Leo Zuckermann offers three possible reasons that Carlos Slim painted such a gloomy picture before the Mexican Senate last week: 1) he naively underestimated the weight of his words; 2) he saw a way to dominate the news for a week, and his vanity got the best of him; and 3) he is angry at the federal government for its (timid) efforts to crack down on Telmex's domination of the telephone industry, and this was a way to stick a finger in the eye of Calderón and company.
I don't know to hazard a guess as to which of the three might be the best explanation, but there all far more logical than a fourth theory that someone offered to me at work today: Slim's fortune is extremely solid, compared to many others' vulnerability before the crisis. Therefore, if he can sink the economy, he'll drag down the value of other companies relative to his own, and he will be able to scoop up new additions to his portfolio. For a variety of reasons, that seems preposterous to me, but it is illustrative of the national faith in ulterior motives.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment