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When (briefly) I lived in Mexico, the departing president took with him, when he left office, not only the furniture in Los Pinos but—it was reported in the streets- also the light bulbs. What you will not believe is that the story went the rounds in Mexico with a kind of exuberant joy. There was a total machismo in the gesture, as if you had left the church not only with the collection plate, but with the votive candles as well. You see, it is commonly accepted in Mexico that the principal purpose of engaging in politics is the accumulation of wealth. A report from the capital city is to the effect that the day before leaving Mexico to visit Mr. Reagan, Jose Lopez Portillo, Mexico’s president, suddenly fired his old friend, Jorge Diaz Serrano, a petroleum engineer who served as head of Pemex, the oil monopoly company in Mexico, which is, to Mexico’s economy, roughly what Aramco is to Saudi Arabia’s. And this is the case largely as the result of the exertions of Diaz Serrano, an entrepreneur of singular ability. WiDiam E Buckley, Jr.’s FOOTHILLS VIEW, AUGUST 20, 1981, PAGE 5 “OJOHE The story given out as the reason for his firing is that he had lowered the price of Mexican crude by $4 without permission. Now, a decision of such prodigious consequence (Mexico produces approxi mately 750 million barrels of oil per year) is as likely to have been made in Mexico without the approval of the president as, say, a declaration of war by the United States without consulting the Oval Office. The news had instant impact. The first was near economic panic. Peso future quotations sagged on the Chicago Board of Trade. Inflation, fueled by a 41 percent rise in paper money £is of May 1981, compared to the first five months of 1980, rises. What only a few years ago was widely thought to be the salvation of the average Mexican— the huge petroliferous dowry some estimate at 300 billion barrels-has apparently done nothing save polarize the wealth. The rich-the political rich, primarily-get richer: GUT (William F. Buckley is editor of the conservative National Review, host of the television show “Firing Line, ”and, in general, is a burr under the eat of liberalism. The Editor) the campesinos, notwithstanding heavy subsidies, fight more and more desperately against prices. President Lopez Portillo h^ sworn he will soon annul the price reduction, and word has gone out that Mexico’s customers had better go along. But oil is different from gas, which must flow through stipulated pipelines. The oil companies are going to buy their own oil at the cheapest price they can get it for and for a while, anyway, that’s going to be cheaper than the Mexican price if it goes back up. The second minor speculation was; Why did he do it? A consolidating line of speculation is that Serrano’s popularity was rising so swiftly that he appeared the likely successor to Lopez Portillo. For those whose memory of Mexican political habits has slipped, the incumbent president decides who shall be his successor, and that decision is made in pectore. Cabinet members who aspire to the position necessarily profit from the reduction in candidates. It is suggested that their ambition to contend more conspicuously fused with Lopez Portillo’s ambition to eliminate any heir presumptive, wherefore Serrano’s sudden ouster. A correspondent writes that in recent conversation with knowledgeable students of Mexican affairs the question was raised. What would a Mexican president, and his immediate family, likely make out of a six-year term? One participant suggested a billion dollars was about right. He was indignantly raised. Two and one-half billion was thought closer to the mark; but the congregation ended amicably with the common figure of $2 billion. Three hundred and fifty million dollars per year is a decorous sum for a Mexican president who travels to Cuba to trade in the restoration of dignity, by Castor, for the working man. A book came out recently in Mexico called “Ultima Llamada” (Last Call), the author one Muricio Gonzalez de la Garza. Its thesis is that the dictatorship of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (the party that has ruled Mexico since the 1920s) is no less a dictatorship than that of Porfirio Diaz, the significant difference being that he continued to rule for 30 years, whereas now the change is every six years. In fact there is another difference; Porfirio left office without any money. Like Portugal’s Salazar, he liked power, but disdained graft. The book was enjoying a brisk sale—when suddenly it disappeared from the news stands, and its author from Mexico. He was given 24 hours to leave the country, offered to leave in two, and is said to be somewhere north of the border. It would be a delicate question for poor Al Haig if Garza should ask for political asylum. Washington Report Liberty and Justice for All—Including Business A column by Rep. J ames T. Broyhill New agricuttural legislation is currently beingcwisidered by the 97th Ca«ress. The decisicns reached on ftis legislation will govern our food and agriculture policy tor the next tour years, and will provide the basis tor soil and water conservation programs; agriculture re search; domestic and foreign food assistance; and commodity, price and farm mcome support. The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 will e«)ire on September 30, 1981. Failure to enact legislation or to extend the 1977 Act wiU cause several