I was surprised today by a post from YANQUI MIKE. He reports on the "lack of meat" at the supermarket, and appears to blame it on government actions. The fact is that there´s plenty of meat to be delivered to supermarkets, but ARMED PICKETS by the wealthy landowners are PREVENTING FOOD AND ALL AGRICULTURAL SUPPLIES from reaching Buenos Aires.
There has been FOUR separate incidents of people getting hit by mobs and sent to the hospital for not stopping at the protest pickets on national highways. Try to do that in the good old US of A, land of liberty and freedom, you´d be sent to the clink faster than you can say ¨...wait!".
See:
In my view, this is a coup d´etat attempt by the same wealthy landowners that in past decades supported the military. If you or any serious economist looks at the figures, "el campo" (the countryside agriculture sector) is more profitable here than in Brazil.
I´m afraid that Mike, being a foreigner, doesn´t understand all the political and economic forces at play here.
Showing posts with label ECONOMICS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ECONOMICS. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Dollar sinks even lower...
``Sentiment for the dollar continues to deteriorate very, very rapidly and if we're not careful this will turn into a dollar crash, said Mitul Kotecha, head of foreign-exchange research in London at Calyon, the securities unit of Credit Agricole SA, France's second-biggest bank."
"President George W. Bush acknowledged the U.S. currency's decline was not ``good tidings.'' The dollar's drop may prompt Middle East central banks to reduce dollar holdings, Greg Gibbs, a strategist at ABN Amro Holding NV in Sydney, said in a report."
Dollar Falls to 12-Year Low of 100 Yen on Carlyle Fund Failure
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8q2vC2.8OyU&refer=home
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Is the supply-side school downplaying the news about Argentina's continued growth?
I recently read an article by David R Butcher titled "Where the Offshore Outsourcers Offshore Outsource" and available HERE.
I had high hopes due to the title, and instinctively tried to read it while scrolling down to find what references about offshoring operations in Argentina were included. I was very disappointed, the word "Argentina" is not even there, despite the increase of Offshoring (IT, software and services) in Argentina, which surely added its part to the sinking unemployment rates and economic recovery the last four years'.
One paragraph reads: "where do India’s outsourcers outsource? China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Romania and Morocco — you name it. ". Well, I guess "you name it" also ought to include Argentina. In fact, India's TATA Consulting Services (TCS) arrived five years ago. And success stories of firms offshoring and investing in Argentina in the last four to five years are easy to find if you look hard enough. But no, not a single reference.
But it's not this writer's fault. (if you're reading this, it isn't about you, read on, it's just that your story and the strange lack of mention of Argentina kickstarted my thought process).
Thinking aloud:
There seems to be a strange "vacuum of good news" about Argentina on the English language mainstream media (and my standard for doing this is simply typing word pairs like "inversion, argentina" (investment argentina-unquoted-) into Google News Argentina (news.google.com.ar) then repeat the search with the same terms, this time in English language and into the international "Google News" search engine (news.google.com).
My unscientific tests showed that roughly nine out of ten times, all positive economic news about Argentina appear ONLY in the local Spanish language news sites, but those news stories are usually -and suspiciously- RARELY echoed in English for the global audience, while short-lived political scandals involving Miami millionaires --once against Chavez but then flip-flopped and doing business with Venezuela's PDVSA (until a few weeks ago)-- caught trying to enter with a bag full of cash ($800,000) into Argentina are regurgitated ad-nauseum as some sort of "further proof of Argentina's corruption and hopelessness". Hrmm ... smearing PR campaigns to weaken the ruling center-left coalition and impose a more "pro-market", "pro-White House" candidate..... where have I heard of that?.
Just for the record: In the last four years, the country's economy grew like never before, plummeting unemployment, the number of unemployed people receiving government unemplyment subsidies fell 50%, and the country has been enjoying for the first time in several decades (it didn't happen since the 1920s!) year-after-year consecutive growth coupled with simultaneous fiscal surplus and a trade surpluses, all this due in part to a competitive exchange rate for Argentina's industrial and agricultural exports.
