Too Good to be True

The Foundation of Economic Education is hoisting (Co-host GMU Economics Society) an event at George Mason University April 18th and 19th. The topics of the seminar vary from; Foreign Aid, International Labour, US Foreign Policy, Institutions, Constitutions, and Economic Growth. However, FEE has put together a top of the shelve list of speakers. The list includes the names of; Geoffrey Lea, Bryan Caplan, Doug Bandow, and Josh Hall. Here is a link to the event.

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Saying No is hard; but in this case at what cost

Ecuador’s President, Daniel Noboa, called the electorate to the ballots on a National Referendum. The eleven questions established for this political process were in two main fields: security and labor market reforms. The Referendum took place on April 21, 2024. The official results of the National Referendum are that in 9 out 11 yes-no-questions the Ecuador’s electorate gave the option of Yes a majoritarian support to the Administration’s plans. However, two questions the support leaned towards No; those questions main focus was on reforms to labor and foreign investment. The following graph show the results of the Referendum. Graph 1 Results of the National Referendum Source: CNE (National Electorate Council for it acronym in Spanish) In the graphs, question D (3) stated that: Do you agree that the Ecuadorian State should recognize international arbitration as a method for resolving disputes in investment, contractual, or commercial matte...

De-dollarizing an Economy is not an Easy Task but in the Case of Ecuador it Makes No Sense

Ecuador adopted the US Dollar as its currency on January, 2000. The country at the time had almost a 100% rate of inflation and it used the US currency for major transactions such as: house, cars, and importations purchases, to name a few. However, there was a huge social cost of implementing the US Dollar in Ecuador. The political cost took a big hit when President Mahuad was ousted due to his decision in 2000. Former President Jamil Mahuad in his book called: "This is how we dollarize Ecuador" (2021), makes a detailed account of the economic conditions in which the country was prior to the execution of the executive decree to use the US dollar as the country's official currency. Mainly, in its chapter IX "Hyperinflation and freezing." Mahuad mentions the following: “We then had a triple run: a bank run (due to the withdrawal of bank deposits), an exchange run (due to the loss of Central Bank reserves caused by the purchase of dollars) and a flight of cap...

An Unlikely Runoff: González vs. Noboa

Source: BBC News Mundo ( Luisa González & Daniel Noboa) Ecuador’s Presidential election took place on August, 20 th , 2023. According to the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) official information, with more than 98% of the ballots in, it shows that Luisa González and Daniel Noboa are headed to the runoff in October this year. González, a disciple and loyal follower of Rafael Correa, achieved the 33.6% of the electorate; while Noboa, a self-proclaimed “progressive” –left-leaning- entrepreneur and son of banana mogul, got 23.4% of the ballots on Sunday. In other words, only 5 out of ten people supported both candidates in this election. Hence, 50% of the other constituents voted for other candidate (one out of the other 6 candidates that run for office) that means the October runoff duo have much work to do to get bigger support within the next 50 days. However, the story goes beyond the introducing data presented in the earlier paragraph. The results show tha...

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