Know Your Rights
Fui al conferencia esta noche, en Oakland, sobre los derechos de inmigrantes en Los Estados Unidos. He hablado con inmigrantes que tienen miedo en muchos situaciones porque no pueden obtener papeles legales en este pais. Por eso, me gustaria publicar algos consejos de este conferencia de inmigracion. Disculpeme para me espanol mal.
I attended a workshop this evening in Oakland sponsored by the Legal Aid Society that focused on the rights of undocumented immigrants when confronted by ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) officers. Some of the illegal immigrants I have spoken with in both Nashville and San Francisco have told told me some bizarre stories about traffic stops and other everyday hassles that become terrifying scenarios for undocumented immigrants. Given my burgeoning immigrant readership, I thought I’d summarize my notes.
Primer, no Corra.
Don’t Run.
Permanezca en Calma.
Remain Calm.
Usted tiene el derecho de permenecer en silencio siempre si se la acercan agentes de la patrulla fronteriza. El agente le puedo preguntar: Donde nacistes? Cual es tu estado de migratorio? Qual es tu nacionalidad? No conteste estas preguntas!
You always have the right to remain silent if approached by a police officer or immigration official. They might ask you questions like where were you born or what is your nationality. Do not answer.
No mienta a los agentes.
Do not lie.
No traiga una identificacion falsa.
Do not carry false documents.
Pregunte: Estoy libre de irme. Alejese despacio si el agente dice que esta libre de irse.
Ask if you are free to go. Walk away slowly if the agent says you are free to do so.
Si usted fue arrestado tiene el derecho hablar con un abogado. Permencer en silencio.
If arrested, ask to speak to your attorney. Remain silent.
No firme algo sin un abogado. Si firma, algos documentos negara sus derechos y hacer un volver casi imposible por muchos anos.
Never sign anything without a lawyer present. Documents you sign may waive your rights to a court proceeding and have very long term implications for your future status in this country.
En el autobus o a su trabajo, los agentes no pueden obstruir las salidas. Y usted debe ser libre de irse sin contestar ninguna pregunta.
On the bus or at work, agents do not have the right to block the exit. You should be free to go without answering their questions.
En su casa, no puede ser inviada en muchos circumstancias. No abre la puerta. Si los agentes tienen un orden, pida verla, si es possible, pregunte que lo ponen abajo la puerta, porque hay un posibilidad que los agentes diran “Me perece que haya una bolsa de marijuana a la mesa y por eso entramos." Asegurece que la direccion y nombre sean correcta. Usted tiene el derecho de permenecer en silencio!
If agents come to your home, in many cases they don’t have the right to enter or search the premises. Do not open the door. Ask to see a warrant, and if possible have them slip it under the door. If you open the door first they might say they see a bag of dope, for example, and use that as a pretext to enter. Make sure the name and address match on the warrant. You still have the right to remain silent even if they have a valid search warrant.
Afirme sus derechos! Si usted no demanda sus derechos las autoridades de inmigracion lo pueden deportar sin veer un abogado o un juez de inmigrcion. PERO, recuerde, aunque usted sepa y demande sus derechos algunas veces los agentes de inmigracion no observen las leyes. Un abogado puede protegerlo cuando sus derechos son violados.
It is not enough to have rights, you must demand them, otherwise you may be denied due process to which you are entitled. Even if you stand up for your rights, agents often break the laws themselves. Your lawyer will be able to protect you if your rights have been violated.
Click Here to Read More..
Friday, October 19, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Tourists and Big Macs
Diana and I stepped out of a victorious pub quiz night and into the first rain in nearly six months. A heavy, cleansing rain. I woke up and walked up the hill to Alamo Square Park to enjoy the fresh air and city views in sharp contrast under a blue sky only possible a few hours after a storm front. Dozens of people were walking the usually vacant paths around the slopes of the four square blocks at the top of the hill. Their cameras and pocket sized video recorders marked them as tourists who had ventured beyond the slope facing the painted ladies, the Victorian row of Full House fame framed by the city skyline. They were all Europeans. The first couple I passed spoke a hushed German, the next two groups spoke unabashed French, and I didn’t need to hear the last group sitting on the benches in the redwood circle, their passionate gesticulations were unmistakably Italian. Like mushrooms after the rain, the European tourists are popping up everywhere.
With a Euro now buying $1.40, this is an ideal time for Old Worlders to travel in the United States. I am surprised there weren’t a few topless o’s mixed into the babel on our landmark hill now that the loonie, the Canadian dollar, has overtaken its southern equivalent for the first time in 30 years.