So is the majority mainstream trade press talking about the "Argentina Miracle". Well, no. Or at least not that I could see. Only BusinessWeek ventured to say so back in 2002, but it was a timid article and the recovery just started back then. When the press speaks about the region it often says "Good times in general for Latin America" and then proceed to name Brazil and Chile, poster boys for "good behaviour" because they never broke paths with the IMF. Coincidence? Don't think so!. (OK, I admit I might be wearing my tinfoil hat now).
Before you accuse me of irrational flag-waving, oldskool right-wing nationalism let me be 100% clear that it's not about this. I'm complaining from the economic policy angle. The failure of ANY major English language mainstream media reporting about the economic progress in the country, and the economic policy angle.
Perhaps the problem for the US and other western media is that portraying that Argentina is doing very well by NOT following the path preached by the right wing think tanks and the IMF would set a "bad example" for the rest of the countries still suffering the anvil's weight of the IMF and its laisez faire policies?.
Think about it... a government with a more progressive, demand side economics policy, that doesn't ask Milton Friedman for advice. A country who asks world famous IMF-critic and long time Washington Concensus skeptic Joseph Stiglitz for advice.
To top it all the results have been good, getting fiscal and commercial surpluses for the last 4 years -and more importantly, doing so for the first time in decades-. BUT, here's the surprise: reading the western English language media daily and seeing Argentina's good news virtually "blacklisted" (other than Reuters' quarter figures for the specialized economics media and speaking usually nothing about the human impact of this growth).
Why is this? I have a theory. I think it's because we pissed off a lot of Wall Street, AEI and right-wing economics technocrats followers of the supply side school, with our debt restructuring, -we paid the IMF and sent them packing-. Also, -now drifting into the political field- I suspect the lack of any good positive reporting is because we are doing good business with Venezuela and supporting projects like Stiglitz' praised REGIONAL INVESTMENT BANK.
That's my theory of why Argentina's good economic news and its social impact ended up blacklisted : due to political and ideological reasons, as it doesn't fit the wire editors' economic psyche.... in other words "nothing good should be said about it, because it didn't sign FTAA, bow to King George, or break relations with Venezuela's Chavez". Is that it?
Fifteen years ago when the country was going downhill and getting deeper and deeper into a cycle of debt yet Argentina was portrayed by the financial media as the poster boy of the IMF and magazines wasted pages and pages on the positive "reforms" that generated an influx of speculative capital (in other words, "mergers and acqusitions", that is capital changing hands, not very much NEW investment in production of real tangible goods and manufacturing) while the gates of cheap imports were opened and it de-industrialized the country sending unemployment through the roof... and culminating in the implosion of the economy when the facade fell....
Back to the news reporting angle: do you think I'm too far from the truth? Am I allucinating? Have you found English language news stories that talk about the revival of industry, the increase in manufacturing jobs,the increase of non-primary (industrial, manufacture, technology and services) exports in the last three years? Where? and when you find it, does it tie these events to the economic policy? or do they just mask it under the usual "it's a result of the increase of commodities prices?
If you find any story with that angle, PLEASE LET ME KNOW, because I've never seen all these elements together in a mainstream, English language story.
To end this long babbling, I have to wonder if perhaps all this is due to the fact that most americans DON'T KNOW DIDDLY SQUAT about Latin America as a recent Zogby Poll found?. Or is it because the American economists establishment has VERY LITTLE TOLERANCE towards dissent when it comes to the supply-side Dogma, as has been recently warned by the progressive U.S. economists?.
Just my $0.02 or $0.06 pesos. :-P
Thoughts, comments, expletives?
