China and the US: An Opportunity

January 3, 2011 Leave a comment

A stronger relationship between the US and China could be an opportunity for South Florida, but their are problems on both sides and internal economic and political needs.

The pressures are real [between the US and China]. The United States’ need for comprehensive domestic renewal, for instance, is in many respects the price of having shouldered the burdens of waging the 40-year cold war, and it is in part the price of having neglected for the last 20 years mounting evidence of its own domestic obsolescence. Our weakening infrastructure is merely a symptom of the country’s slide backward into the 20th century.

China, meanwhile, is struggling to manage an overheated economy within an inflexible political system. Some pronouncements by Chinese commentators smack of premature triumphalism regarding both China’s domestic transformation and its global role. (Those Chinese leaders who still take Marxist classics seriously might do well to re-read Stalin’s message of 1930 to the party cadres titled “Dizzy With Success,” which warned against “a spirit of vanity and conceit.”)

via How to Stay Friends With China – NYTimes.com.

Filed under International, Politics

Patriots of Coral Gables

December 29, 2010 Leave a comment

Many who have lived in other climes know that there is nothing particularly unique in holding nationalistic beliefs about your town, state, province or country.  You may be drawn to the area because of kinship, language or history learned, but, in fact, all think that their country or region is exceptional, and none are particularly different.

Coral Gables is no more exceptional than many other nice little towns across the world, and its lack of exceptionalism also applies to its rather standard issue political leaders, mainly fending for their own interests and for the city only secondarily.

Not so long ago, as Eugen Weber observes, most people were only dimly aware of what nation they “belonged” to.  They took little offense at insults to their country, its people, or their flag, because they just didn’t much identify with their country, its people, or their flag.  Then came the patriots, descending upon their nations’ schools like locusts.  They taught children a litany of bizarre nonsense.  They urged them to love millions of complete strangers who happened to live inside a Magic Line (a.k.a. “the border”), and loathe those who snickered during the Pledge of Allegiance or  improperly folded the flag.

via Patriotism as Political Correctness, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty.

Filed under Coral Gables, Politics

Coral Gables: Get Ready for More Property Taxes

December 29, 2010 Leave a comment

You have seen the recent news that the city of Coral Gables had its bond rating reduced (the CFO says “slightly”), because all revenue sources, other than property taxes, are falling. Property tax revenues are not referenced because the city manager and the mayor have consistently proposed higher property taxes and taxing have been raised every year.  Reports of continuing falling property values are certain to appear near in 2011.

With other tax revenues falling, the city manager unable to reduce spending enough, and the hostility of the labor unions od overpaid firefighters and police, you may be certain to see higher property tax rates the next time around.

What do the candidates have to say about this (except for Mayor Slesnick who we know is a strong advocate of higher taxes.)

Filed under Budget, Coral Gables, Finance, Politics, Taxes and Fees

Coral Gables Candidate Forum–Real Questions or Political Pablum

December 28, 2010 Leave a comment

The Ponce Business Association has announced a series of candidate forums before the coming April elections for two commissioners and mayor.

I reproduce their invitation, as follows:

The Ponce Business Association is sponsoring three Candidate Forums (one for each seat) for the upcoming Coral Gables City Commission election that will be held on April 12, 2011.

Our first Forum will be for the Commission Seat of Mayor (Group 1) and will be held at the Coral Gables Congregational Church on January 18, 2011at  7:00 pm.  The moderator will be CBS4 news anchor Eliott Rodriguez.  The Forum for Seats 4 and 5 will be held in February and March.

Seating is limited. Please reply to this message with your RSVP to poncebusiness@gmail.com

Question:  Will this be an forum in which the candidates answer open questions from the audience?  Will there be a period in which the candidates question each other or participate in a debate?
Comment:  If these forums follow the model of some of the candidate forums I have attended in Coral Gables in the past, the events may turn into a useless exercise in which the candidates make unchallenged ambiguous statements of intention.
Let’s hope that this is not the case.

 

Filed under Coral Gables, Politics

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