pundit.
Address: Calle 13b, Nro. 556, City Bell, Provincia de Buenos Aires, CP
1896. Argentina alexis.dritsos@gmail.com
Lucas Chillemi is a
professional photographer living in Buenos Aires. He works as an agricultural
administrator in Tres Arroyos. He is a member of the Association of Graphic
Reporters of Argentina (A.R. G. R.A). He works as a freelance photographer and
is the art director of Espacio Makarius.
Address: Avenida Corrientes 1584, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires,
C1042AAO Lucas.chillemi@hotmail.com
Abstract
Argentine
President Mauricio Macri’s price hike policies have deeply hurt the Argentine household
economies. This essay seeks to understand the rationale behind the policies and
to analyze the rhetoric that Macri has deployed to justify it. Macri and
members of his government have made bold pronouncements in the press
articulating an elitist, discriminatory view of social advancement. Faced with
popular resistance from social movements, opposing political parties, and
citizens, price hikes have solidified Macri’s neoliberal approach and are an
indispensable component of his austerity plan. In this essay, we consider ways
in which price hikes have become a bold instrument of social control and
political indoctrination. In particular, we are interested in Macri’s
deployment of price hikes and austerity measures as a counter-offensive to
successful grassroots movements that emphasize economic and environmental
sustainability as a principle of effective social organization.
La vida es un vaso de gaseosa aguada,
como una secuencia de bromas pesadas.
Disfruta este trago porque al terminar
habrá que pagar y quizá pagarlo de más;
habrá que insistir como lo hicimos tantas veces...
Life is a glass of watery soda
like a sequence of heavy jokes.
Enjoy your drink because when finished
we will have to pay
and maybe pay more;
we will have to insist
as we have done so many times (Babasónicos)
We began writing this essay in February 2019. Argentina was
suffering once again under the calamitous policies of a neoliberal government
and the draconic mandates of the IMF. The road to development, according to
this ideological framework, is labor flexibilization and austerity. News
programs and newscasters were assessing the political fortitude of Mauricio
Macri’s administration. Will Macri and his party win reelection in October 2019?
Or will rising utility costs, inflation, interest rates, unemployment, be
enough to sway the electorate to vote for a political party of the opposition?
In 2015, right-wing candidate Macri won the presidential
election by a narrow margin, aligning the country once again with the
transnational neoliberal block. During the
campaign, Macri promised a set of policies that would correct the problems
inherited from the previous administration- la
pesada herencia- without violating acquired rights. As expected by Macri’s critics on the left, the new president
rolled out a series of fiscal measures that did away with utility subsidies; chipping
away at the purchasing power and well-being of middle and low-income
households. Soon after, inconsistencies became visible, contrary to the
optimistic forecasts promoted by the government.
The policies of seduction, with respect to foreign capital,
involved several measures that went against the interests of the majority of
the population. The discourse of pragmatism, as Max Horkheimer argued in the Eclipse of Reason (1947) in the aftermath of the World War II,
degrades all complexities to a simple “rational” plan: “In our day, the hectic
desire that people have to adapt themselves to something that has the power to
be, whether it is called a fact or an ens
rationale, has led to a state of irrational rationality” (90). In many
aspects, Macri’s economic plan is structured on “planned obsolescence” (Foster
and Clark, 2012: 9). The casting aside of sectors of production and its
workforce mirrors the strategy imposed by the Dictatorship in the 1970s and by
two democratically elected governments of early and late 1990s (Menem and De la
Rúa) all of which led up to a tragic social genocide in the wake of the 2001
economic crisis.[i]
Since 2015 Argentina’s economy has displayed the all too
familiar signs of neoliberal malaise: inflation has risen to around 50% a year,
the peso was devalued by 400%, interest rates have ballooned to 65% making it harder for small businesses (PYMES) to
borrow money, and poverty has risen to 32%. Even more alarming is the loss of purchasing
power, as salaries depreciated between 15% and 20% (Katz, 2019). As if this were
not enough, Macri’s government has borrowed 57 billion dollars from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), and has opened the economy up to imports,
wrecking industries. Luciana Zorzoli (2019) writing for Jacobin puts it this way: “Reestablishing
ties with the IMF allows Macri to both reconnect with ruling economic hubs and
introduce a powerful external actor that can help discipline political and
popular demands in the country (by loading the country up with debt) and push
through his neoliberal program” (2). In addition, Zorzoli explains to readers
that this rescue package from the IMF is the most generous package in the
institution’s history. When looking at
perfect storms like this, Claudio Katz
reminds us in La economía marxista hoy:
seis debates teóricos (2010) that these economic conditions are fertile
ground for speculators and vulture funds (72).