Food for thought:
U.S. Economists question dominance of Supply-Side Ideas
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/11/business/economics.php
"Americans know very little about Latin America"
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/345149/poll_americans_know_little_about_latin.html
Tinker Bell, Pinochet, and the Fairy Tale of the Chile Miracle
http://www.gregpalast.com/tinker-bell-pinochet-and-the-fairy-tale-miracle-of-chile-2/
Bank of the South: Toward Financial Autonomy - Worldpress.org
http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2852.cfm
Chileans praise Argentina's economic wisdom wrt .IT policy
http://www.atinachile.cl/content/view/31289/Las_razones_que_explican_el_desembarco_de_Google_en_Argentina.html#first
There are the kind of stories NOT FOUND on mainstream US/western English language media*:
(*Spanish language stories, with titles translated by me):
AR: People receiving government unempolyment subsidies fell 50%
in the last 4 years
http://www.telam.com.ar/vernota.php?tipo=N&idPub=59388&id=143954&dis=1&sec=1
Spending by people with the lowest incomes grows in the farther/poorest BA city suburbs
LA NACION, Wed. 16/5/07
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/archivo/Nota.asp?nota_id=909024
quote/translation:
"The combination of union-management agreed salary increases for workers in the formal sector of the economy and the general drop in unemployment levels have begun to show results in the poorest areas of the greater Buenos Aires, which after the second semester of '2006 show consumer spending growth rates above the rest of the population"
Government launches tax reductions for tourism SMBs
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/1-0&fp=4626d4c2bd8b59cb&ei=9nMmRvicJZ_coQPyvbS9Cw&url=http%3A//www.adnmundo.com/contenidos/turismo/pymes_tu_180407.html&cid=1154259208
Air traffic between USA and Argentina grows
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/9-0&fp=4626d4c2bd8b59cb&ei=9nMmRvicJZ_coQPyvbS9Cw&url=http%3A//www.hostnews.com.ar/2007/sal/070085.htm&cid=1154211647
Google opens regional HQ in Buenos Aires, will hire up to 3,000
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/0-3&fp=4626fcdb3ae71ad4&ei=TnYmRtLHI5qKoQOg3ZW3Cw&url=http%3A//www.lagaceta.com.ar/vernota.asp%3Fid_seccion%3D8%26id_nota%3D202119&cid=1154204519
Argentina's Tourism sector now brings more dollars than grains and meat exports combined
http://www.diariohoy.net/notas/verNoticia.phtml/html/268469454/
17/4/07: Argentina's government launches fiscal incentives for the local software industry
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/0-0&fp=462657718885b933&ei=-3YmRq-1BoOSogP4z9GzCw&url=http%3A//www.infobaeprofesional.com/interior/index.php%3Fp%3Dnota%26idx%3D44640%26cookie&cid=1154211088
The latest boom: corporate software, made in Argentina
http://www.siliconnews.es/es/silicon/special-report/2007/04/04/boom-del-desarrollo-software
20/4/07 - Argentina's investment level the highest in the last 20 years
http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/310936-100896-0-El-nivel-inversi%C3%B3n-es-el-m%C3%A1s-alto-los-%C3%BAltimos-20-a%C3%B1os
Argentina widens trade surplus with the US
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/02/11/elmundo/i-03103.htm
Venezuela and Argentina duplicate its trade
http://www.adnmundo.com/contenidos/comercio/venezuela_argentina_ce_171106.html
"one of the most important aspects is the diversified nature of the current exports from Argentina to Venezuela. From (traditional products like) powder milk and meat to industrial goods like tractors, trucks, SUVs, pipes and valves for the oil industry, among others".
Consumer credit levels now above the historic highs before the crisis
http://www.infobaeprofesional.com/interior/index.php?p=nota&idx=44671&cookie
==========================================================
Two notable exceptions to the "information black cloud": BusinessWeek (US) and the IHT (FR)... two lone positive stories, but one is very dated by now, and the other too short (imho).
Argentina: doint it their own way - 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/28/opinion/edweis.php
Argentina: reversal of fortune (BusinessWeek) - 2002
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_19/b3932098_mz058.htm
The following, while good and positive spinned, are not from what I'd call "mainstream media", actually one is a progressive magazine's blogger and the other a little Italian news portal:
Argentina Heads Region's "Human Development" Index
http://www.portalino.it/nuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=13215
Beat the Press: Argentina's strong growth among Most Important news of '06
http://www.prospect.org/deanbaker/2006/12/most_important_economic_news_s.html
Thoughts? comments? Expletives? ;)
FC
I had high hopes due to the title, and instinctively tried to read it while scrolling down to find what references about offshoring operations in Argentina were included. I was very disappointed, the word "Argentina" is not even there, despite the increase of Offshoring (IT, software and services) in Argentina, which surely added its part to the sinking unemployment rates and economic recovery the last four years'.
One paragraph reads: "where do India’s outsourcers outsource? China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Romania and Morocco — you name it. ". Well, I guess "you name it" also ought to include Argentina. In fact, India's TATA Consulting Services (TCS) arrived five years ago. And success stories of firms offshoring and investing in Argentina in the last four to five years are easy to find if you look hard enough. But no, not a single reference.
