Posted on 08/04/2007 5:47:20 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
It's hard to spend a day in Mexico and not put money in his pocket. The 67-year-old tycoon controls more than 200 companies -- he says he's "lost count" -- in telecommunications, cigarettes, construction, mining, bicycles, soft-drinks, airlines, hotels, railways, banking and printing. In all, his companies account for more than a third of the total value of Mexico's leading stock market index, while his fortune represents 7% of the country's annual economic output. (At his height, John D. Rockefeller's wealth was equal to 2.5% of U.S. gross domestic product.)
As one Mexico City eatery jokes on its menu: "This restaurant is the only place in Mexico not owned by Carlos Slim."
Mr. Slim's fortune has grown faster than any in the world during the past two years, rising by more than $20 billion to about $60 billion currently. While the market value of his stake in publicly traded companies could decline at any time, at the moment he is probably wealthier than Bill Gates, whom Forbes magazine estimated at $56 billion last March. This would mark the first time that a person from the developing world held the top spot since Forbes started tracking the wealthy outside the U.S. in the 1990s.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Bill Gates... you better think of something quick... maybe a halfhearted attempt at a real operating system again
"It's like the U.S. and the robber barons in the 1890s. Only Slim is Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan all rolled up into one person," says David Martínez, a Mexican investor who lives in Manhattan.
Monopolies have long been a feature of Mexico's economy. But in the past, politicians acted as a brake on big business to ensure that the business class didn't threaten their power. But political control faded in the 1990s with the privatization of much of the economy and the slow death of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which held power for 71 years until 2000.
In the meantime, these modern-day Robber Barons hoard the nation's wealth and cheer on as the poorest of their countrymen invade the United States. Hey, better to keep your Swiss bank accounts and lavish Mexican estates than care enough to invest in the country, eh?
I believe his first attempt was as “halfhearted” as most of can stand.
Yea, politicians like Jose Louis Portillo who stole billions. Mexico has a way to go, it still has too much state control and state control means corruption.
The power of a monopoly and owning the law.
Is this jealosy central?...
But..but it’s no big deal if a monopoly forms, why, that is what happens when competition is engaged in by the business world..it’s healthy....
Market first types may need to consider what happens when monopolies do form and crush price competition between companies producing the same products.
Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie, Pullman Vanderbilt all loved monopolies but hated price competitions..gee I wonder why a few of the fmr captains of industry said that competition was unhealthy as it hurt profits?
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”
- Lk 12:13-21
Ha,ha, this guy’s incredibly rich and nobody’y even adding in his drug cartel that’s doing business with Haaaaaaaamerica !!!
And they’d like to turn the USA into a third-world country, too. In fact they just tried it and haven’t given up yet.
Since the world’s richest man has been determined to be from Mexico; why don’t we send all of the illegals back so he can support them. Since he owns most everything there; he should be able to do this.
The Left's mantra has always been that the state is the only force that can constrain businesses from creating monopolies. They have it exactly backwards. The state is the only power that can create monopolies.
Unless the state protects one company's market share by force of arms, competitors will always pop up. All the monopolies I've ever read about (with their various abuses) were created or protected in a given market by the state: the Hudson Bay Company (British Empire), the Dutch East India Company (Holland), the gold trade in the Americas (Spain), the railroads (USA), AT&T (USA), Pravda (USSR), CBS-NBC-ABC (USA), the Big Three Detroit automakers (USA, through special laws protecting the unions).
It's kind of obvious why only the state can create a monopoly in any goods or services. As long as the state enforces basic law and order, what's to stop a competitor from opening up shop?
I recognize that "law and order" is in fact a tall order. The problem in many places is that the government is so corrupt that it looks the other way when a favored company sends goon squads to put competitors out of business.
