Articles

The $20 fast-food mandate is harming workers and business. The laws of economics continue to exist even when politicians ignore them. The latest illustration is the unfolding damage from California’s increase in the fast-food minimum wage to $20 an hour. An Associated Press dispatch last week reported that California fast-food franchises have been cutting worker hours after the wage mandate took effect in April, a 25% increase from the statewide $16 an hour minimum. A Wendy’s franchise owner said he used to schedule nearly a dozen workers for an afternoon shift. Now only seven. He also raised prices 8%.

Unfortunately, governments inadvertently eliminate many of these essential entry-level jobs by advocating for higher minimum wages. This lost first rung has profound consequences, especially for vulnerable groups like young individuals, part-time workers, the unmarried, and those without a high school diploma. Such individuals rely on these low-wage positions for income and to escape the cycle of government dependency and poverty.

Puerto Rico, a US territory with a limited ability to set its own tax policies, will be the first part of the US to be substantially affected by Pillar Two, the global tax agreement that seeks to establish a 15 percent minimum tax rate on corporate income. Pillar Two is a significant threat to Puerto Rico’s development model, which has typically featured lower taxes. Puerto Rican lawmakers have begun to respond. However, no comprehensive tax reform addressing Pillar Two has thus far crossed the finish line and become law.

Although the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump failed, it was part of a long and growing pattern of threats and violence that can be fatal to American society. This need not be a plot. It may simply reflect a set of dangerous attitudes and actions that have been building for years.

Going back to the primaries and the historical fact that a sitting Governor lost for the first time in history, his party primary sends a strong and loud message that critical issues affecting all Puerto Ricans were not dealt with to the voter's satisfaction. Among the critical issues mentioned are the fragility of the electrical grids, the condition of our roads, the high inflation, the glacial pace of the reconstruction, the lack of economic freedom and the constant defense of LUMA Energy; whether right or wrong, this is what most voters had in their minds while voting.

In the midst of the maelstrom of detrimental issues that daily lacerate our spirit of survival in Puerto Rico, a bill is filed that bursts into the conscience of artistic expression born from bodily movement. The country is once again collapsing due to the lack of essential services -such as electricity and aqueducts- affecting even the purity of the primary electoral event for the 2024 electoral contest. On the other hand, the illegal release of prisoners of high danger of violence, such as murderers, rapists, kidnappers, among others, was recently uncovered. However, attention is diverted towards the State that focuses its persecutory light to detect its critics in order to placate them. Strangling their thinking and their capacity for economic subsistence, to get them out of the way, is the way to prevent them from hindering their political power.

Understanding and internalizing Puerto Rico's loss of competitiveness vis-à-vis other jurisdictions in the hemisphere has caused a lot of commotion. Countries such as Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic have focused in the past decades on creating optimal conditions to aggressively promote Foreign Direct Investment. While in Puerto Rico we explore innovative initiatives on how to squeeze and undermine foreign investment by imposing onerous taxes; while in Puerto Rico we consider the possibility of invalidating labor laws that cause us to lose our attractiveness to investment; while Puerto Rico reflects insecurity to foreign direct investment, the countries in the area make life easier for investors.