But it's not this writer's fault. (if you're reading this, it isn't about you, read on, it's just that your story and the strange lack of mention of Argentina kickstarted my thought process).
Thinking aloud:
There seems to be a strange "vacuum of good news" about Argentina on the English language mainstream media (and my standard for doing this is simply typing word pairs like "inversion, argentina" (investment argentina-unquoted-) into Google News Argentina (news.google.com.ar) then repeat the search with the same terms, this time in English language and into the international "Google News" search engine (news.google.com).
My unscientific tests showed that roughly nine out of ten times, all positive economic news about Argentina appear ONLY in the local Spanish language news sites, but those news stories are usually -and suspiciously- RARELY echoed in English for the global audience, while short-lived political scandals involving Miami millionaires --once against Chavez but then flip-flopped and doing business with Venezuela's PDVSA (until a few weeks ago)-- caught trying to enter with a bag full of cash ($800,000) into Argentina are regurgitated ad-nauseum as some sort of "further proof of Argentina's corruption and hopelessness". Hrmm ... smearing PR campaigns to weaken the ruling center-left coalition and impose a more "pro-market", "pro-White House" candidate..... where have I heard of that?.
Just for the record: In the last four years, the country's economy grew like never before, plummeting unemployment, the number of unemployed people receiving government unemplyment subsidies fell 50%, and the country has been enjoying for the first time in several decades (it didn't happen since the 1920s!) year-after-year consecutive growth coupled with simultaneous fiscal surplus and a trade surpluses, all this due in part to a competitive exchange rate for Argentina's industrial and agricultural exports.
So is the majority mainstream trade press talking about the "Argentina Miracle". Well, no. Or at least not that I could see. Only BusinessWeek ventured to say so back in 2002, but it was a timid article and the recovery just started back then. When the press speaks about the region it often says "Good times in general for Latin America" and then proceed to name Brazil and Chile, poster boys for "good behaviour" because they never broke paths with the IMF. Coincidence? Don't think so!. (OK, I admit I might be wearing my tinfoil hat now).
Before you accuse me of irrational flag-waving, oldskool right-wing nationalism let me be 100% clear that it's not about this. I'm complaining from the economic policy angle. The failure of ANY major English language mainstream media reporting about the economic progress in the country, and the economic policy angle.
Perhaps the problem for the US and other western media is that portraying that Argentina is doing very well by NOT following the path preached by the right wing think tanks and the IMF would set a "bad example" for the rest of the countries still suffering the anvil's weight of the IMF and its laisez faire policies?.
Think about it... a government with a more progressive, demand side economics policy, that doesn't ask Milton Friedman for advice. A country who asks world famous IMF-critic and long time Washington Concensus skeptic Joseph Stiglitz for advice.
To top it all the results have been good, getting fiscal and commercial surpluses for the last 4 years -and more importantly, doing so for the first time in decades-. BUT, here's the surprise: reading the western English language media daily and seeing Argentina's good news virtually "blacklisted" (other than Reuters' quarter figures for the specialized economics media and speaking usually nothing about the human impact of this growth).
Why is this? I have a theory. I think it's because we pissed off a lot of Wall Street, AEI and right-wing economics technocrats followers of the supply side school, with our debt restructuring, -we paid the IMF and sent them packing-. Also, -now drifting into the political field- I suspect the lack of any good positive reporting is because we are doing good business with Venezuela and supporting projects like Stiglitz' praised REGIONAL INVESTMENT BANK.
That's my theory of why Argentina's good economic news and its social impact ended up blacklisted : due to political and ideological reasons, as it doesn't fit the wire editors' economic psyche.... in other words "nothing good should be said about it, because it didn't sign FTAA, bow to King George, or break relations with Venezuela's Chavez". Is that it?
Fifteen years ago when the country was going downhill and getting deeper and deeper into a cycle of debt yet Argentina was portrayed by the financial media as the poster boy of the IMF and magazines wasted pages and pages on the positive "reforms" that generated an influx of speculative capital (in other words, "mergers and acqusitions", that is capital changing hands, not very much NEW investment in production of real tangible goods and manufacturing) while the gates of cheap imports were opened and it de-industrialized the country sending unemployment through the roof... and culminating in the implosion of the economy when the facade fell....