In the enlightened world of regulation, sometimes the government is the goon squad. In the Clinton years, I remember reading about a company in the chicken business that was raided by Clinton's FDA for "health violations." The company was thrown into financial difficulties, of course, as its customers took their business elsewhere. Within weeks, the firm was bought by Clinton-backer Tyson. It made me wonder if the purpose of the raid was to create bad publicity for a Tyson competitor and force a sale at a bargain-basement price. I think it's interesting that Tyson's growth during the endless 8 years of Clinton was absolutely astonishing.
Freedonia?
What do I win?
Is he from Welferstein?
Mexico needs to record deeds to property and enforce the law. They need to vigorously clean up their postal and police systems with new technology including video surveilance, implanted chips, GPS tracking and bar-coding. They need to build good roads. Then they will prosper beyond belief, for most of the people are wonderful, but they get so abused.
In Groucho's case he could take that mustache on or off as he liked.
And what of Slim's fortune? Where is the Slim in it all?
Magical thinking.
Free markets and the rule of law have to go together.
When monopolies form and strong arm the competition through corrupt government officials/law enforcement, that’s when things go very wrong.
Mexico’s problems are embedded in their culture.
That culture is embedded in its people.
Until the people change, nothing else will change.
What’s worse is they’re bringing that culture here.
At that time SWB was the smallest of the baby bells and they moved from Missouri to San Antonio for this deal and to be within their strongest market, Texas.
Just as Slim benefitted, so did SWB. Since then they have had significant growth by acquisition and eventually bought and assumed the name of AT&T.
Just a few months ago it was announced that Slim and AT&T are headed for Europe and their first acquisition is Telecom Italia.
As for the article stating that Slim took the Punta Colonet port deal away from Hutchinson Whampoa, there are other reports indicating that HW walked away from the deal.
“It’s kind of obvious why only the state can create a monopoly in any goods or services. As long as the state enforces basic law and order, what’s to stop a competitor from opening up shop?”
I don’t really get what you are saying. Getting a patent is supposed to protect new ideas and foster innovation, fueled by the profit incentive. I would be very wealthy if patents were accessible to real grass-roots inventors at a reasonable cost. My bidness, Dr. Bukk, Inc. has been a wellspring for intellectual property thieves. The USPTO, as well as patent attorneys are just a joke.
You are right it is magical thinking. It could start with recording land deeds, though and building roads. Those are fundamental for development. Would you agree?
thx for posting. i read this this morning in the print edition.
and i wondered why he doesn’t do more to create jobs in mexico?
unlike the carnegies, rockefellers, etc that they compare him to, mexicans are not civic minded.
btw, slim owns compusa here in the states.
So it is your contention that Senore Slim is somehow the product of...over regulation?
The guy is in how many businesses?
Capital consolidates markets, the man owns a huge chunk of all of the available capital and distribution channels in Mexico, and yet somehow a competitor is supposed to underprice him out of the market?
Tee hee, Walmart or Target would be better business people to Partner with him then try to under price him. And that is the lesson learned from Oligopolic competion, namely there is no competition...ask Morgan and Vanderbilt....
So it is your contention that Senore Slim is somehow the product of...over regulation?
The guy is in how many businesses?
Capital consolidates markets, the man owns a huge chunk of all of the available capital and distribution channels in Mexico, and yet somehow a competitor is supposed to underprice him out of the market?
Tee hee, Walmart or Target would be better business people to Partner with him then try to under price him. And that is the lesson learned from Oligopolic competion, namely there is no competition...ask Morgan and Vanderbilt....
Soooooo,
When is “Senor Sleeeeem” going to use all that wealth and clout he has to bring about reforms to help poor Mexicans?
Answer: Never
Reason: Reforms in Mexico threaten his “mooooney”—and mucho dinero is ALL this fat pig is interested in. Even that globalist slug Gates openly wants to send US jobs overseas and has set up benevolent programs for Africa’s poor.
I wish our globalist justice department would find reason to indict him for undermining US National Security and sovereignty.
