Striving to overcome the economic crisis: Progress and diversification of Mexican multinationals’ export of capital

The Institute for Economic Research (IIEc) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment (VCC), a joint initiative of the Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, are releasing the results of their third survey of Mexican multinationals today. The survey is part of a long-term study of the rapid global expansion of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from emerging markets. The present report focuses on data for the year 2010. Highlights In 2010, the top 20 Mexican MNEs had foreign assets of USDD 123 billion (table 1 below), foreign sales of USDD 71 billion, and employed 255,340 people abroad (see annex table 1 in annex I). The top two firms, America Movil and CEMEX, together controlled USDD 85 billion in foreign assets, accounting for nearly 70% of the assets on the list. The top four firms (including FEMSA and Grupo Mexico) jointly held USDD 104 billion, which represents almost 85% of the list’s foreign assets. Leading industries in this ranking, by numbers of MNEs, are non-metallic minerals (four companies) and food and beverages (another four companies). All but two of the 20 are firms whose shares are traded on a stock exchange. The exceptions are PEMEX, Mexico’s fully state-owned oil and gas firm, and Xignux, a diversified family-owned enterprise. The top 20 MNEs had 223 foreign affiliates (branches, subsidiaries, et al). As with their counterparts elsewhere in Latin America, Mexican MNEs show a very strong regional orientation. As annex table 2 makes clear, the top 20 overwhelmingly prefer to invest in Latin America. The next region of choice, with a substantial presence of Mexican affiliates, is North America. Europe (mainly the European Union) is a somewhat distant third. The presence of Mexican MNEs in Asia seems to be growing, if slow. In 2008, four of them had affiliates in Asia; in 2010, seven did

New phase of development and knowledge capitalism: gramsci’s historical revenge?

Gramsci’s contribution to Marxism is based on the understanding of the historicity of capitalism, not only as a mode of production that prepares the historical-material conditions for scientific socialism (which is Marx's contribution), but as changing (historical) unities between economy, politics, ideology, and culture that represent historical phases of development within the mode of production. It is, in fact, this understanding that distinguishes Gramsci from the rest of the early Marxist theoreticians after Marx. In this sense, the problem that Gramsci poses in Prison Notebooks is how to explain, based on the Marxist theoretical framework, the emergence and decline of the historical phases of development of capitalism, without the (historical) crises that intervene in this transition resulting in a process of social revolution that leads to the scientific socialism foreseen by Marx. This unfolding of these developments was already evident at the time in which the Notebooks were written with the emergence of americanism and fascism. This article argues that the tremendous timeliness of Gramscian thought resides in the appreciation that, at the current time, just as in the 1930s, the transition to a new phase of the development of capitalism, for which the term knowledge capitalism is proposed, is verifiable, for which the technological-productive fundamentals have thus far been developed without its projection having yet taken place in the superstructure. From this flows a double historical revenge of Gramscian thought, since, on the one hand, it provides a valuable theoretical instrument for understanding and taking advantage of historical change, and, on the other, it offers major political strategic principles that at the current time, based on forms of production and autonomous social organization of the subaltern groups and classes within knowledge capitalism, have the historical-social space to contribute to the construction of an alternative hegemony characteristic of these classes and groups. To delve into this question, the article has been divided in three sections. The first section presents Gramscian theoretical tools for understanding historical change; the second synthetically explains the distinctive features of the new phase of development and characterizes the moment of its current unfolding in light of the previously mentioned theoretical instruments, and the third section discusses postcapitalist forms of production and social organization that could lead to the formation of alternative hegemonic social blocs in the framework of the emergence of the new phase of development that is becoming a historical epoch

International Monetary Fund: From Stabiliy to Instability (The Washington Consensus and Structural Reforms in Latin America

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created to set a standard for development and to facilitate the exchange transactions of the lnternational Financial System (IFS) in the framework of the established international economic order. During the last three decades, the IMF has transformed itself into an international financial organization whose main objective has been to act as a "lender of last resort" in the face of the instability generated by financial crises during this period. The Washington Consensus and the Structural Reforms in Latin America have jointly contributed to increase the instability in the region in a democratic context. It is therefore important to establish the reasons for the creation of a post war international monetary system and for the ongoing changes in the relationship between international financial institutions and the economic and political international arder. In addition, financial globalization and financial markets have fulfilled a strategic role in the performance of emerging economics, resulting from changes in the global financial system. Also, the development of capitalism and the economic reforms of the Washington Consensus have deepened the transformation of the economic structures of goverments, which have passed from authoritarian and regulated regimes to deregulated, democratic and market-driven systems. However, democracy and its significance on the path of economic, political social reorganization, has not given opportunities to the majority of the population, which has not seen the benefits from the reorganization of relations between countries in the process of globalization

Impact of global crisis on Mexican multinationals varies by industry, survey finds