Back to the news reporting angle: do you think I'm too far from the truth? Am I allucinating? Have you found English language news stories that talk about the revival of industry, the increase in manufacturing jobs,the increase of non-primary (industrial, manufacture, technology and services) exports in the last three years? Where? and when you find it, does it tie these events to the economic policy? or do they just mask it under the usual "it's a result of the increase of commodities prices?
If you find any story with that angle, PLEASE LET ME KNOW, because I've never seen all these elements together in a mainstream, English language story.
To end this long babbling, I have to wonder if perhaps all this is due to the fact that most americans DON'T KNOW DIDDLY SQUAT about Latin America as a recent Zogby Poll found?. Or is it because the American economists establishment has VERY LITTLE TOLERANCE towards dissent when it comes to the supply-side Dogma, as has been recently warned by the progressive U.S. economists?.
Just my $0.02 or $0.06 pesos. :-P
Thoughts, comments, expletives?
Food for thought:
U.S. Economists question dominance of Supply-Side Ideas
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/11/business/economics.php
"Americans know very little about Latin America"
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/345149/poll_americans_know_little_about_latin.html
Tinker Bell, Pinochet, and the Fairy Tale of the Chile Miracle
http://www.gregpalast.com/tinker-bell-pinochet-and-the-fairy-tale-miracle-of-chile-2/
Bank of the South: Toward Financial Autonomy - Worldpress.org
http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2852.cfm
Chileans praise Argentina's economic wisdom wrt .IT policy
http://www.atinachile.cl/content/view/31289/Las_razones_que_explican_el_desembarco_de_Google_en_Argentina.html#first
There are the kind of stories NOT FOUND on mainstream US/western English language media*:
(*Spanish language stories, with titles translated by me):
AR: People receiving government unempolyment subsidies fell 50%
in the last 4 years
http://www.telam.com.ar/vernota.php?tipo=N&idPub=59388&id=143954&dis=1&sec=1
Spending by people with the lowest incomes grows in the farther/poorest BA city suburbs
LA NACION, Wed. 16/5/07
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/archivo/Nota.asp?nota_id=909024
quote/translation:
"The combination of union-management agreed salary increases for workers in the formal sector of the economy and the general drop in unemployment levels have begun to show results in the poorest areas of the greater Buenos Aires, which after the second semester of '2006 show consumer spending growth rates above the rest of the population"
Government launches tax reductions for tourism SMBs
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/1-0&fp=4626d4c2bd8b59cb&ei=9nMmRvicJZ_coQPyvbS9Cw&url=http%3A//www.adnmundo.com/contenidos/turismo/pymes_tu_180407.html&cid=1154259208
Air traffic between USA and Argentina grows
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/9-0&fp=4626d4c2bd8b59cb&ei=9nMmRvicJZ_coQPyvbS9Cw&url=http%3A//www.hostnews.com.ar/2007/sal/070085.htm&cid=1154211647
Google opens regional HQ in Buenos Aires, will hire up to 3,000
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/0-3&fp=4626fcdb3ae71ad4&ei=TnYmRtLHI5qKoQOg3ZW3Cw&url=http%3A//www.lagaceta.com.ar/vernota.asp%3Fid_seccion%3D8%26id_nota%3D202119&cid=1154204519
Argentina's Tourism sector now brings more dollars than grains and meat exports combined
http://www.diariohoy.net/notas/verNoticia.phtml/html/268469454/
17/4/07: Argentina's government launches fiscal incentives for the local software industry
http://news.google.com.ar/news/url?sa=t&ct=es_ar/0-0&fp=462657718885b933&ei=-3YmRq-1BoOSogP4z9GzCw&url=http%3A//www.infobaeprofesional.com/interior/index.php%3Fp%3Dnota%26idx%3D44640%26cookie&cid=1154211088
The latest boom: corporate software, made in Argentina
http://www.siliconnews.es/es/silicon/special-report/2007/04/04/boom-del-desarrollo-software
20/4/07 - Argentina's investment level the highest in the last 20 years
http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/310936-100896-0-El-nivel-inversi%C3%B3n-es-el-m%C3%A1s-alto-los-%C3%BAltimos-20-a%C3%B1os
Argentina widens trade surplus with the US
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/02/11/elmundo/i-03103.htm
Venezuela and Argentina duplicate its trade
http://www.adnmundo.com/contenidos/comercio/venezuela_argentina_ce_171106.html
"one of the most important aspects is the diversified nature of the current exports from Argentina to Venezuela. From (traditional products like) powder milk and meat to industrial goods like tractors, trucks, SUVs, pipes and valves for the oil industry, among others".