July 15, 2019
Abstract, From Euphoria to Retreat: Formal Employment in Twenty-first-Century Brazil
:::::: Abstract ::::::
From Euphoria to Retreat: Formal Employment in Twenty-first-Century Brazil
by Jacqueline Aslan Souen and Guilherme Caldas de Souza Campos
In the 1990s the Brazilian labor market underwent a destructuring process that had profound consequences for Brazilian society. This situation, characterized by high levels of unemployment and informality, began to be modified only with the rise of a government focused on reconciling workers’ interests with the interests of capital associated with the economic growth that began with the international commodity cycle in the early 2000s. The result was a new phenomenon for the labor market—the strong growth of formal employment and labor income and the decline of other types of occupation—that was one of the pillars of social transformation of the country in this period. In recent years, however, a deep economic, political, and institutional crisis has reversed the favorable conditions that allowed this advance, producing a change in the labor market structuring of the previous period. Analysis of the labor market regression of these years using information from the Monthly Employment Survey (PME) and the new continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) helps clarify the determinants and consequences of the recent economic crisis.
From Euphoria to Retreat: Formal Employment in Twenty-first-Century Brazil
by Jacqueline Aslan Souen and Guilherme Caldas de Souza Campos
November 23, 2018
Abstract, Understanding Outsourcing and Subcontracting: An Approach from the Theory of Surplus Value
:::::: Abstract ::::::
Understanding Outsourcing and Subcontracting: An Approach from the Theory of Surplus Value
by Martín Rodríguez Miglio
A critical analysis of outsourcing studies dating from the mid-1980s to the present lays the groundwork for a new understanding of its rationale. Relying on the idea of production in contemporary capitalism as involving both labor and valorization processes, this approach explains outsourcing as arising from the requirements of capitalist accumulation.
CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Understanding Outsourcing and Subcontracting: An Approach from the Theory of Surplus Value
by Martín Rodríguez Miglio
A critical analysis of outsourcing studies dating from the mid-1980s to the present lays the groundwork for a new understanding of its rationale. Relying on the idea of production in contemporary capitalism as involving both labor and valorization processes, this approach explains outsourcing as arising from the requirements of capitalist accumulation.
CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
May 9, 2018
Abstract, Communications Policies and the Production of Audiovisual Content in Argentina
:::::: Abstract ::::::
Communications Policies and the Production of Audiovisual Content in Argentina
By Carla Rodríguez Miranda and Ornela Carboni
The introduction of digital terrestrial television and the passage of the Audiovisual Communications Services Act in Argentina in 2009 led to a series of competitions to stimulate the production of new content and help dismantle the prevailing center-periphery logic in Argentine television. An examination from the perspective of the political economy of communications of these efforts in 2011–2013 indicates that they were small steps in the right direction. Further progress will require a stable source of funding, a stronger role for public televisión, and new strategies for capturing viewers.
Communications Policies and the Production of Audiovisual Content in Argentina
By Carla Rodríguez Miranda and Ornela Carboni
The introduction of digital terrestrial television and the passage of the Audiovisual Communications Services Act in Argentina in 2009 led to a series of competitions to stimulate the production of new content and help dismantle the prevailing center-periphery logic in Argentine television. An examination from the perspective of the political economy of communications of these efforts in 2011–2013 indicates that they were small steps in the right direction. Further progress will require a stable source of funding, a stronger role for public televisión, and new strategies for capturing viewers.