The Institute for Economic Research (IIEc) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment (VCC), a joint initiative of the Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, are releasing the results of their second annual survey of Mexican multinationals today.1 The survey is part of a long-term study of the rapid global expansion of the multinational enterprises of emerging markets. The present report focuses on data for the year 2009. Highlights In 2009, the 20 companies listed in table 1 below posted about USD 117 billion in foreign assets, 63 billion in foreign sales, and had 227,484 employees in their overseas operations. The top three companies on the list are CEMEX, America Movil, and Carso Global Telecom, which together controlled USD 86 billion in foreign assets, which was 73% of the total on the list. The leading sectors on the list are food and beverages (4 firms), non-metallic minerals (4 firms), and telecommunications (2 firms). In keeping with the tradition in Mexican outward foreign direct investment (FDI), most of the investments were undertaken in Latin America and the Caribbean and in North America −specifically the United States-. These regions were followed in importance by Western Europe. Mexican outward FDI has now also begun to appear in China, India, and Australia. The shares of all companies ranked in table 1 are publicly traded, with the exception of PEMEX, which is 100% state-owned, and Xignux, which is a privately held family-owned firm

Momento Económico (28)

Temas de hoy. 2/ Reconversión en la Siderurgia. ¿Modernidad o más vueltas de tuerca a los trabajadores?, Lucía Alvarez Mosso., 3/ La Industria Siderúrgica. Futuro Incierto. Carlos Jimenez., 6/ Empresas asociadas a la exportación o a la quiebra. Ma. Luisa González Marín,. 8/ Acero y Trabajadores. Isabel Rueda Peiro,. ll/ El Minero de Monclova. Una Entrevista. Ma. Luisa González Marín,. l3

La apertura comercial en 1987: hacia una evaluación preliminar

La nueva política de comercio exterior mexicano decidió llevar a cabo una profunda revisión de las anteriormente implementadas, y procedió a iniciar lo que se llamó el "cambio estrcutural", que incluye la industrialización y el comercio exterior para lo cual se plantearon los siguientes objetivos centrales: 1)fomento a las exportaciones; 2) racionalización de la protección y, 3) negociaciones internacionales.Con base en lo anterior se estructuró dos porgramas: el PRONAFICE (Programa Nacional de Fomento Industrial y Comercio Exterior), y más adelante el PROFIEX (Programa de Fomento Industrial de las Exportaciones)

México, el voto electrónico y el 2012

México es un país que, a lo largo de su historia, ha sufrido fraudes y otros malos manejos electorales, por medio de diferentes esquemas. Los mexicanos frecuentemente nos sentimos autoridades mundiales en este tema; la constante respecto a nuestras autoridades electorales ha sido más de duda y cuestionamiento que de confianza. Hubo un breve periodo, los últimos años de la década de los 1990 y los primeros de los 2000, en que parecía que se consolidaba una institución sólida y confiable, pero las dudas –fundadas o no– que surgieron tras la elección del 2006 devolvieron a las autoridades electorales a los niveles desconfianza tradicional que han sostenido a lo largo de buena parte de nuestra historia como nación independiente. Y un reclamo muchas veces escuchado es que, dado que es imposible confiar en los individuos, corruptibles por naturaleza, la responsabilidad del escrutinio de los votos debería recaer en un sistema computarizado, siempre limpio, eficiente y honesto. En este artículo, analizo varios de los argumentos empleados para favorecer a las urnas electrónicas, explicando por qué no solucionan ninguno de los problemas que supuestamente resolverían, y por qué –de adoptarlas– terminaríamos teniendo un proceso electoral más frágil que el preexistent

La idea del mercado común de América del Norte en el contexto de la crisis financiera y la reaganomía (1982-1984)

La verdadera limitante para la idea del mercado común de América del Norte aparte de la reticencia marcada de México y Canadá y su repudio político a esa impopular propuesta, es precisamente la reaganomía que impide estructuralmente hablando todo intento de liberalización comercial y de cooperación financiera. De darse el Mercomún sería básicamente una anexión política, militar ye económica en base a la legitimación jurídica de una zona de libre comercio

A cincuenta años de la expropiación petrolera: historia y problemas

La expropiación de nuestra riqueza petrolera si bien fue un acto político y económico de rescate de nuestra soberanía como nación, posteriormente se adecuó al proceso económico del capitalismo subdesarrollado y dependiente mexicano. Al petróleo mexicano se le consideró un sector importante, pero no para el impulso de un proyecto nacional independiente, sino como soporte y colchón de apoyo de un sector industrial atrasado, sobreprotegido, no creativo y siempre a la expectativa de la ganancia fácil y sin mayor esfuerzo

México y el marco internacional de la inflación

Se analiza el comportamiento diferenciado de la inflación según se trate del mundo en su conjunto, de países industrializados, de países en desarrollo o de regiones. Desde 1970 hasta 1987, la inflación a nivel mundial se mantiene en ascenso. Este fenómeno se acentúa a partir de la década de los ochenta, pero se presenta de manera distinta en cada caso: mientras que la inflación desciende en los países industrializados ésta sube en los países en desarrollo, afectando con mayor violencia en América Latina y, concretamente, a México, cuya inflación en 1987 fue la más alta de todo el mundo