Consumer credit levels now above the historic highs before the crisis
http://www.infobaeprofesional.com/interior/index.php?p=nota&idx=44671&cookie
==========================================================
Two notable exceptions to the "information black cloud": BusinessWeek (US) and the IHT (FR)... two lone positive stories, but one is very dated by now, and the other too short (imho).
Argentina: doint it their own way - 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/28/opinion/edweis.php
Argentina: reversal of fortune (BusinessWeek) - 2002
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_19/b3932098_mz058.htm
The following, while good and positive spinned, are not from what I'd call "mainstream media", actually one is a progressive magazine's blogger and the other a little Italian news portal:
Argentina Heads Region's "Human Development" Index
http://www.portalino.it/nuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=13215
Beat the Press: Argentina's strong growth among Most Important news of '06
http://www.prospect.org/deanbaker/2006/12/most_important_economic_news_s.html
Thoughts? comments? Expletives? ;)
FC
Monday, June 25, 2007
Argentines have a short memory span - The "New Politics" -that are really oldskool-, won....
Unless you've been living in a bottle, let me tell you that we had ellections down here for city mayor and the right wing candidate won.
"Moderate" Right candidate Mauricio Macri danced and was carried around by his supporters at PRO
¡Poor joke Mauritzio! ¡Saying that Argentina must get on its feet, with Michetti on wheelchair next to you!!
Very inconsiderate of you with your loved Free Trade Agreements expert at the WTO
¡"Speaking less" is "PRO" !
According to "Mauricio" the middle class or "so-so class" as Mafalda called it will be able to "drink mate again in front of their homes" and Buenos Aires will turn overnight, by the power of his "magic" into a city "without security fences in parks, no security bars in shops, no security bars at homes, ENOUGH! Buenos Aires is not our (loved) city anymore!" .
Well, Mauricio, it's your turn now to see how you perform. That assorted bag of leftovers from different right wing factions that is PRO with people from the far right UCeDe, allong with collaborators of former finance minister Domingo Cavallo (or Sunday Horse as I like to call him), succeeded in convincing the -once again- "so-so (middle) class" that a businessman like you is more experienced and more trustworthy than someone from the academia.
And that your work experience "working on dad's firms" after a brief 6 months tenure at Citibank are better attributes than the vast academic experience of Daniel Filmus, someone with a remarkable background.
¡Thank the heavens your campaign manager Rodriguez Larreta was "very succesfull" at handling Social Security and even your conservative colleagues remember him!.
I'm sure you will turn the city upside down and that Utopian vision of grandmas drinking mate in front of their homes (with the door open behind them as was the earlier XXth century image), will become real. Yeah, right. I specially like your compaign promise about the parks without fences and the shops and homes without security bars at windows.
¡If you believed Mauricio's empty promises above, let me tell you I have bridge I could also sell you!. No city as big as Buenos Aires is without crime. That simply does not exist. For some reason (I suspect the reason but I'd be accused of being a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist) the local media seems to have established the notion that "the crime wave doesn't stop" assuming that it's even possible for crime to "stop". IF that would be the case, there would be cities around the world with no police, and that doesn't exist.
In fact, crime has been going up in the US of A in the last few years...
-----
Violent crime up again, more murders, robberies - US
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/news/article_1313133.php/Violent_crime_up_again_more_murders_robberies
"The report showed that murders in big cities jumped last year by 6.7 percent. Robberies, an important indicator of crime trends, increased 6 percent nationwide. Cities with big increases in the number of murders included Orlando and Miami in Florida; Oakland and San Diego in California; Phoenix, Arizona; Corpus Christi, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Reno, Nevada and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Even though the higher violent crime numbers had been expected, they still represented bad news for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who has targeted violent crime as a top priority for the U.S. Justice Department. A department study released last month of 18 metropolitan areas cited more violence by local gangs or street crews, a greater prevalence of guns in the hands of criminals and younger, more violent offenders as key reasons for the rising crime rates.
