Yearly Archives: 2021

Luis Rubio Every year brings its surprises and opportunities, but some can leave us speechless in the face of what happened. In March 2020, all the inhabitants of the planet found us before an unknown world: that of fear and seclusion due to the risk implied by a pandemic, a phenomenon that, with local exceptions, […]

Luis Rubio The year 2021 has been quite strange. It began with nearly exponential growth in the number of contagions and ended with a downward trend. While other nations acted to quell the pandemic with perfectly structured vaccination programs, such as those that Mexico accomplished systematically and successfully some years ago for terrible diseases like […]

Luis Rubio The discourse, body language and tone are increasingly more intolerant and revealing of a growing despair. Verbal radicalization was on the rise throughout last year, culminating in indiscriminate attacks against educational institutions, journalists and individuals, many of whom, paradoxically, have been the bulwarks and even backers of the President himself and certainly of […]

Luis Rubio The evidence of economic stagnation and social regression is overwhelming. Programs of social transfers to the president’s clienteles, although politically motivated, do not compensate for the impact of the pandemic nor for the lack of growth that Mexicans have experienced in these last years. It’s not as if things were perfect before and […]

Luis Rubio The problem with bets is that they are binary: all or nothing. When a government plays the betting game, as when one plays with fire, it can end up badly. For three years, the Mexican president has placed odds on a series of factors that to date and despite the pandemic, have come […]

Luis Rubio Brexit is not the sole challenge that the European Union (EU) faces. Although the United Kingdom was always an awkward partner, there are other nations that engender permanent tensions. Some obvious cases include those of regions seeking autonomy, such as Catalonia, but in recent years it is the Eastern European nations that have […]

Luis Rubio The confusion is justified because a good part of the population lives in a world of fear or anger, both poor counsels but that, in the era of social media, are not only ubiquitous, but dominant. Worse yet, while previously each of these -anger and fear, respectively- would allow the attenuation of the […]

Luis Rubio In the movie Life of Brian, John Cleese plays Reg, the leader of the People’s Front of Judea. In one memorable scene, Reg finishes the haranguing of his troops with the question “What have the Romans ever done for us?” One foot soldier in freedom-fighting outfit replies “the aqueduct?” Another says, “the roads.” […]

Luis Rubio When everyone is an enemy, no one is a friend. Thus began the end of terror in the French Revolution. Will the current Mexican government end the same? In 1793 the National Convention passed the Suspects Law that began the reign of terror. Ten months later, on the 8th of Thermidor, Robespierre denounced […]

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 […]