Word: panama
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...resort wear. Lord & Taylor has enthusiastically bought nearly all of the Albini collection, and New York's giant Alexander's, which specializes in translating luxury fashions into mass sales, is promoting the Gatsby theme in every department. Its mannequins wear short or bobbed hair under cloche and Panama hats, Art Deco jewelry in clunky imitation ivory, long rope necklaces of pearl or amber, narrow belts and long, long scarves. "We've just emerged from an ethnic, costume period," says Alexander's Fashion Designer Francine Farkas. "Halloween is over." Even Levi Strauss is making wide-legged, cuffed...
...Panama is also seeking increased traffic payments in proportion to all the economic benefits that the U.S. and other nations derive from the Canal's geographic location (a saving of $8.5 billion projected for this decade, according to a recent U.N. study). Washington has agreed to increase the current $1.8 million annual payment (a bargain negotiated in 1914) to about $25 million a year. Panama rejected this offer...
There is no question that Panama needs added revenue. In the four years since Torrijos' military junta seized power, government indebtedness has doubled to $320 million, and simply servicing the debt takes 30% of the budget. Meanwhile, there has been almost no industrial investment in four years, and a severe drought has forced once self-sufficient Panamanians to import rice...
...Much of Panama's economic mess is attributable to Torrijos. A mercurial figure of 43, Torrijos has muzzled the press and banned all political parties. Though he allows a figurehead President to sign decrees, he has had himself invested as "maximum leader of the revolution" for another six years. A much ballyhooed scheme to grow sugar cane in the Veraguas province of west-central Panama has failed miserably because the land there is too dry for sugar production. On the other hand, a new labor code that increases workers' benefits has elevated costs and lowered productivity to such...
...imperialism. It is the U.S. Congress, however, and not the U.N. Security Council, that holds the power over ratification of any new Canal treaty, and Congress is adamantly opposed to anything suggesting a giveaway. "The whole shooting match will go down the drain unless Torrijos and Tack [Juan Tack, Panama's foreign minister] stop acting like fire-breathing monsters," said an Administration official last week. "They've been taking courses from Castro, and sure as the sun rises the Congress will not brook that stuff...