prop-ams to revert to permanem statdes first enacted in the 1930's and 1940's, while others would expire. The m^ serioiB problem facing American farmers and ranchers today is inflation, hilation has seirt po- docthm costs to m aU-time high, brought on l^er energy costs and interest rrfes, and has resulted m a redaction in n^ farm income, Italess our ecm^y ttid inflatton are brought under control, the deciSKm retched on the 1980 Farm BiU could prove to be ineffective. In this regard, the President's Econmnic Recovery Pro gram must be enacted in order to povide the nece^ary groundwork to improve the financial condition of our agriculture economy. . » Our nation's agricultnre system is the most efficient and productive in the world. Today's tormer produces enough food and fiber tor 68 people. Ten yews ago a farmer produced enough food f« 45 people. ^"*®rs today m-oduce 67 percait more crop oiAprt on the same nui^r rf acres than the farmers a g^eration ^ Agriculture odtput has increased nearly 70 perc^ smce 1950, and one hour of farm 'abor proihices 14 times as much as products than it did in 192L Oiipot per mM hour on farms is increasing almort twice as fast as m indistry and is an immatched record in efficiency. Additionally, agriculture is our natkin's biggest industry. Twenty percent rf the country’s labor force in private enterprise is employed in work related to agriculture. This labor force consists of over 23 million people who grow agriculture products, provide storage, processing and transportatkin of those luoducts, and supply farmers with the necessary seeds, equipment, fertilisers, etc., to plant and harvest crops. All in all, agriculture ac counts for 20 percait of the nation’s gross naticmal product. The fundamental goals of the 1981 Farm Bill are likely to remain the same as those of previous acts—that is, to provide food and fiber at reasonable costs to con sumers while at the same time assuring fermers a fair return on their financial investments. Consumers are taking an ever increasing interest in form legislatiMi, especially, over concerns of the cost of food. Over the last fifty yews, food prices have been susceptible to wider fluetiBtions than the prices of other goods. Last year consumers spent $239 biUion in O.a farm-produced foods. The price the farmer receives for his products, however, plays a small part in the price that the consumer pays. Since 1973, market ing costs have accounted for 87 percrait of the increase in the costs of food. Food prices are also influenced by factors that affect commodity suHilies. such as weather, production costs, the length of production cycles, etc. Prices cmisumers spend towards food are forecsd to average 10-15 percent higher this year than last—mainly due to increases in marketing costs. Final action oa the bill is not expected until mid- September due to the consideration of the President’s tax bill and the Budget reconciliation legislation. I will be looking at this legislatimi closely in the next several weeks in light of its importance to our eccmomy. President Reagan well knows that the free enterprise system deserves much of the credit tor making the U.SJk. the greatest industrial collossus the world has ever known. Yet fran Franklin Roosevdt to Rtmald Reagan oar government has been largely anti-business. Busness has been relentlessly regimented, harassed, penalized, control led and over-taxed by demagogie ptditkaans, ^N>ortanists, and socialists. And now that President Reagan is faying to uiwhadtle and der^iment business he is accused by “liberals’' and other phcmies as roUnng the poor to aid the lidi. MONEY TALK$ Traditiimally. attacking business gets votes. Attacking unions gets pdfilcal obUviim, in many areas. A large hunk of Congress is owned by the unkms. These statesmen — enough to pass or defeat almost any Ml have benefited from union ctmfaibutnms, firee campaign help, radio-TV time, printed advertising, doorbdl ringers, and teleplKHie brigades. While the great unmganized majority in America does nothing and talks to itself, unions get men elected who agree and cooperate with them. AFL-CIO members are paid by the unions for time away from their job devoted to politicking. They are mganized, disciplined, and trained u well as the Hague machine ever was. The government is awfully “wmried” about business monopMes. For instance, a shoe cmnpany producing less than 5% the natkm’s shoes has been hamissed by the government and threatened with antf-trust action for buying smaller shoe cmnpanies. The most dangerous monq>^ is government. Next greatest menace is the union mon^>oly. Uniann Can Paralyze Natian Union thug Ho& tried to extend his ctmtrcd to aU torna ot transportation. If he luul been successfuL he could have paralyzed the natkm at any moment, by tel^lume. Does not the “national interest" which poHtirians so piously proclaim demand that labor unions be put under the same anti-trust and mom^ly laws as is businesa? James Cewan, the nmn behind one of Australia’s longest running and most widdy pn^esskmally-read financial letters Afiofaf. says: “Far too many people, ineinding many in Australia, do not understand tiie extent to whidi world evmits affect thdr country. A diqiroparth«ate miqor^ is quite ha{N>y to Marne an economic trouMes on the prerid^ government or periwps on trade unkHis (depending on which way thdr political sympathies Ke) and to pay no r^ard to the fact that scores of economic problems stem from the state of the woHd economy. No