Come On, Ride The Train ..

[Squat]

Originally Posted by mondongo

BOTTOM LINE: let me say this for the up-teenth time, the IMF is NOT YOUR friend!! They are criminals too.....Just like the DR politicians!!

-How about politicians from other countries ???

-Are they saints ???

-How about people behind the DR-CAFTA ??? -Are they good willing "Mother Theresa" kind of politicians ??? -Are they your friend ???

[A.Hidalgo]

Interesting reading from DR1 daily news for Friday 17 November 2006

On the one hand Finance Minister Vicente Bengor states in Diario Libre that the new 5% tax that is to be implemented on hotel rooms because of the fiscal reform, explains that the particular tax only amounts to US$20 million for an industry that makes more than US$3 billion.

On the other hand in the Listin Diario he says that the 5% tax on hotel rooms amounts to US$30 million in an industry that generates US$3.7 billion.

Throwing out figures that change from newspaper to newspaper makes you wonder about the trouble waters ahead for the economy of the DR. Incompetence anyone???

Dominican Republic News & Travel Information Service

[mondongo]

The fewer the politicians, the better off we all are. Those in the DR just happen to have a greater capacity to do harm.

DR-CAFTA may be good or it maybe bad. What the USA/EU want is for the DR to remove import tariffs. When the DR politicians remove the import tariffs, they WILL make up that revenue loss somewhere else (see large tax increases).

-Lower import tariifs will not result in lower prices.
-Lower import tariffs will result in higher tax burder on DR populace.
-Lower import tariffs will be a net burden on the DR populace.

That's not just my opinion, that's what's happening to you now.

Originally Posted by Squat

-How about politicians from other countries ???

-Are they saints ???

-How about people behind the DR-CAFTA ??? -Are they good willing "Mother Theresa" kind of politicians ??? -Are they your friend ???

[Texas Bill]

Nals;

You wrote "In the United States, every single natural resource of tremendous value (from petroleum to coal mines) are in effect owned by the U.S. government. The government grants licenses to private enterprises which wishes to exploit them and again, such licenses are granted with certain conditionalities."

I really hate to disillusion you, but the USA DOES NOT, nor HAS IT EVER claimed "Ownership" of all it's natural resources and "authorized" the exploitation of them in the manner that your described. That was an out and out falsehood.
Aside from claiming "Right of Eminent Domain" and control over certain Public Lands, ALL the "exploited lands" in the US are OWNED BY THE PRIVATE COMPANIES that operate them. The Copper mines, the Oil fields (mineral rights being leased from the owners), the Coal mines, etc. etc.
I think you're confusing government ownership with the Timber industry that operates within the National Forrests under very specific rules with something else entirely.
Now, if you have evidence to the contrary, I'd certainly like to hear specifically what you're referring to. if you don't have evidence of COMPLETE OWNERSHIP OF ALL NATURAL RESOURCES by the US government and allocated in the manner you have stated, I think you had better post a retraction since there are others on this board who will take that reamark prima facia as proof and make further"hay" with it.
Shame on you. I really thought better of you in the past.

Texas Bill

[Texas Bill]

Originally Posted by something_of_the_night

How come this gem remains untouched? Oh, I see, it's about those stupid Dominicans and good-for-nothing French.

By the way, this Franco-Dominicano has had it with that "history repeating itself" line. That does not make sense, and I don't care how "learned" you are. History repeating itself? That's just crazy. Coño, cuanto disparates!

something_of_the_night;

My friend, if you really studied your history and made the correlations that a lot of people much smarter than you made and offered the statement that "history TENDS to repeat itself", then you just might see the justifications used in quoting the statement.
You can get all bent out of shape if you want to, it matters not one iota to me. But, you should engage your brain before starting your motor-mouth. Your problem seems to be that you "don't see the forrest for the trees".

The biggest problem that mankind suffers from is that of not looking back on the mistakes made by previous generations and profiting from the recognising of those mistakes and making certain that they don't repeat them.
However, because succeding generations view themselves as being smarter than the preceeding ond, they go their merry way, satisfied that they will ALWAYS do the RIGHT thing. Guess What?? They fail because of vanity.
Does the shoe fit? Mine sure did pinch when I was a youngster and sometimes, even now, they get a little tight.

