Messaging

Someone should have been put in charge of writing the script for the “historic” meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore last Tuesday. Without clear messaging, there was confusion all around.

Immediately after the meeting, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had to go around the neighborhood to render some coherent interpretation of what happened. His mission might be described as restoring order to the message.

In Seoul, Pompeo briefed South Korean and Japanese leaders. There were anxieties needing calming.

The South Koreans were alarmed at Trump’s admission that he agreed to suspend joint military exercises in the peninsula. Seoul publicly complained that such a decision required “consultations.” That did not seem a word in Trump’s vocabulary.

From Seoul, Pompeo flew to Beijing to meet with the highest Chinese officials. They wanted a clearer sense of what was really happening.

Meanwhile, as he landed in Washington DC, Trump tweeted that the North Korean nuclear threat was over. Everyone could sleep soundly, he assured.

Trump was being excessively boastful or extremely naïve. Or both.

He forgets that Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal is intact. Building that arsenal might have required starving the North Korean people but it did buy Kim a ticket to the world of summitry. Having nuclear weapons bought Pyongyang international respectability. Because of that, they might be more reluctant than ever to part with their missiles.

Just days after quarrelling with America’s closest allies at the G-7 summit, and insulting the leader of Canada, Trump had only the fondest words for KiM Jong-un. At the G-7 summit, Trump proposed bringing Russia back into the grouping. That was roundly rejected.

Pandering to Putin and embracing Kim, Trump returned to Washington labeling the media as his people’s enemy. He made friends with traditional enemies and made enemies of traditional friends. Now Trump attacks one of the pillars of American democracy. His people must be thoroughly confused.

In Pyongyang, the state’s propaganda machine seemed to be suggesting that the economic sanctions are about to be lifted. Not to be outdone by Trump, Kim was engaged in the same effort to confuse his own people with his own wishful thinking.

As far as Pompeo explains it, the economic sanctions on the hermit kingdom will not even begin to be lifted until after the North’s “denuclearization” is complete. The conversation between Trump and Kim, it appears, only widened the gap between each man’s version of reality.

As the days pass, that meeting in Singapore is quickly turning into a comic sideshow. That might have been expected.

It was, after all, a hastily assembled summit between the worst misfits ever to rule – although Nero and Caligula might contest that billing. The eccentricity of their respective hairstyles is the least concern. The eccentricity of their respective views of the world should be a cause for concern.

Irresponsible

I have, as many readers noticed, tried to steer clear of domestic political discourse. The reason for the avoidance is because much of the partisan discussions lately have descended into an intolerable level of idiocy.

The greater share of the idiocy, to be clear, is contributed by opposition personalities. Because they fail to evolve a coherent alternative, much of their participation in the political discussion is composed of sniping and heckling. That invariably leads to irresponsible statements dutifully covered by the press.

Last week, Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano claimed that the President has called off patrols in the South China Sea. It is claim unsupported by proof even as it puts our government in the bad light of abdicating its duties. The AFP denied Alejano’s claim and Foreign Secretary Alan Cayetano called it an outright lie.

Sen. Bam Aquino spent five unremarkable years in the Senate. He wants to be reelected to the seat next year. This explains why he finds it necessary to weigh in on everything. Ding so buys media space.

Early this week, Aquino said we are experiencing “runaway inflation.” That is such an irresponsible statement that creates needless alarm.

Venezuela under Maduro and his Chavista gang is currently enduring an inflation rate of 24,571 percent. That is what runaway inflation looks like.

Our inflation rate is eminently manageable. We have the fiscal and monetary tools to deal with it.

Last month, our inflation rate was running at 4.5 percent. We can easily bring that down to 1% simply by raising interest rates and choking our growth – if low inflation is what we want. But growth is more important for our people. As much as 3 percent of our inflation is normal for the 7 percent rate of growth we are trying to sustain.

If Bam wants high growth and no inflation, he has to look for another universe. Most of us prefer to live with the imperfect choices offered by economic realities.

Not to be outdone, Vice President Leonor Robredo described the peso like it was falling through the floor. I know she was an economics major at the UP. She should be able to see controlled depreciation when it happens.

The peso has not crashed. It has depreciated gradually. It broke the P53:$1 barrier earlier this week as hot money converted to dollars in anticipation of a rate hike by the US Fed.

Should our exports remain weak and our imports of capital equipment rise, the exchange rate might move closer to P54:$1. The heavens will not fall because of that.

In a free currency exchange, as every economics student understands, the peso will find its natural exchange rate.