Political piñata. Part 3 – Supply & demand vs protectionism.

  By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc. / LMMiami.com

• The new POTUS has pulled a massive electoral win depicting Hispanics as a threat to the American way of life.
• The Dems, after betting big on our support, have come to the realization that we are politically irrelevant.
• Did I say irrelevant?
• I meant to say toxic.
• Obama’s last minute courtesy -ending the “dry foot wet foot” policy- did away with the only remaining stream of Spanish-speaking documented immigration.
• Did Obama do this to Cubans to, in a warped way, ingratiate himself and his party with Mexicans?
• Or Venezuelans, Haitians, Dominicans and Central Americans, for that matter?
• Who knows.
• We do know that Mayor Carlos Giménez of, of all places, Miami-Dade dropped the sanctuary city policy under pressure from DC, fearing the loss of hundreds of millions of federal funds (if you read the details though it is a bit of a technicality will very little material impact on the everyday lives of immigrants yet, still, it is a scary message to the local Hispanic community and tarnishes the mayor’s brand among immigrants).
• In this context, what CMO in his sane mind will support a higher allocation of marketing dollars to the Hispanic market?
• Even if it makes all the sense in the world from an economic POV, it would be quite a thorny issue to bring up in a conference room full of potentially feral Trump supporters.
• Office politics anyone?
• In any case, we have a problem
• Mexican & Cuban recent arrivals were pretty much the lifeblood of our industry: they watch TV, listen to the radio and surf the web in Spanish.
• Some people split hairs and say, well, Mexicans and Cubans are not the same.
• Mexican and Cubans have different agendas, blah blah blah or so goes the conventional wisdom.
• Really?
• In what respect?
• For economic purposes, Mexicans, Cubans and every other sub segment of the Hispanic community are one and the same.
• And here lies our community’s Achilles heel: we allowed politicians to drive a wedge between us.
• They portrayed us as culprits for a bunch of mostly imaginary problems and we failed to react.
• We now find ourselves in a position of maximum vulnerability because we failed to tell our side of the story.
• What’s our side of the story you might ask?
• For one thig, methinks the “humanitarian” narrative is not strong enough anymore (if it ever was).
• In fact, it might be counterproductive.
• Simple: if we depict ourselves as refugees seeking compassion it is only natural for your average, casually nativist middle American to believe we come here to freeload.
• Here’s an idea.
• Bear with me.
• When McDonalds came to my hood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, they never asked me to buy their burgers out of compassion for their starving shareholders and franchisees.
• Hell no.
• They made absolutely clear that they were there to compete on price and quality and to give every mom and pop restaurant in the surroundings a run for their money.
• They meant business.
• We Latinos in the US should do so too.
• Our story is simple: we are here because entire sectors of the US economy need Hispanic labor and Hispanic consumers to keep the bottom line looking good.
• And they need it like oxygen.
• We are here because we do jobs Americans don’t even think about doing.
• For wages Americans literally wouldn’t get out of bed for.
• From landscaping to babysitting.
• We are here because where there’s demand there will be supply.
• The paradox: as the POTUS’s anti Mexican rhetoric escalates and the trade war looms inevitable, the value of the MX peso plummets lower and lower in relation to the dollar.
• Hence México becomes EVEN MORE ATTRACTIVE TO MANUFACTURERS WITH A GLOBAL FOOTPRINT DUE THE OBVIOUS REASON THAT THE COST OF MEXICAN SKILLED LABOR BECOMES CHEAPER.
• Hence more Mexicans and Latin Americans will want to venture north of the border to get hold of greenbacks.
• Plus, if DC expects to protect American jobs by curtailing imports with taxes and tariffs (total anathema to any true conservative) America will see a spike in inflation.
• In short, the new “Mexican doctrine” is bound to backfire egregiously.
• Protectionism always does.
• I wonder if the POTUS is aware of this reality or if he just is as clueless about the laws of economics as he sounds.
• Once again, let’s remember that this man built his ¿fortune? and his brand with fleeting enterprises such as Atlantic City casinos, hotels, condos and golf courses for the new money trashy crowd.
• While dodging taxes, gaming the system, stiffing vendors and repeatedly filing for bankruptcy.
• Warren Buffett he is not.
• He’s very vulnerable too.
• To be continued.

Political piñata. Part 1: CLICK HERE.

Political piñata. Part 2: CLICK HERE.