country is an economic island and those who do not recognize this fact will never be able to look beyond petty internal developments, to foresee major economic storms brewing overseas. Th^ will not see trouble coming, and thus cannot prepare tar it; when it does come they will look to fowl remedfos in the wnmg place — internally — and, of course, at the end of the day, their finanrial status anil be the worse for wear. It is our sMdly hdd qnnkm that every person should be able to perceive precisdy how international evmits a&ct their country and to learn how to cope with the adverse effects Mtiiose events. In short you should internationaBne your thinking. When the world enters its next bout high inflatkm limy he one of the last nations to suffer. Those who have internatimialised tiieir thinking will have seen tlm problems approaching and anil be in a position to plan their investment strategy accordingdy* The majmity wfll nA. The way to internatkmalise yourself inteUectaaUy fe by broadening your reading. Merety obtaining the viewpmnt of the Australian media im what it cmisiders to be important world events is not enough. A much broader coverage is essential. Read as many relevant overseas pubficaticms as SOVIET INTELUGENCE FBI intelligence has reported that out of the 2,600 official representatives’ of the Soviet Union and bloc countries in the United States, at least 700 are known or suspected intelUgence officers and that Soviet bloc scientmc and conunercial delegations travelling in Amenra are also used for intelligence pulses. 'The thousands of immigrants pourag into US (not only from Cuba, but also from ^viet-blw nations), are also being used by hostile intelligence services in America. secured by the Russians by overt methods is then used to orchestrate in a more professional manner what they need covertly. 'The top priority of Soviet covert intelligence collection effort is US classified information. One of the main reasons fm our well-advertised recession, for our inflation, and for our inabOhy to compete with many foreign imports, is unkm mimopMy. We can no kmger compete with the wwrld because our government has long been engaged in a “cold war” — not against fmeign enemies but against American business. American business can once again out-produce and out-sell the worid if we can get government off of busiiiess’ back. you can. whiii, these poblicatiws often contain the same news items th^ will be assessed from different viewpomts. Thus readmg a range oi publieatioas frmn different countries will h^ you to obtain firstly, a wdl rounded international viewpoint and secmidly, an ^ipreciation of how peiqile of various countries see various issues and the unportance they attach to them. It is imperative that you bring yourself to see Australia and the rest the wmM through the eyes of others. Learn how other nations see themselves and each other.” — Cowm Investment Survey Pty. Ltd., WS Brake St., MOborane, Vietoria, Arut. 3000 Subs. SIU TrialSmot. H8 Soviet, seamen , . _ The 35 000 Soviet-bloc seamen who enter American’ports every year were also being used by thrSoviet KGB and other communist intelligence services. HostUe mteUigence serv- S^Xfet-bloc) are evolved in a massive effort to collect American scientific j^o^atmn overtly as weU as covertly. Information Naval intelligence The Soviet GRU naval intelligence section has stationed an AGI intelligence-gathering ship off Groton, Connecticut, in the Atlantic to maintain surveillance on the sea trials of the Ohio, the lead ship of the new US Trident-class submarines. The Russian spy ship has orders to foUow the Ohio, the biggest US submarine ever buUt, anywhere the sea trials wifi take it along the American East Coast. — Tom Anderson LEFT-WING CAMPAIGN — Intelligence Digest, 17 Rodney Rd., Cheltenhun, Glos. GL50IHX, U.K. What Britain is witnessing is politicaUy motivated violence against the police. It is part of the overall left-wing campaign to discredit the forces of law and order and exploit class and race divisions to create a ‘revolutionary situation.’ The Marxist drive is not just through the Labour and Trade Union Move ment, it is also on the streets, which is where, Mr. Harry Pollit, the then secret^ of the British Communist Party, promised it would be over 30 years ago. Eari Brodie: Newsletter For Independent Busmessoum- ers, quotes their financial editor, Wflliam EL Tehan, as saying we are not going to have hyperinflation. Rather than the destruction of the dollar, we are witnessing the destruction of the dollar system and its institutions. This is deflationary. We are forecasting a shortage of dollars and a surplus of the things dollars buy,” says Tehan. “We believe that any decline in (interst) rates will be small and should be regarded as a false dawn in the money markets before interest rates move up to new highs,” he says. Brodie urges the paying down of all debt; borrow only for fast moving inventories; collect receivables. (466 California St., San Francisco, CA 94104, $85) The Federal Reserve (privately owned banks) are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen. —SenatorLouis T. McFadden\forSSyears Chairman of the U.S. Banking & Currency Commission] * •' ' e’’ • * ■ ' i- • ^ • • • • • • ♦ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ♦ • ♦ 4 ^^4
The Foothills View (Boiling Springs, N.C.)
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Aug. 20, 1981, edition 1
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