How bad is inflation in your country?

 

 

 

Sucre? Is it Bolivia?

 

Well, maybe for the poorest things could be a bit better. We have here the 'primary basket', an assortment of stuff considered minimum to feed a 4-people family for a month (here in Brazil, salaries are paid monthly). In 1994, the primary basket was equal to the minimum monthly wage and now the same basket is around 30% of the minimum wage. Consequently, the poorest have a better condition now and that's one of the reasons why 20 million people left the poverty line here and so the extreme poor people decreased from 19% to 6% of the population.

 

The so-called middle-class pay the highest price, since taxes and services have grown and even so public health and education show no evidence of getting better - corruption in politics, inefficiency, old legislation, etc, being the vampires here. Fuel prices also are not giving in 'cause they are measured mainly by international prices.

 

Anyway, inflation is nowadays a less concerning matter if we compare it with other issues that we consider more important, like income distribution, enviroment protection, urban security, agrarian reform, etc.

 

 

No, Ecuador. The Mariscal Antonio Jose de Sucre was a key figure in the independence of many southamerican nations, mine (which was part of La Gran Colombia) included.... that's why we had our currency named after him... sadly, the currency went down the drain, so it wasn't the highest of honors for the Liberator

 

The devaluing of the currencies is going on for years (you don’t confuse it with the officially announced devaluations circa the mid-60’s, do you?). Ever since since the gold standard has been abandoned, the need to announce it disappeared. Otherwise it would be quite embarrassing to announce it every day. It’s just called differently – currency depreciation, floating exchange rate, controlled inflation, etc. Doesn’t hurt us on the international scene a bit since the dollar is still much more stable than the currencies of the developing countries, and the currencies of the industrialized countries are depreciating at the same pace if not faster.

 

As per the US economy in the hands of foreigners, it’s not as scary as it seems. First of all, the central banks support each other by buying each other’s debt, currency interventions and such, so no real threat of a sudden demand for payment. With regard to tangible assets, only non-strategic assets are allowed to be owned by non-US interests. Entire strategic industries are subsidized by the government – just how would the steel companies or American farmers survive if not for the subsidies. As an additional benefit, foreign ownership creates that bond between countries that renders a military conflict between them impractical – try to imagine an attack on Pearl Harbor today. And finally, as long as the assets are located on your territory, you could always repossess them in case of national emergency.