April 23, 2018
ENTREVISTA CAMILA PIÑEIRO HARNECKER Cuba e o cooperativismo por Joana Salém Vasconcelos
published in Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil
Joana Salém Vasconcelos, doutoranda em História Econômica (USP), autora de História agrária da revolução cubana e coorganizadora de Cuba no século XXI, entrevista Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, uma das maiores referências em estudos sobre cooperativismo em Cuba
Em memória de Paul Singer
“Os clássicos parecem ter caído num reducionismo evidente. Pensavam que, se a propriedade privada dos meios de produção é a causa da divisão da sociedade em classes, a abolição daquela implica eliminação desta. Mas a abolição da propriedade privada exige a criação de um regime de propriedade coletiva, sobre o qual eles nada tinham a dizer (…). O planejamento centralizado, que foi a marca registrada do ‘socialismo’ soviético, nada tem a ver com a socialização dos meios de produção. Se todos eles pertencem ao Estado, em tese cada cidadão é proprietário de meios de produção. Mas isso não passa de uma ficção jurídica. Na prática, o controle sobre a economia era exercido pela cúpula do partido, que também era a cúpula do Estado. E os trabalhadores continuaram tão subordinados quanto no capitalismo. A experiência do socialismo ‘realmente existente’ constitui uma grande lição histórica, que nos ensina que socializar tem que necessariamente significar descentralizar o poder, ou seja, o controle dos meios de produção tem que ser exercido diretamente pelos trabalhadores sobre cada unidade produtiva”.
Paul Singer, 1999[1]
Desde que as reformas econômicas destinadas a ampliar o setor privado em Cuba foram anunciadas, em 2011, muitas interrogações surgiram sobre os destinos do socialismo na ilha.[2] Será que o país iria seguir os rumos mercantilistas da China? Seria uma perestroika cubana? Será que, apesar de anunciar a continuidade do socialismo, as reformas conduziriam a uma espécie de “retorno controlado ao capitalismo”? Com qual intensidade e em qual ritmo? Ou seria mesmo uma mudança lenta e dentro dos marcos do socialismo? Nesse caso, como lidar com as novas desigualdades sociais? Afinal, quais critérios determinam a fronteira entre capitalismo e socialismo no mundo contemporâneo?
January 15, 2018
January 2018 Issue!
The Urban Informal Economy Revisited
Issue Editors : Ray Bromley and Tamar Diana Wilson
The distinction between “formal” and “informal” jobs and
enterprises was first introduced in the 1970s and has been very widely used ever
since. The underlying assumption was
that the formal economy would gradually expand and dominate, and the informal
economy would gradually disappear. The
reality, however, associated with neoliberal economic development and growing
socio-economic inequality, is that the informal economy has persisted and
sometimes grown, and that job security and benefits in the formal economy have
often diminished. This theme issue
focuses on the informal economy under neoliberalism, with case studies of some
of the most significant and persistent occupations. Several of the articles
focus on the process of the “formalization” of informal workers, a goal
expressed by the International Labour Organization, but often fraught with
difficulties.
Listen to the Podcast!
January 12, 2018
Introduction, The Urban Informal Economy Revisited
:::::: Introduction ::::::
The Urban Informal Economy Revisited
by Ray Bromley and Tamar Diana Wilson
One of the most cited definitions of the informal economy is “a process of income generation characterized by one central feature: it is unregulated by the institutions of society, in a legal and social environment in which similar activities are regulated” (Castells and Portes, 1989: 12). Among those the International Labour Organization (ILO) (2013: 3) identifies as being part of the informal economy are those who work in the informal sector as employers and employees in informal enterprises and as self-employed workers. Also included are those who labor outside the informal sector and are informally employed in formal firms or as domestic workers, not covered by labor law protections. The employees in the informal economy also include unpaid family workers, whether employed in informal enterprises or in formal firms or in domestic service.