First off, everyone who’s ripping into Sr. Slim should spend at least a few seconds reading about him, even if it’s just a wiki search.
He is busy trying to build businesses to keep the migrants home and get Mexico producing its own money rather than just importing it.
He is more “American” than most people in Washington in his ideals - like pointing to the ridiculous ‘charities’ created by Gates, et al - saying the best charity they can give is a job, not a handout.
He’s busy trying to improve the educational standards and opportunities of the next generation so they can be more self-reliant.
If he was born on this side of the Rio Grande, I’d be voting for him for President!
It starts with the culture.
Well if everything you say is true, Viva Senior Slim !!!
btt
. . .And that is the lesson learned from Oligopolic competion, namely there is no competition...ask Morgan and Vanderbilt....
A competitor would not have to underprice Senor Sleem. He could provide better service or quality instead, to those with the need. Those customers become more numerous in a less regulated environment where more people are able to go into business—and become wealthy enough to want faster service, services not available elsewhere, or fancier stuff.
J.P. Morgan had plenty of competition in all his businesses. He dreamed of achieving a 75 percent market share for U.S. Steel, but never came close. Vanderbilt was not immune to competition in the least; Jay Gould cleaned his clock.
U.S. monopolies were granted during the building of most of the railroads; they lost money. But Hill's Great Northern had no monopoly, and was built and run profitably—with some of Morgan's money, BTW.
Great timing. My feelings exactly. Rich people die and their children and grand children loose the fortune faster than it was made.
Senor Slim is merely a symptom of how the Mexican ecnonmy is currently structured. A few families control everything worth controlling.
That stultifies the market and holds a country back and reduces prosperity and opporutnities for average Mexicans.
Morgan may have dreamed of a 70% market share, but US Steel certainly had a large chunk as it was, ditto Getty Oil and Rockefeller. Andrew Carnegie and Pullman simply got together and colluded to stop competiting with each other in the custom railcar business.
And easier access to credit and a functioning and trustworty bank system simply doesn’t exist, not many of joe average mexicans trust banks or even have credit cards.
All the roads in the world wouldn't make a difference, and recording land deeds would not either -- the more powerful families in a district would open up their own land deed recording office with alternative lines of title.
The revolution must first be more personal.
Here, in the US, so many have seen what real -- equal and fair -- law is, how it is the source of wealth and honor. How potent it is to be an honest man, when the law is honest and fair. Those expectations will be brought back to Mexico, in time.
This is one big reason I favor the deportation of Mexican illegals even more than other illegals. In order to strengthen Mexico.
It's an outrage that US citizens are socked with the costs of subsidizing freeloading illegal Mexican citizens, and we are forced to put-up a multi-billion dollar fence, and hire law enforcement to keep these invaders off our land. We get all the grief AND the bills---Mexico gets off scot-free. That has to end.
Keep in mind that the US (that's us, the taxpayers) provides the nuclear defense umbrella to protect Mexico, so that Mexico has no real defense expenses. We need to let Mexico know that we will cut off every penny in US aid unless they do something about border security.
Mexico can well-afford it. Mexico is a wealthy oil-producing neighbor and has eleven "Forbes" billionaires, more than all but eight other nations. Mexico has more billionaires than Saudi Arabia, Switzerland or Taiwan. It also has more than 85,000 millionaires. It's telecommunications king---Carlos Slim has displaced Bill Gates as the world's richest man.
According to a CNN report, Mexico sits on oil reserves worth about $400 billion, but Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex, doesn't have the investment funds to tap those reserves, and Mexico's Congress refuses to allow foreign investment in Pemex. Some observers say this is due to Mexican gov't corruption, and the obsession to line their own pockets.
Adding insult to injury American taxpayers are subsidizing foreign aid transfers to Mexico from its lettuce pickers and hamburger flippers here. The percentage corrupt Mexican politicans are getting from this $30-40 billion bundle must be considerable (or else it would be stopped).
