Following the embarrassing implication of a major New York financial institution in Russia's flight capital scandal, the Clinton Administration has decided to get tough on the money laundering issue. It is proposing legislation that gives the Treasury Department authority to ban transactions between offshore financial havens and U.S. banks and brokerages. Given the sums of money to be made, this action comes not a moment too soon. As you know, the hurricanes hit our island pretty hard last year and the banana crop hasn't fully recovered yet from Hurricane Mitch. Bananas are out.
Tourism is down and so are textiles.
We can't grow cocoa leaves. Is laundering our only way out. Tourism isn't doing too well either, what with the people from Europe not traveling as much because of the soft euro. We're still good for the money we owe, but we'll need a little more time before we can pay you. The textile business didn't pan out, and my kids got tired of typing up credit card receipts.