KEEPING THE MONEY HERE

Item in the March 6, 2008 edition of the Washington Post:

Remittances Drop as U.S. Jobs Slow

Mexicans working abroad, mostly in the United States, reduced money transfers to their families at home at a record pace in January as a U.S. housing slump squeezed construction employment.

Remittances, the second-biggest source of dollar flows into Mexico after oil receipts, fell 5.9 percent in January compared with January 2007, to $1.65 billion, Mexico's central bank said. It was the biggest drop since Banco de Mexico began records in 1995.

Our government wouldn't put a stop to such money transfers. Our government wouldn't track those strip-mall storefronts executing the transfers to see how many illegal invaders were using the facilities to drain the U.S. economy. Even local governments would not enforce zoning regulations, thereby allowing 20+ immigrants to live in a single-family home. But economic reality has caused a slowdown in propping up the economy of Mexico.

Think of it as the silver lining to the cloud of the economic downturn in the construction industry.