No remittances without representation!

Sir, you write “Poor government plagues Central America”, “Central America needs a bold gesture from the US”, FT April 22.Those migrants who often see no choice in life than to depart, with their family remittances produced their efforts far away from home, too often only help to keep in power those who caused them to depart.

An ambitious process such as that one referred to by FT, requires time to acquire political feasibility, and moments of sharp internal divisions might not be the best moment to find it.

In this respect I argue that to help the migrants acquire much more political representation in their homelands, would be a better place to start.

And the migrants sure have economic ammunition they could use. For some of these countries the GDP they help generate in e.g., USA, is larger than the whole GDP registered in their respective homeland.

And US, get yourselves some more helpers too!

Sir Ricardo Hausmann tells the US “Stop behaving as whiner of first resort”, January 31; do not give “the US consumer more rope with which to hang himself”. Hear hear!

But as Hausmann says not only should the US not bet all on finding a dream-adjustment like reducing the over-consumption in the US “in a way that does not hurt longer term growth” by looking at what others (China) could do for it; it also needs “to keep on growing”.

The US has to be careful that the reduction of consumption does not diminish its size, since it is not only a matter of getting back into equilibrium; it is also about being able to take care of the outstanding stock of debt. And so “Stop behaving as a whiner and get yourself some 40 million more working immigrants to help you out!” could also be a valid message.

I ask why industrial China should be able to use rural China for their growth and not North America Central America.