Panama 's A Central Bank Of The Spanish Explorer Vasco Nunez De Balboa

After the successful removal of Noriega, Panama has completed four peaceful political transitions to different political parties. The country has two major political parties and other tiny parties that are in the political atmosphere. Panama’s most recent national elections occurred on May 4, 2014. Juan Carlos Varela won the election and is still in power today. There are a few minority groups in Panama, the Afro- Panamanians, Chinese-Panamanians, Guaymi, and the Kuna. For the majority of the indigenous groups in Panama, the conditions are rough whether it be because of racial discrimination or just neglect. With the exception of the Kuna. The Afro, Chinese, and Panamanians are discriminated against based on race, also the lowest income areas have the highest number of minority groups. The Guaymi is the largest indigenous group in Panama, they have been forced to leave their home due to land erosion, and development projects that are trying to demolish the land. The Kuna on the other hand have been able to maintain a healthy economy with the fuel from tourism, fishing, and selling crafts. Having said this, for both the Guaymi and Kuna poor sanitation and health is the biggest threat to these

Nicaragua is rich in natural resources. Petroleum is the main product gained by imports. Major resources such as salt, gold, and silver are mined. This country exports many items. Some of these include coffee, bananas, beef, cotton, and sugar. One US dollar is converted into 6.55 gold cordobas. In conclusion, Nicaragua has a healthy economy according to their imports and

One of the first changes made by the IMF after instituting Jamaica a loan was the devaluation of the Jamaica currency. Even though the devaluation of the currency made exports from Jamaica cheaper to purchase, Jamaica is a country that relies on imports to survive, and devaluation makes imports extremely expensive. This then decreased the amount that Jamaica could import, and with already decreased government spending, Jamaica could not sustain itself with enough goods.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer. Also he was a governor. He’s widely known for crossing the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean and was the one to claim the Pacific Ocean for Spain. He became the first European to lead an expedition to reach the Pacific Ocean from the “New Word.” He opened a way for later on explorations from Spain along the South America western coast. I chose this man because he could possibly a fellow ancestor of mine and if so, I would like to know a lot about him and his works.

From their end, Cuba has surprised many around the world for striving against such barriers. “ The main driver of the Cuban economy is agriculture. The country is a major producer of several crops but sugar and tobacco are the big money products. Despite not being able to export their products to the United States Cuba has become a major exporter of agricultural products. There has been an attempt on the part of the Cuban government to diversify their economy and it looks like natural resources will be one way that they can do this. The country has become a major nickel producer and this has quickly become one of their largest exports. There is also the potential for Cuba to become a major oil producer. There are large reserves of oil in the Caribbean that are in Cuba's territorial water. It is very likely that in the near future they will take advantage of these reserves in order to help diversify the economy.”

Before the 1900s, in order to get from the Atlantic ocean to the pacific ocean, you had to go around South America then all the way up again to reach your destination. Everyone was getting tired of going the long way, until a French company that was lead by Ferdinand de Lesseps came up with the idea of making a canal through Panama. However, the French ended failing because of the obstacles that came their way. Later on the U.S. wanted to continue building the canal, plus they had more to gain from this canal. They got the permission to build a canal through Panama and began working. Of course many obstacles were faced, but finally on August 15, 1914, the canal was completed. Everyone was saying that the Panama Canal would change the face of

During the late 1800s, a French company had tried to link the Atlantic to the Pacific across the Isthmus of Panama but failed. The French had abandoned the attempt to build and convinced the U.S. to buy the company’s claim. In 1903, the U.S. government purchases the Panama route for $40 million. Roosevelt stepped in and dispatched warships to the waters off Panama to support a Panamanian rebellion against Colombia. Soon after that, Panama declared its independence from Colombia. Panama immediately granted America control over the “canal zone.” America payed Panama $10 million and an annual rent of $250,000 to secure the

Donoghue explains that the canal “provided jobs and economic opportunities for the Panamanians,” which gives United Statesians power (9). The fact that the Zone provided jobs and helped stimulate the economy can be construed in a way that says to Panamanians “we as the United States brought you these jobs, therefore you must subject yourselves to us.” The United States held a lot of economic power, which was demonstrated through the fact that the “Latin and West Indian Panamanians [working in the Zone] were never fairly compensated for their labor compared to white U.S. workers” (10). Anyone who wasn’t white was paid “lower wages in silver” compared to the white workers from the United States who were paid “in gold” (26). This practice caused a deliberate wage gap between white and non white workers, which transitioned into segregation based on whether a worker was paid in gold or silver-- similar to the segregation seen in the U.S. south at the time. Simply the idea of paying workers in the same currency was a “threat to U.S. supremacy” and caused this practice to continue until the 1970s (62). The United States asserted its power over minority workers through the unfair wages, keeping them in a perpetual lower class. The effects of this blatant discrimination based on race are seen today, as Panama still suffers “from the second worst maldistribution of income in the hemisphere”

Panama is an isthmus or a land bridge in Central America that links North America to South America. The Atlantic Ocean (this includes the Caribbean Sea) lies north of the country while the Pacific Ocean is to the south. Panama borders the Republic of Columbia to the east and the Republic of Costa Rica to the west. (See Figure 1 in Appendix: Map of Panama). Approximately, 3.86 million people live in this country and 1 million live in its capital Panama City. Major cities to consider entering the business market are: Panama City (its largest city and capital) on the pacific side and Colon, located on the Atlantic side, is the second largest free zone in the world, “which has become a vital trading and transshipment center serving the region

As the worlds most dominate currency, the USD hold to large advantages of being currency reserved. Each dollar stockpiled and bought in non-US countries is one dollar that the US citizens gave that purchases power against other nations for free. The status of being the main world international trade

With the economy constantly changing, we are starting to see drastic changes in our dollar. A countries currency determines their strength in the market and their inflation rate. With a higher inflation rate, they are able to buy more and do more for a cheaper price. To help us better understand the difference between the weak dollar and the strong dollar, we will go in depth with both weak and strong dollars and its advantages and disadvantages, the currency monitor, the causes of the weak and strong dollar, and how it fluctuates and affects operations.

This paper provides a case study of Costa Rica’s monetary policy through the identification and estimation of its money demand function. Although similar studies have recently examined money demand for most CADR economies, little was done in the case of Costa Rica since the 1990s. The Republic of Costa Rica is a small open economy that has undergone substantial informal dollarization (i.e., currency substitution) , and a relatively high average inflation rate (13%), the highest in the region, over the past 50 years. As of 2011, 38.6% of domestic bank deposits were eurodollar deposits, reflecting the high levels of dollarization. In 2005, Banco Central de Costa Rica, the country’s central bank, chose the inflation-targeting regime as its official

A fixed exchange rate regime will offer an economy greater stability in international prices and therefore encourage trade. Additionally, for developing countries a fixed rate will assist in promoting institutional discipline as the country will adopt restrictive monetary and fiscal policies that foster an anti-inflationary environment. A significant weakness of a fixed rate is that it is subject to destabilizing speculative attacks which could lead to financial meltdowns and devastating economic contractions. A floating exchange rate regime allows central banks to combat macroeconomic factors such as unemployment, inflation, and interest rates without having to worry about the effect on exchange rates. However, developing countries whose economies depend on trade will be reluctant to allow their exchange rates to fluctuate freely.

The Lebanese pound is firmly pegged to the American dollar since September 1999. Furthermore Lebanese currency has “undetermined competitiveness, with merchandise exports falling from 23% of GDP in 1989 to 4% in 2000”.

Allows Bahamians to go shopping abroad to buy goods and send their children to school, as long as the US dollars are floating in the Bahamian economy easily.