------
But I digress...
¡Here comes the New Politics that is "non-partisan" ! ¡The new "sweetened" right! ¡Hooray for PRO! Hooray for the UceDe! Alvaro Alzogaray must be smiling in his rotting grave...
Two weeks ago I received one of those e-mail chain letters, forwarded by someone not too bright that I know, the kind of person who cannot send e-mail with bcc: and always copies his entire list, in plain view to everyone who receives each message, you know the kind of middle-class "so-so class". The mail content was 100% anti-Kirchner and had by subject line "I don't give a damn about politics!" and called upon the reader to "vote for change" and babbled about the 'new politics', pointing the blame on the K administration for everything from 'drugs and pickpockets' to car accidents and 'soccer hooligans'(!)".
But hey... we cannot ask the average Mrs. Jane Doe to distinguish between the current Mayor -who was not elected to the post but rather "landed" on it after Ibarra was ousted- and Kirchner's candidate.... Mrs. Jane Doe was ANGRY, angry at...well... something... and she voted for "Saint Mauricio!".
I end this analysis with a quote I've seen on the Net, used as forum taglines...
"In this town 5% are fascists, 30% indifferent, and 40% not
interested in politics. Total: 75% of fascists." From "The school of Barbiana."
¡¡So, let's enjoy the coming "City without fences" headed by the "New Politks" which are really oldskool rightwing!
FC
"Moderate" Right candidate Mauricio Macri danced and was carried around by his supporters at PRO
¡Poor joke Mauritzio! ¡Saying that Argentina must get on its feet, with Michetti on wheelchair next to you!! Very inconsiderate of you with your loved Free Trade Agreements expert at the WTO
¡"Speaking less" is "PRO" !
¡Speaking about "not speaking" is even more PRO!
According to "Mauricio" the middle class or "so-so class" as Mafalda called it will be able to "drink mate again in front of their homes" and Buenos Aires will turn overnight, by the power of his "magic" into a city "without security fences in parks, no security bars in shops, no security bars at homes, ENOUGH! Buenos Aires is not our (loved) city anymore!" .
Well, Mauricio, it's your turn now to see how you perform. That assorted bag of leftovers from different right wing factions that is PRO with people from the far right UCeDe, allong with collaborators of former finance minister Domingo Cavallo (or Sunday Horse as I like to call him), succeeded in convincing the -once again- "so-so (middle) class" that a businessman like you is more experienced and more trustworthy than someone from the academia.
And that your work experience "working on dad's firms" after a brief 6 months tenure at Citibank are better attributes than the vast academic experience of Daniel Filmus, someone with a remarkable background.
¡Thank the heavens your campaign manager Rodriguez Larreta was "very succesfull" at handling Social Security and even your conservative colleagues remember him!.
I'm sure you will turn the city upside down and that Utopian vision of grandmas drinking mate in front of their homes (with the door open behind them as was the earlier XXth century image), will become real. Yeah, right. I specially like your compaign promise about the parks without fences and the shops and homes without security bars at windows.
¡If you believed Mauricio's empty promises above, let me tell you I have bridge I could also sell you!. No city as big as Buenos Aires is without crime. That simply does not exist. For some reason (I suspect the reason but I'd be accused of being a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist) the local media seems to have established the notion that "the crime wave doesn't stop" assuming that it's even possible for crime to "stop". IF that would be the case, there would be cities around the world with no police, and that doesn't exist.
In fact, crime has been going up in the US of A in the last few years...
-----
Violent crime up again, more murders, robberies - US
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/news/article_1313133.php/Violent_crime_up_again_more_murders_robberies
"The report showed that murders in big cities jumped last year by 6.7 percent. Robberies, an important indicator of crime trends, increased 6 percent nationwide. Cities with big increases in the number of murders included Orlando and Miami in Florida; Oakland and San Diego in California; Phoenix, Arizona; Corpus Christi, Texas; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Reno, Nevada and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Even though the higher violent crime numbers had been expected, they still represented bad news for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who has targeted violent crime as a top priority for the U.S. Justice Department. A department study released last month of 18 metropolitan areas cited more violence by local gangs or street crews, a greater prevalence of guns in the hands of criminals and younger, more violent offenders as key reasons for the rising crime rates.
