Immigration Reform Necessary for National Security
December 28, 2017 | The Baltimore Sun
Is there merit in President Trump's call for a merit-based immigration system for the United States? Take two cases. Rosa Gonzalez, a housekeeper from Honduras and a U.S. citizen, seeks to sponsor her aunt Mercedes Silva to immigrate to the U.S...... more
Only Time Will Tell if Bitcoin is a Financial One-night Stand
December 28, 2017 | The Hill
Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of Universal Gravity states that what goes up must come down. To date, traders, speculators and many average citizens are disregarding Sir Isaac’s physics and going all in on bitcoin. Is bitcoin destined to be a bubble...... more
In Argentina, a bright outlook for a major trading partner
December 7, 2017 | Miami Today
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri continues to receive accolades from global investors, the private sector and a civil so-ciety that highly values good governance, an efficient and responsible state, economic growth and social development...... more
Towards a New Industrial Policy in Colombia
September 28, 2017 | Latin Trade
Scanning the business and political environments in South America, there is no country, with the exception of Chile, that matches Colombia in terms of stability and performance. On a large scale, Colombia has increased income levels, reduced the unemployment rate, maintain a moderate inflation rate, among others. Moreover, every time the world has faced a financial crisis or an economic slowdown, the Colombian economy has managed to escape unharmed...... more
Werther, Haar: A 2-cent gas tax is answer to looming deficits
September 21, 2017 | Houston Chronicle
The August recess now over, tax cuts, infrastructure, and raising the budget deficit have become central to Congress' agenda. President Donald Trump seeks a trillion dollars for infrastructure over 10 years while cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, costing another trillion dollars over 10 years...... more
Corporate Sustainability---The New Mandate
September 12, 2017 | Latin Trade
Is the exclusive aim of the corporation to maximize profit and shareholder value or does it have an obligation to do more? This question—and dilemma—has been vigorously debated since Milton Friedman posed that the only responsibility of business should be business...... more
La transformación digital no solo beneficia a las grandes empresas
August 2017 | AMÉRICAECONOMÍA
Al empezar el segundo trimestre de 2017, la economía mundial vive su sexto año de estancamiento y las perspectivas de crecimiento no muestran mejora. Hay ansiedad, incertidumbre y rechazo a la situación política y económica de parte de empresas y consumidores en todo el mundo...... more
Good corporate citizenry, no longer a choice but a necessity
August 15, 2017 | Latin Trade
When queried at a 1909 business meeting about the choice of colors available for his automobiles, Henry Ford replied that customers could have any color they wanted as long as it is black. Fast forward to the late 20th and early 21st centuries and consumers today are now in the driver’s seat (no pun intended)...... more
Trump Hates NAFTA, But it Has Made Florida a Jobs Winner
July 31, 2017 | The Miami Herald
Despite the overwhelming majority of independent economic studies that show NAFTA’s marginal gains exceed marginal losses, politics and emotion could well triumph over empirical evidence and rational thought...... more
Making NAFTA a Winner
July 25, 2017 | RealClear Politics
As every professor well knows, “cramming for finals” is a seasonal occurrence like the swallows returning to Capistrano. However, the behavioral trait of procrastination is not a monopoly of academe--witness the perennial battle over NAFTA. Our northern and southern neighbors are finally getting off their duffs, albeit late in the game, to intensify and expand a strategic campaign to preserve the 23-year old trade accord...... more
Donald Trump and the Apprentice Economy
June 23, 2017 | RealClear World
Homer said “It is a wise child that knows his own father.” Well, Ivanka Trump surely did a much-needed goody for her dad by convincing him of the great importance of apprenticeships, a woefully underappreciated vehicle for supporting human capital development and boosting economic growth...... more
A Philanthropic Awakening in Latin America
May 26, 2017
For a long time standing now, "Latin American philanthropy" has been considered an oxymoron. Traditionally, wealthy Latins and corporations have had deep pockets but short hands, believing it the role of the public sector to fund charitable and philanthropic endeavors while keeping their own wealth in the family, shipping it offshore or giving it to the Church...... more
The Hard Truths About Today’s Labor Market
May 21, 2017
Unemployed coal miners want their jobs back. So do manufacturing plant workers whose employment has been outsourced to lower-wage countries. Add to that young people, including scores of college graduates, whose job prospects are grim, forcing them into underemployment and requiring them to live at home rather than on their own...... more
In a Trade War with Canada, Florida Loses
May 9, 2017
As everyone knows, it’s not a good idea to pick a fight with your neighbors, especially if they have no intention of moving. Unfortunately, this lesson seems to have escaped certain quarters of the Trump Administration that have ratcheted up trade tensions with both Mexico and now Canada...... more
Where are all the skilled workers in Latin America?
April 17, 2017
The U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean increasingly have many things in common—sluggish economic growth, declining faith in their political institutions, growing income inequality, and the inability of the private sector to find the workers they need.This last challenge is particularly troubling; having a qualified labor pool is a prerequisite for economic dynamism, social mobility, improved incomes, and political cohesion...... more
IndexAmericas: A Breakthrough in Measuring Corporate Sustainability
April 6, 2017
The first call by a multilateral bank directly to corporations to play an active role in the development of the region. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the UN’s Brundtland Commision Report, Our Common Future, advocating that business and society champion “sustainable development”: meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs...... more
Welcome to the post-New World Order
March 27, 2017
Veni, vidi, vici. (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) Julius Caesar, 26 BC. Donald Trump, 2017. However, the new U.S. president confronts a landscape far more daunting and turbulent than the Roman emperor and his legions faced two millennia ago--namely one which is supplanting a decades-old, idealism-based global governance that originally arose from the ashes of the Second World War...... more
Inbound FDI—A Bright Spot for the U.S. in Global Commerce
March 23, 2017
In both political and military battles there are casualties. During the past election season, one of the most notable casualties was free trade. The bipartisan piling on--slamming NAFTA, TPP, WTO and single nations (mainly China, Mexico, and Japan)---is without precedent...... more
Modern-day slavery: The repulsive reality of human trafficking
March 2, 2017
Imagine a scenario like this: Claudia is a 15-year-old from Southern Mexico who fled her village where her alcoholic father and bipolar mother beat her on a regular basis. She gathered what little money she had saved to take a bus to Mexico City. The day she arrived she was approached by a handsome young man who befriended her and gave her a place to stay. But he got her hooked on drugs and passed her on to his boss, a well-established pimp. She is a victim of human trafficking...... more
America’s Free Trade Agreements….Not Dead Yet
January/February 2017
During the presidential election campaign of 2016, one of president-elect Donald Trump’s principal targets for criticism was free trade agreements, most notably NAFTA. His attacks on NAFTA were vehement and incessant; and on numerous occasions he called it “the worst trade deal ever” and declared his intent to tear it up...... more
To compete, Miami must brew winning formula
January 26, 2017
In an increasingly challenging global economy, it is "competitiveness" that provides significant advantages to nations and to firms. According to the latest Global Competitive-ness Report produced by the World Economic Forum, the US moved up from No. 5 in 2013 to No. 3, just behind Switzerland...... more
Latin America must be bold
January 5, 2017
After three years of economic decline that depleted Latin America’s GDP of $1.7 trillion, the region appears poised for a rebound in 2017. Economic hardship and a surge of civic consciousness have convinced millions of South American voters to reject populism and the record levels of corruption realized during the commodity super-cycle that ran from 2005-2013..... more