All the new lows for our currency have set off a spate of articles about the dollar’s demise, some in unsuspecting places. One of the local alternative papers, SF Weekly, picked up mostly for its music and film listings, ran a doomsday feature article on the dollar’s demise. All the dead horses were beaten about: our enormous public debt and mounting deficits, the sub-prime lending fiasco, and recounts of past currency meltdowns in Latin America and Asia. Everyone agrees that while the dollar is historically weak, all indicators suggest that conditions will only worsen for the benchmark currency.
This consensus reminds of me of the anecdote about Rockefeller getting a stock tip from his shoeshine boy circa 1929—he knew then and there it was time to sell.
I've got a similar feeling that now is the time to be bullish on the dollar. Yes, our federal budget is a mess, thank you Mr. Bush, and our public debt is enormous, but it is easy to lose perspective on the numbers involved because we are participants in the largest national economy the world has ever known. Our (by some estimates) $5.6 trillion dollar debt seems horrific until it is pointed out that it ranks 35th in the world as a percentage of GDP, and not out of line with many other rich world nations. And unlike Europe, where below replacement level fertility rates threatens population decline and onerous ratios of future workers to retirees on pension, the United States is actually witnessing a rise in its fertility rates (making us the only nation on the planet to go through the demographic transition and then see fertility rates rebound past the replacement level).
The historical charts for the dollar’s exchange rate read look like a mountain range of peaks and valleys; it is rare to see the dollar standing still. These trends suggest that the dollar and currencies in general are continually over and undershooting their values. Other measurements tend to bare this phenomenon out.
By some measures economists have long advocated that the best gauge of a currency is not its exchange rate, but the relative purchasing power of that currency in proportion to other currencies. Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is the assumption that a set amount of a given currency should buy the same basket of goods abroad that it does at home once converted into the foreign currency. The bi-annual Big Mac Index is a slick version of PPP published by The Economist. In this index the Big Mac hamburger represents the basket of goods, convenient because you can one in nearly every country on earth. The index determines the dollars needed to purchase a Big Mac in various countries, and then this price can be compared to the dollar’s official exchange rate..
As of July, a Big Mac cost $3.41 and $4.17 in the Euro zone, an implied exchange rate of $1.12 to the Euro. The actual exchange at the time of the survey was $1.35 to the Euro, which suggests it was 22% overvalued against the dollar. This makes sense. There are real world underpinnings to the strength of the EU economy, one big factor being the successful incorporation of the relatively low wage, high productivity countries of Central Europe into the EU's economic frontier. But at a ten percent clip for five years running?
On the other hand, the index implies most Asian currencies are significantly undervalued against the dollar, led by the Chinese Yuan which has a PPP of 58% more than the exchange rate. Asian central banks have been purchasing hoards of US treasuries for years to keep the dollar strong in relationship to their currencies. The BMI suggests that the dollar could yet weakened substantially versus the Yuan and other Asian currencies.
The Big Mac Index is not a perfect measure of PPP. The BMI makes the imperfect assumption of a world of low transportation costs where a given basket of goods could be distributed and sold anywhere. The Big Mac is not such a mobile product, as it is made up of much more than two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun. The rent on paid on the building and the wages paid to the burger flippers are non-tradable components (in the sense that it is not possible to offshore fast food workers) that factor into the price of a Big Mac. Local taxes and demand variance are also not necessarily representative of an economy as a whole. Still, the BMI provides a quick and easy comparison of the world’s currencies, and it suggests that while the dollar has weakened against the Euro and the Pound, it is now trading at a discount to the market. The opposite maybe true for its relationship to the Yuan and the Yen.
At the end of the day a currency has value because people believe it has value. When this confidence snaps, nasty results can ensue, and in the electronic age this can happen with lightning speed--witness the 1997 financial implosion in Asia. There is no inherent reason that the dollar is immune to a currency collapse. There may come a point when the world is sated with US Treasuries, and keep in mind that the Euro now provides the first feasible alternative to the dollar as an international store of value post Bretton Woods.
In mid April 2002, the dollar was ten percent stronger than the euro. In my two-dollars-to-place betting fashion, I remember going to the currency exchange in Ljubljana and converting a couple hundred dollars into Euro's that month. Small stakes, though it turned out be a fair instinct. Now that I’ve contemplated the forecasts of the shoeshine boys/music critics and I'll go and place my (conservative) bets that apocalypse is not nigh. The dead presidents will rise again, at least over the bridges of Europe. Click Here to Read More..
With a Euro now buying $1.40, this is an ideal time for Old Worlders to travel in the United States. I am surprised there weren’t a few topless o’s mixed into the babel on our landmark hill now that the loonie, the Canadian dollar, has overtaken its southern equivalent for the first time in 30 years.