For decades there have been debates over whether the informal economy is procyclical, expanding as the capitalist economy expands, or countercyclical, contracting as that economy expands. Both things may be happening, depending on which part of the informal economy is under scrutiny: the informally self-employed or informalized wage workers in either informal or formal enterprises (FORLAC, 2015: 2). For example, informal microenterprises that market their products directly to customers or retail outlets may show countercyclical tendencies, whereas informal microenterprises that are subcontracted by large businesses, whether national or multinational, may show procyclical tendencies. More domestic workers may be employed when the economy expands, whereas self-employment in artisanal work and vending may expand when waged employment dries up.
The Urban Informal Economy Revisited
by Ray Bromley and Tamar Diana Wilson
One of the most cited definitions of the informal economy is “a process of income generation characterized by one central feature: it is unregulated by the institutions of society, in a legal and social environment in which similar activities are regulated” (Castells and Portes, 1989: 12). Among those the International Labour Organization (ILO) (2013: 3) identifies as being part of the informal economy are those who work in the informal sector as employers and employees in informal enterprises and as self-employed workers. Also included are those who labor outside the informal sector and are informally employed in formal firms or as domestic workers, not covered by labor law protections. The employees in the informal economy also include unpaid family workers, whether employed in informal enterprises or in formal firms or in domestic service.
For decades there have been debates over whether the informal economy is procyclical, expanding as the capitalist economy expands, or countercyclical, contracting as that economy expands. Both things may be happening, depending on which part of the informal economy is under scrutiny: the informally self-employed or informalized wage workers in either informal or formal enterprises (FORLAC, 2015: 2). For example, informal microenterprises that market their products directly to customers or retail outlets may show countercyclical tendencies, whereas informal microenterprises that are subcontracted by large businesses, whether national or multinational, may show procyclical tendencies. More domestic workers may be employed when the economy expands, whereas self-employment in artisanal work and vending may expand when waged employment dries up.
December 11, 2017
January 2018 Issue!
The Urban Informal Economy Revisited
Issue Editors : Ray Bromley and Tamar Diana Wilson
The distinction between “formal” and “informal” jobs and
enterprises was first introduced in the 1970s and has been very widely used ever
since. The underlying assumption was
that the formal economy would gradually expand and dominate, and the informal
economy would gradually disappear. The
reality, however, associated with neoliberal economic development and growing
socio-economic inequality, is that the informal economy has persisted and
sometimes grown, and that job security and benefits in the formal economy have
often diminished. This theme issue
focuses on the informal economy under neoliberalism, with case studies of some
of the most significant and persistent occupations. Several of the articles
focus on the process of the “formalization” of informal workers, a goal
expressed by the International Labour Organization, but often fraught with
difficulties.
Listen to the Podcast!
December 8, 2017
Introduction, The Urban Informal Economy Revisited
:::::: Introduction ::::::
The Urban Informal Economy Revisited
by Ray Bromley and Tamar Diana Wilson
One of the most cited definitions of the informal economy is “a process of income generation characterized by one central feature: it is unregulated by the institutions of society, in a legal and social environment in which similar activities are regulated” (Castells and Portes, 1989: 12). Among those the International Labour Organization (ILO) (2013: 3) identifies as being part of the informal economy are those who work in the informal sector as employers and employees in informal enterprises and as self-employed workers. Also included are those who labor outside the informal sector and are informally employed in formal firms or as domestic workers, not covered by labor law protections. The employees in the informal economy also include unpaid family workers, whether employed in informal enterprises or in formal firms or in domestic service.
