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Pernicious Solutions
Luis Rubio When the government of a country finds itself in financial trouble it has two possible solutions: it can reduce its excessive expenditures, or it can transfer the problem to the citizenry. The first course incentivizes growth because it ceases diverting resources to socially unprofitable projects, while the latter route undermines future growth in […]
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The Peña Effect
Luis Rubio At the end of the Cold War, Fukuyama wrote an article entitled “The End of History” in which he postulated that the world had arrived at a consensus about the way forward. Twenty years later, with wars in the Middle East in vogue, Jennifer Welsh published “The Return of History,” suggesting that war […]
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Changing World
Luis Rubio The way the Morena-party government functions, especially with President López Obrador’s early-morning press conferences, reminds me of an old Russian joke. It was about a peasant farmer whose neighbor saves enough to purchase a goat. The peasant asks God to put right this injustice and God answers, asking the peasant what he wants […]
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Consequences
Luis Rubio For every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s Third Law of Motion is similarly applicable to physics and politics. Governments define their objectives and means to achieve them and the population has to deal with the consequences: nothing and no one can avoid this elemental principle. The […]
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The Expert Take – USMCA Rules of Origin Disputes
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/expert-take-usmca-rules-origin-disputes WILSON CENTER MEXICO INSTITUTE By Christopher Wilson, Francisco de Rosenzweig & Luis Rubio on September 23, 2021 The USMCA Rule of Origin for automotive products not only sets a high threshold of regional content to qualify for tariff-free treatment (75 percent, up from 62.5 percent in NAFTA) it also adds requirements specific to steel, aluminum, and labor value content. Auto […]
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False Dilemmas
Luis Rubio Alexander Pope, a XIX-century English poet, penned the phrase “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Mexico’s relation with the United States is, was and will be complex and variegated as long as Mexicans do not resolve the fundamental problems of their own development, which would presumably raise their standard of living, […]
As an observer, analyst, and columnist, it has been my purpose to share my views and perspectives about the key issues of our time and for the evolution of the world and of Mexico in particular.
I do not subscribe to any dogmas or labels of left and right; I fervently believe in the possibility and need to maintain a balance, which does not imply neutrality. Rather it is the constant and intentional search for different perspectives and explanations that allows me to adopt and defend clear and opinionated postures.
I was raised within a liberal milieu, my transit through the university years taught me about the political literature of the Left. Later, I studied the American “institutionalist” political currents and learned the essential economic concepts.
I never cease to read and listen. I change my point of view when I learn new things, get to know other factors or when the reality changes. This process results in analyses and proposals through which I attempt to contribute to the development of an open, liberal and inclusive society with the opportunities, but also the limitations, that come together with economic reality.
I do not own any absolute truth. When I write I strive to explain things to myself and to my readers in a solid and reasoned way so that even those that do not share my views would find them worth reading.