All the new lows for our currency have set off a spate of articles about the dollar’s demise, some in unsuspecting places. One of the local alternative papers, SF Weekly, picked up mostly for its music and film listings, ran a doomsday feature article on the dollar’s demise. All the dead horses were beaten about: our enormous public debt and mounting deficits, the sub-prime lending fiasco, and recounts of past currency meltdowns in Latin America and Asia. Everyone agrees that while the dollar is historically weak, all indicators suggest that conditions will only worsen for the benchmark currency.
This consensus reminds of me of the anecdote about Rockefeller getting a stock tip from his shoeshine boy circa 1929—he knew then and there it was time to sell.
I've got a similar feeling that now is the time to be bullish on the dollar. Yes, our federal budget is a mess, thank you Mr. Bush, and our public debt is enormous, but it is easy to lose perspective on the numbers involved because we are participants in the largest national economy the world has ever known. Our (by some estimates) $5.6 trillion dollar debt seems horrific until it is pointed out that it ranks 35th in the world as a percentage of GDP, and not out of line with many other rich world nations. And unlike Europe, where below replacement level fertility rates threatens population decline and onerous ratios of future workers to retirees on pension, the United States is actually witnessing a rise in its fertility rates (making us the only nation on the planet to go through the demographic transition and then see fertility rates rebound past the replacement level).
The historical charts for the dollar’s exchange rate read look like a mountain range of peaks and valleys; it is rare to see the dollar standing still. These trends suggest that the dollar and currencies in general are continually over and undershooting their values. Other measurements tend to bare this phenomenon out.
By some measures economists have long advocated that the best gauge of a currency is not its exchange rate, but the relative purchasing power of that currency in proportion to other currencies. Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is the assumption that a set amount of a given currency should buy the same basket of goods abroad that it does at home once converted into the foreign currency. The bi-annual Big Mac Index is a slick version of PPP published by The Economist. In this index the Big Mac hamburger represents the basket of goods, convenient because you can one in nearly every country on earth. The index determines the dollars needed to purchase a Big Mac in various countries, and then this price can be compared to the dollar’s official exchange rate..
As of July, a Big Mac cost $3.41 and $4.17 in the Euro zone, an implied exchange rate of $1.12 to the Euro. The actual exchange at the time of the survey was $1.35 to the Euro, which suggests it was 22% overvalued against the dollar. This makes sense. There are real world underpinnings to the strength of the EU economy, one big factor being the successful incorporation of the relatively low wage, high productivity countries of Central Europe into the EU's economic frontier. But at a ten percent clip for five years running?
On the other hand, the index implies most Asian currencies are significantly undervalued against the dollar, led by the Chinese Yuan which has a PPP of 58% more than the exchange rate. Asian central banks have been purchasing hoards of US treasuries for years to keep the dollar strong in relationship to their currencies. The BMI suggests that the dollar could yet weakened substantially versus the Yuan and other Asian currencies.
The Big Mac Index is not a perfect measure of PPP. The BMI makes the imperfect assumption of a world of low transportation costs where a given basket of goods could be distributed and sold anywhere. The Big Mac is not such a mobile product, as it is made up of much more than two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun. The rent on paid on the building and the wages paid to the burger flippers are non-tradable components (in the sense that it is not possible to offshore fast food workers) that factor into the price of a Big Mac. Local taxes and demand variance are also not necessarily representative of an economy as a whole. Still, the BMI provides a quick and easy comparison of the world’s currencies, and it suggests that while the dollar has weakened against the Euro and the Pound, it is now trading at a discount to the market. The opposite maybe true for its relationship to the Yuan and the Yen.
At the end of the day a currency has value because people believe it has value. When this confidence snaps, nasty results can ensue, and in the electronic age this can happen with lightning speed--witness the 1997 financial implosion in Asia. There is no inherent reason that the dollar is immune to a currency collapse. There may come a point when the world is sated with US Treasuries, and keep in mind that the Euro now provides the first feasible alternative to the dollar as an international store of value post Bretton Woods.
In mid April 2002, the dollar was ten percent stronger than the euro. In my two-dollars-to-place betting fashion, I remember going to the currency exchange in Ljubljana and converting a couple hundred dollars into Euro's that month. Small stakes, though it turned out be a fair instinct. Now that I’ve contemplated the forecasts of the shoeshine boys/music critics and I'll go and place my (conservative) bets that apocalypse is not nigh. The dead presidents will rise again, at least over the bridges of Europe. Click Here to Read More..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