For decades there have been debates over whether the informal economy is procyclical, expanding as the capitalist economy expands, or countercyclical, contracting as that economy expands. Both things may be happening, depending on which part of the informal economy is under scrutiny: the informally self-employed or informalized wage workers in either informal or formal enterprises (FORLAC, 2015: 2). For example, informal microenterprises that market their products directly to customers or retail outlets may show countercyclical tendencies, whereas informal microenterprises that are subcontracted by large businesses, whether national or multinational, may show procyclical tendencies. More domestic workers may be employed when the economy expands, whereas self-employment in artisanal work and vending may expand when waged employment dries up.
The Urban Informal Economy Revisited
by Ray Bromley and Tamar Diana Wilson
One of the most cited definitions of the informal economy is “a process of income generation characterized by one central feature: it is unregulated by the institutions of society, in a legal and social environment in which similar activities are regulated” (Castells and Portes, 1989: 12). Among those the International Labour Organization (ILO) (2013: 3) identifies as being part of the informal economy are those who work in the informal sector as employers and employees in informal enterprises and as self-employed workers. Also included are those who labor outside the informal sector and are informally employed in formal firms or as domestic workers, not covered by labor law protections. The employees in the informal economy also include unpaid family workers, whether employed in informal enterprises or in formal firms or in domestic service.
For decades there have been debates over whether the informal economy is procyclical, expanding as the capitalist economy expands, or countercyclical, contracting as that economy expands. Both things may be happening, depending on which part of the informal economy is under scrutiny: the informally self-employed or informalized wage workers in either informal or formal enterprises (FORLAC, 2015: 2). For example, informal microenterprises that market their products directly to customers or retail outlets may show countercyclical tendencies, whereas informal microenterprises that are subcontracted by large businesses, whether national or multinational, may show procyclical tendencies. More domestic workers may be employed when the economy expands, whereas self-employment in artisanal work and vending may expand when waged employment dries up.
November 22, 2017
Political Report # 1294 NAFTA Talks: What's the Deal?
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As renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) chugs along rapidly behind closed doors, President Donald Trump will soon be forced to decide whether to keep or abandon his campaign pledge to make the pact "much better" for working people.
NAFTA's renegotiation should be an opportunity to end its quarter-century legacy of job loss and wage suppression. Longtime fair trade advocates warn, however, that without increased public pressure, Trump could end up making NAFTA even worse for working people.
Rather than put good-paying jobs, better wages, and human rights at the center of NAFTA's renegotiation, as unions and others have demanded, big corporations are pushing to "modernize" NAFTA in ways that strengthen corporate power.
In recent weeks, as NAFTA's renegotiation reached its "middle stage," corporations have dramatically increased their pressure on the White House, descending on Capitol Hill in droves; holding multiple press conferences; sending various letters; and encouraging their friends in the "Goldman-Sachs wing" of the administration to intervene with the president.
Chamber of Commerce Vice President John G. Murphy explained during a mid-October press event, "We're urging the administration to recalibrate its approach and stop and listen to the business community, the agriculture community, the people who actually engage in trade."
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November 17, 2017
Political Report # 1292 Trump's New Cuba Sanctions Miss Their Mark
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After two years of restored diplomatic ties, new U.S. regulations on Cuba are bringing back a thicket of travel, financial and trade restrictions - and a tougher stance toward the island. The goal of these restrictions, according to U.S. President Donald Trump, is to starve the Cuban government of money from travel, remittances and commercial ties. But the real victims of the new sanctions will be U.S. residents whose right to travel is curtailed, Cuban families who depend on remittances to survive, the struggling Cuban private sector, and U.S. businesses that will face an even greater disadvantage competing with Asian and European firms.
The regulations issued by the Treasury and Commerce Departments on Nov. 8 re-impose significant limits on educational travel to Cuba that former President Barack Obama relaxed. They also redefine "prohibited officials of the Government of Cuba" expansively, potentially cutting off remittances to hundreds of thousands of Cuban families. Finally, they prohibit anyone subject to U.S. jurisdiction from engaging in any "direct financial transactions" with entities controlled by the Cuban military or security forces that "disproportionately benefits" those entities.
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