Texas Bill

[A.Hidalgo]

Yes shame on you NALs, one less fan???????

[Rick Snyder]

Mondongo you post had some wisdom in it as to the statement about fewer politicians. The fact that the Dominican politicians have the capability of doing greater harm to the country then those of some other countries would reinforce your statement or Dominicans could in fact try to elect those types of people that have the welfare of their country in mind.

I find exception to your reasoning with the statement “-Lower import tariifs will not result in lower prices.” If the price of a stated item does in fact cost less to import then the price ‘should’ be lower to the buyer. If the price fails to be lowered then the fault doesn’t lie with DR-CAFTA, politicians or the buying public but rather with those that have the control of those imports and the sellers of said products.

I understand what you are trying to convey about lost revenue but it is my suggestion that the Dominicans try to look for points closer to home to increase those lost revenues or to close the gaps where a lot of those lost revenues are happening.

The president LF is in fact trying to close some of those gaps. He has already stated that he will not finance the ONG’s for next year. Anyone with any sense knows that a large amount of the over 3, 000 ONG’s that the government pay monthly in this country belong to politicians. Those same people with sense also know that a very small minority of those large sums of money that the government gives those ONG’s actually reach any of the poor population much less serve the purpose of what a true ONG is meant to provide.According to ONAPRES the Dominican government, in 2004, gave RD$ 1,017,541,634.75 to 3,191 ONG’s.

Immediately after LF made the announcement a true and predictable Dominican politician, Reinaldo Pared Pérez, suggested that the senate introduce and pass a bill allowing each and every senator to receive RD$600,000 monthly so that they will have the necessary funds to distribute to the poor in their districts. If you believe the reasoning stated behind that suggestion then I have a bridge I wish to sell you. So let’s see, 30 senators at 600,000 pesos a month is ????? =18 million pesos a month. Gee that would be RD$216,000,000 a year.

Let’s see, where else might money from the government coffers be going???? How about the Finance Ministry’s Pensions and Retirements Department that was recently caught stealing over 50 million pesos? When this investigation unravels, if it ever does, I think you will find much more than 50 million was stolen.

There are so many more and I don’t wish to continue listing them but I think you get the idea. It is my contention that if you shore up the corruption then the government would have the necessary funds that are needed to run this country and would have no need to raise taxes and DR-CAFTA would serve many people well in this country. They might even then be in a position to tell the IMF to take a flying leap at the moon.

Rick

[aegap]

There's nothing like a predatory lender with the full backing of the world's most powerful governments..

[Alyonka]

Of course a lot has changed since Breton Woods agreement (http://www.canadianeconomy.gc.ca/eng...on_woods.html). At that point, when institutions like IMF and WB were created, situation was much different. And countries that are doing really well now such as Japan and Germany actually did get a lot of benefit out of US grants. Not every IMF/WB program brought harm. It is just those that did not go well are being discussed the most. Governments always have an option NOT to take IMF loans. And if they do - they know in advance what they are getting and have to assume responsibility and not just blame everything on the Fund covering up their own corrupted officials.

[Texas Bill]

Et Al;

I sincerely would wish for one thing in all this discussion about the IMF and the WB would be faced by all those who continue to WHINE over the fact that all those loans WERE REQUESTED by the borrowing country, knowing full well that those self-same loans had to be paid back by their Administration or ones subsequent.
For God's sake, place the BLAME where it belongs.
Do you think for one single minute that these lending agencies, no matter who they are, are going to let the money go unpaid? if you do, you've got rocks for brains and I think many of you do.
It's always easy to TRY and blame someone else for you own failures. That's called "rationalization"; something many countries and the people in them like to practice without any real success. It's a totally dishonest and dishonorable way of trying to squirm out of an untenable situation.
Now, come on guys, be honest and tell it like it really is instead of mamby-bamby-ing all over the place.
You can call the IMF and WB a bunch of crooks if you so desire, but, in the final analysis, it's the borrower who is to blame for his own shortcomings.
BTW, I personally think that both the IMF and the WB have grown too old and no longer serve the purpose for which they were intended.
Texas Bill