One Increase and One Decrease, Both of Them Bad

The decrease: Mexico's remittances were down about $2 billion this year.

The increase: the per-barrel cost of extracting Mexico's oil is expected to jump by 350 percent for the duration of the Calderón presidency, thanks to declines in the Cantarell oil field. 

Numbers like this make Rogelio Ramírez de la O's pessimism more understandable; the longer the crisis goes on, the longer Mexican workers continue trickling out of the US, the longer oil prices remain low, the more complicated the problems become for Mexico.