The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America, dated July 4th, 1776 has some remarkable elements that continue being applicable to our present times. At the beginning of it, it says: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with […]
Señores Lectores, A raíz de la columna fechada el 28 de abril de 2009 publicada en el Diario Financiero ¨Precios de Electricidad en Chile y USA¨ del señor Carlos Abogabir Ovalle, gerente de asuntos corporativos de Colbún SA, entidad que participó en el cuestionado proceso de licitaciones eléctricas del SIC, creo que es útil aportar […]
CAP is a steel and iron Chilean producing company, born out of 1980’s privatizations, that is on the verge of change. Or at least it should be. Its present controlling stake, a convenient agreement between former and present employees and a mine fond investor that holds over one third of the company, goes back to […]
Señor Director, En el caso de colusión en las farmacias, pareciera que se da más importancia a lo que rodea al acuerdo de conciliación de la Fiscalía Nacional Económica con Farmacias Ahumada que al problema de fondo: la destrucción gradual del sistema económico que nos rige por prácticas anticompetitivas. Estas sí deberían extirparse y sancionarse, […]
Some time from now this period will be known in the US as the Great Scare. It will be recognized as a frightening one where an unjustified panic temporarily shut down the economy, specially the financial world, ending with real loses in jobs and wealth creation and giving birth to a huge wealth redistribution from […]
Una reciente licitación de suministro eléctrico por parte de las mayores distribuidoras del país arrojó sorpresivamente un valor fijo promedio de US$ 104 por MWh, indexado al IPC americano, para períodos que van entre 12 y 15 años. Las generadoras que ofrecieron dicho suministro de 7.110 GWh anuales, representativo de un 13% del consumo total […]
Señor Director, Se acaba de informar que el producto de Estados Unidos cayó 6,2% real anual el cuarto trimestre de 2008. Obviamente una desalentadora cifra. Lo que no se explica es que ésta es sólo una estimación del crecimiento anual si se mantuviera el ritmo de crecimiento de este particular trimestre. En rigor, el producto […]
A recent visit by our President to Cuba has reminded many of our past century history and the position we stand on now as a country. The visit itself and what it tried to show in terms of some political proximity belongs to our past, held by a minority – then and now – that […]
Señor Director, Recientemente se dio a conocer el resultado de una licitación de suministro eléctrico que representa alrededor del 13% del consumo actual de electricidad del país, para plazos entre 12 y 15 años. El precio promedio fue de aproximadamente US$ 104 por MWh, reajustable por el IPC de Estados Unidos. Como referencia, en los […]
El año 2006 la Superintendencia de Bancos e Instituciones Financieras (SBIF) lo calificó como el ¨año del cliente bancario¨. En dicho ejercicio, la tasa nominal anualizada de las colocaciones bancarias de consumo había promediado, antes de impuestos y gastos asociados al crédito, un 34,6% de interés, implicando de esa manera un spread cercano al 25% […]
Dear Sir, Time and again you keep saying that the Federal Reserve flooded the market with dollars in the 2000´s and that there would lie the most important reason for its depreciation. If I may reprint, in your last editorial article you state the following: “Like most currencies, the euro declined during the strong-dollar era […]
Technological changes do happen, turning past production functions obsolete. Sometimes there is a certain gradualism that enables economic agents and institutions to adjust; sometimes, time is too short for it. The present economic and financial circumstances seem to be of the second case; the first one would be better depicted by the early weakening influence […]
There are two soft spots in our financial system that need to be addressed: one is the dependency of the banking industry on domestic pension funds for long term financing resources; the other, the undercapitalized life insurance industry that pays two thirds of domestic pensions under an annuity structure. Both of these situations could be […]
Here is what Joe knows: he has been paying on average US$ 110 per barrel of oil for the first 9 months of this year, or 66% more than last year’s average price of US$ 66 per barrel. Moreover, he has been paying three times more than long term average prices of oil of US$ […]
Dear Sir, Has it occurred to you that the present crisis is no crisis after all, once you extinguish this unreasonable panic among financial actors? It turns out that even though the US economy is decelerating, it still grows whether a recession is called for or not, and general liquidity has not been permanently impaired […]
It is not easy to ascertain the depth of the present financial crisis, to differentiate real economic costs from accounting practices that link asset values to markets where prices are no longer reliable, to get to the essence of the problem out of too many distracting figures. But some illustrative facts could contain useful information […]
Estimado Señor Director, Todos estamos de acuerdo en que la inflación es dañina para la economía, y cuando ésta se sale de rangos aceptables, aunque sea temporalmente, sobran las recomendaciones. Aquí le envío entonces una más, antes que continúe la escalada alcista en la tasa de interés de corto plazo por parte del Banco Central. […]
Our present energy crisis has awoken Chile: as of year 2006, domestic energy production –essentially hydroelectricity – represented 24% of total domestic energy consumption, another 24% – natural gas – was supplied from Argentina, a neighboring country, and the rest – 52%- came from multiple foreign coal and oil producers. In that same year, this […]
Dear Sir, Congratulations for your article and the effort to keep vigilant on this kind of inefficient and costly business behavior from a private and also social viewpoint. The big question is what could be recommended to do now. What if these GSE´s were already economically bankrupt? Then the issue from a public policy perspective […]
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