America should mandate proof for all cash transfers out of the US and/or force all transferring agencies -- banks, credit unions, Amex, Western Union to collect a substantial withholding tax -- 50%, say -- on every unexplained foreign remittance.
The government of Mexico---with all of its oil revenue----needs to be pitching in to protect the borders (AND taking care of its own people, not "outsourcing' them as wards of American taxpayers).
We know our politicians are pandering idiots. We demand they obey the constitution they were sworn to uphold. We demand they do something about legal American citizens losing their savings/homes/futures.........while freeloading illegal invaders own homes in the countries they emanated from, have cash in the bank, and are sponging-off US citizens.
Great post.
SOURCE http://www.limitstogrowth.org/ | 2005 | Brenda Walker
FR POST http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608417/posts
Certainly there are many poor people in Mexico, since perhaps half the country lives in poverty. However, the nation as a whole is quite rich — see the documented facts listed below — and could well finance the sort of improvements in education and infrastructure that would better the living standards of all Mexicans.
But the Mexican ultra-rich, like telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim, don't like to tax themselves for investment the country badly needs for infrastructure and education, and it helps them greatly that the American taxpayer has been forced to support Mexicans living in the United States.
Interestingly, the Forbes list of billionaires published in 2006 showed Carlos Slim moving up to the number three spot (he is now #one) among the world's richest men.
Every dollar spent in U.S. taxes for social services for illegal aliens frees up additional cash to be sent south as part of the annual remittances which provided $20 billion in 2005.
According to the CNN news show Lou Dobbs Tonight (3/21/05), "Remittances, as they're called, are expected to become Mexico's primary source of income this year, surpassing the amount of money that Mexico makes on oil exports for the first time ever." So when el Presidente Vicente Fox complains that the "dignity" of Mexicans living illegally in America requires that they receive free healthcare on the U.S. taxpayer's dime, he is really talking about increased remittances to keep their whole corrupt system afloat.
Consider these relevent facts:
• Mexico has the second-highest highest Gross Domestic Product in Latin America, after being #1 for several years over second-place Brazil.
• When measured in GDP per capita, Mexico ranks #1 as of 2005, ahead of Chile and Venezuela.
• According to Forbes magazine, a substantial proportion of Latin American billionaires, 10 out of 26, were Mexican as of 2005.
• Mexico raises less revenue through taxation than nearly any other Latin American country, just 12 percent which is one reason why the nation's wealth is not better utilized. By comparison, the United States takes in 25-28 percent of its gross domestic profit in taxes. Even Brazil taxes itself at twice the Mexican rate.
• Economist Gary Hufbauer of the Institute for International Economics has remarked, "It's up to Mexico to solve its problem, and basically the wealthy classes do not want to tax themselves, period. While I'm not usually an advocate for larger government, Mexico is a country where public investment, done wisely, could pay huge dividends."
• Mexico expert Prof. George Grayson of William and Mary College calls Mexico an "immensely wealthy nation."
• Mexico's economy is the world's tenth largest.
• When the ruling party needed a hefty sum for the 1994 election, Presidente Salinas leaned on a group of rich businessmen to write $25 million checks each at an infamous dinner party, where contributions totaled a staggering $750 million by evening's end. Compare that with the measly $150 million campaign chest in spring 2004 that President Bush had accumulated after three years in office.
• Freedom House notes the cost of corruption: "According a recent study by the Mexico chapter of Transparency International, some $2.3 billion-approximately 1 percent-of the country's economic production goes to officials in bribes, with the poorest families paying nearly 14 percent of their income in bribes."
• Ricas y Famosas — Rich and Famous is a book of photos that takes a peek at the hidden world of the Mexican ultra-rich. Photographer Daniela Rossell used her membership in the exclusive club to reveal the decadent lifestyles of blonde women in gold lamé. It is a shocking view of the most extreme ostentatious wealth among great poverty.
