Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Advice from World's Richest Man

begin quote from Forbes Magazine. Carlos Slim is on the cover of the March 26th 2012 magazine:

Amid the threat of a Greek debt default and a recession in Europe, Carlos Slim HelĂș has some words of advice for political leaders: You’re doing it wrong. end 1st quote.

next quote:
Given this history, it’s not surprising that privatization of state-owned assets is Slim’s first suggestion for struggling ­European economies. “Let’s talk about Spain. It has a lot of highways, and they are all free,” he says. “They should charge users and sell [the highways] to the private sector.” The government can use the money from selling the highways to avoid making big cuts in social programs, Slim advises.
Unemployment must also be addressed, he says. “The problem is that people have no jobs and no hope.” When I suggest that creating jobs takes time, he disagrees. “Some investments create a lot of jobs and other ­investments don’t.” His counsel: Invest in small and medium-size ­businesses, the engines of job creation, in labor-intensive industries such as tourism, health care, education and entertainment.
Turning to the U.S., Slim sees a pressing need for better regulation of the banking system, including the requirement that risky derivatives be carried on financial institutions’ books. He reminds me that he founded his financial group, Inbursa, as a brokerage in 1965. It has since expanded to include a bank and an insurance company, and sports a market capitalization of $14 billion. “We’ve had growth for 47 years. We have never lost money, even in the worst times of our country,” he boasts, noting that Inbursa never needed the government’s help. “We don’t look for size. We look for quality.” Take that, Citigroup.

Carlos Slim appears to be the Warren Buffet of Mexico and the world because of his wealth.

 

Carlos Slim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slim
Carlos Slim HelĂș is a Mexican business magnate and philanthropist who, as of 2011, is the richest person in the world, for the second year in a row. He is the ...

Warren Buffett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

end quotes.

Regarding Carlos Slim's idea of selling the Highways in Spain for example, I think that a whole lot of Spanish Government rules about how much can be charged (adjusted for inflation) per person per mile or per vehicle per mile otherwise this idea wouldn't work. But, if the people were protected from being gouged by the new owners of the Hiways it could work.

But, in regard to buying or creating small to medium sized businesses so people would have jobs this could work in any country right now to employ everyone that wants to be employed. The main problem with this would be: "Would government owned small and large businesses be unfair competition to other non-government owned businesses?" Once this issue was worked out with unions, and trade groups likely this could work. However, since problems worldwide are the opposite of any serious problems we have had since the Great Depression, unions and other interested parties might need to make way for jobs for the starving people or perhaps their unions would have to change or be no more. So, when world economic dynamics reverse, temporary or permanent chaos can ensue until people take to the streets and create some new system or to modify their present system so all people can better survive whatever comes. 

In regard to banking regulations regarding derivatives, it is like a guillotine hanging over everyone's head in the U.S. Until they are regulated there is no reason we can't have another Great Recession or another Great Depression. Not dealing with proper regulations for our banks could financially permanently end our country at some time during the next 50 years.

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