------
But I digress...
¡Here comes the New Politics that is "non-partisan" ! ¡The new "sweetened" right! ¡Hooray for PRO! Hooray for the UceDe! Alvaro Alzogaray must be smiling in his rotting grave...
Two weeks ago I received one of those e-mail chain letters, forwarded by someone not too bright that I know, the kind of person who cannot send e-mail with bcc: and always copies his entire list, in plain view to everyone who receives each message, you know the kind of middle-class "so-so class". The mail content was 100% anti-Kirchner and had by subject line "I don't give a damn about politics!" and called upon the reader to "vote for change" and babbled about the 'new politics', pointing the blame on the K administration for everything from 'drugs and pickpockets' to car accidents and 'soccer hooligans'(!)".
But hey... we cannot ask the average Mrs. Jane Doe to distinguish between the current Mayor -who was not elected to the post but rather "landed" on it after Ibarra was ousted- and Kirchner's candidate.... Mrs. Jane Doe was ANGRY, angry at...well... something... and she voted for "Saint Mauricio!".
I end this analysis with a quote I've seen on the Net, used as forum taglines...
"In this town 5% are fascists, 30% indifferent, and 40% not
interested in politics. Total: 75% of fascists." From "The school of Barbiana."
¡¡So, let's enjoy the coming "City without fences" headed by the "New Politks" which are really oldskool rightwing!
FC
Friday, February 24, 2006
Film shows Enron scandal and the dangers of unregulated markets
Just finished watching "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" on DVD. This film shows the true story behind the "Enron scandal". The accounting tricks, the inflated stock price. Andersen Consulting's role in conveniently approving the shady books, the "get rich at all costs" mindset promoted within the company, the role of "deregulation" ideology in pursuing those goals, and how politicians bought it when they thought deregulating the energy markets was "for the better" while the company profitted at the expense of people in California and "moved energy to the desert" to cut supply and increase prices.It's a dramatic movie. For instance, you can not only hear former Enron chief Skilling calling an investor an "Asshole" during a conference call with investors as one analyst confronted him over the company's murky earnings releases. In another segment, you can hear Enron's "energy traders" cheering after seeing fires on TV below one of California's main power lines "the price per kWatt is going to go through the roof"... "burn, baby burn" you hear them cheering.
This movie, along with "The Corporation" should be mandatory viewing at high school before anyone gets his/her degree. Gives the "Free Market needs no regulation" religious zealots and corporate mouthpieces like the guys at the CATO Institute a very well deserved spanking.
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Today´s news story
Argentine agriculture sector more profitable than Brazil, even after taxes
http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/371293-101092-0-El-campo-argentino-es-mucho-m%C3%A1s-rentable-que-el-Brasil
and here automatic translation...
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=/language_tools&u=http://www.infobae.com/contenidos/371293-101092-0-El-campo-argentino-es-mucho-m%25C3%25A1s-rentable-que-el-Brasil
We´re calling a gathering for Thursday and Friday in front of the Sociedad Rural Argentina, Florida 460, to protest the armed pickets in argentinian routes and the fact that big cities are being held hostage by armed gangs of the wealthy landowners who´re doing an AWFUL LOT BETTER than they did in the 1990s at the time of the right wing Chicago-school ¨free market rules" economic programme.
Oh an another thing... as early as last THURSDAY, I saw commenters on centre-right paper LA NACION calling for "countryside patriots" to SABOTAGE THE ELECTRIC GRID, how about that?.
I continuously reported those messages as "inciting violence" but those were REPOSTED OVER AND OVER, for a period of SIX HOURS, from 1:00am to 7:00, by four different people.
COINCIDENCE?. If this wasn´t staged, I don´t know what was.
And how about the 2,000 people showing up with banners in Plaza de Mayo? Did they make the HUGE banners "supporting the countryside" on short notice? Or did they have those already prepared for the "event"?.
Argentina has a long tradition of infighting. And a friend says that Argentina is not a democracy, it´s a country in perpetual civil war, only that "it´s frozen from time to time, then the war is revived".