• Sure Things in Mexico: Death, Taxes and Evasion According the recent rankings released from the IMD International, the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development placed Mexico at 56 out of 60 economies examined, largely because of a dearth of investment in everything from infrastructure to education. Due to its pathetic tax collection, Mexico cannot even buy schoolbooks or pay its police enough to live on, much less invest in its future.
• Lou Dobbs Tonight Transcript (12/16/04) The CNN news show shines a light on Mexican wealth. Particularly noteworthy is Prof. Grayson's remark: "There is a small economic elite who live like maharajas, and there's a political elite that protects them. Our border provides an escape valve which really lets the Mexican political and economic elite off the hook in terms of providing opportunities for their own people."
• While US Focuses on Iraq, Mexico is Collapsing June, 2005, and the symptoms of Mexico's failure as a state are accumulating. The recent takeover of border city Nuevo Laredo by the Mexican army because of the breakdown in law and order was so obvious.
Interestingly, (as of 2005) Defense chief Donald Rumsfeld is guided by a secret Pentagon report which identifies Mexico as a potential failed state in the making.
For more, read "Mexico's Rich Don't Like To Pay Taxes — They Think You Should." -30-
I recently read that the top tier tax rate in the Mexican income tax system is 14% for the richest of the rich. The fabulously rich ruling class Mexicans like this guy don't want to pay taxes to help the desperately poor and needy Mexican peons, they want them to come up here illegally and let us support them.
What I can't understand is why on God's green earth is Bush so fanatically determined to accommodate them?
Now I read about the Dream Act that sent shivers down my back.
Neal Boortz recently said that Mexicans working in the US sent home $20 billion in '05. That was just a drop in the bucket compared to the US annual budget, but was roughly 10% of the Mexican national budget for that year. A caller disagreed with Boortz on the amount, and I can't Google up any authoritative evidence for that figure so I don't know who is right.
Portillo got only about 6 Billion when he left the presidency. It was a record until then. Has to have increased since, but we don’t hear about Mexican corruption. We have too much going on here in DC what with rampant earmarks, pork, ilegal campaign donations and outright graft and theft by the Reps and Sinators, including, of course, Hitlery.
It’s good to see recognition of the Big Three as a state-created monster.
In addition to labor, I’d add to the government-made causes of the Big Three: wage/price controls, materials allocations, credit restrictions, safety & environmental regulations among others. The crucial periods were the 1930s, late-1940s/early-50s, and late-1960s/70s.
Your list of government-made monopolies did not include Standard Oil. The government’s role in its rise came via the railroads, which Rockefeller deftly manipulated.
Without protective regulation and policies to protect the big boys, it doesn't matter what they control in physical assets of any kind. Without regulation, they won't keep their control. The only real economic asset is intangible: human ingenuity. That's why if the state gets out of the way of business and capital formation (failing to make it onerous to start a business), the formerly impregnable business empires have rings run around them by entrepreneurs.
Another way to think of it: If tangible assets such as mineral wealth, manpower, and access to a country's capital were sufficient to create wealth, the Soviet state would have been an economic superpower, instead of a pauper. And if tangible assets were necessary to prosperity, Hong Kong would have been a poor backwater, instead of the jewel Communist China desired for its cheap tin crown.
Even the Chicom rulers seem to recognize this principle. Since taking over Hong Kong in 1997, they have been (for them) very hands-off. Because the Reds don't want to kill the magic of the golden goose, they have tolerated humiliating public demonstrations against the Peking regime on a scale not tolerated (or at least, on a scale kept secret) on the mainland.
The difference being is that Hong Kong’s most valued assest is the limited real estate, not so in Mexico which has plenty of land, but Americans cannot own any of it.
Mexico’s monopolies are rather dominant making it very difficult for capital to form and be injected into private business projects, and Mexico lacks a wide spread Credit Function and lack of trust in banking institutions.
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