Yearly Archives: 2019

Luis Rubio All the governments of the world, of all colors, want private investment, but none can get it by force. Nobody -big or small, national or foreign- assumes risks or commitments without feeling comfortable and welcome, and those feelings do not depend on political speeches or the will of the ruler, but on the […]

Luis Rubio The numbers do not lie, but they tell two very different stories. On the one hand, the president enjoys an unprecedented level of approval; a parallel indicator, that of consumer confidence, reaches figures not seen in almost two decades. The paradox is that these figures are not related to consumption, which has been […]

Luis Rubio Groucho Marx, a comedian of the last century, said it with absolute clarity: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” The government has great clarity about several of the problems afflicting the country but it is critical to ask ourselves: What […]

 AMERICAS QUARTERLY – FEBRUARY 14, 2019   Mexico’s president has so far governed as if by fiat. If he doesn’t heed market warnings, he may be in for a rude awakening. Andrés Manuel López Obrador has a vision, but not a plan. His long-term objective to recentralize power is clear, but the specifics of everyday […]

Luis Rubio Public security is a sine qua non condition for the development of the country and the issue that most concerns citizens. The problem is not new, but all attempts to confront it have proven insufficient, if not a failure. The three most recent administrations -each with its level of arrogance- has assumed the […]

         Luis Rubio One way of thinking about what is to come is to contrast what the new government says that it wants to achieve and what it in fact proposes to do. The case for austerity is illustrative: nearly the first priority of the new Congress was the Law of Austerity, […]

Luis Rubio According to the historian Micah Goodman, the difference between animals and humans is that the former live exclusively in the present and act instinctively, while humans think and care about the future. The future is always unknown and generates fear, for which humans turn to religion and politicians. Religion allows to calm the […]

 Luis Rubio Live by the sword, goes the saying, die by the sword.  In this manner, storm clouds- in the form of animosities, rancor, disqualifications and contempt- have ushered in the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This is a way of conducting politics that wagers on the permanence of favorable winds, of continuous support, […]

AMERICAS QUARTERLY BY LUIS RUBIO | JANUARY 16, 2019 The Mexican president’s revolution speeds on, with little regard for the consequences. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has a nostalgic vision of the country he wants to build over the next six years: a return to Mexico’s past in which presidents make decisions while officials and the public […]

Luis Rubio In the historical vision of the Left, the government was not the product of an election but rather as the result of a revolution or, in any case, as a takeover. The objective was power and the means for acquiring it were least in importance: assumption of power to change the world. The […]