...currently discussing the US presidential election campaign until Inauguration Day.
Reports are that former Argentine President Raul Alfonsin has passed away.
AFP, Mar 29, 2009
...I've been saying for years that the biggest diff between the US and Argentine economies is: the US debt is denominated in its own currency."And after years of lecturing Asian and Latin American leaders about the importance of consistency and transparency in sorting out financial crises, we fail on both counts."If you care about this kinda stuff, you'll be glad you read Glenn Greenwald's column in Salon.
"How fortunate, I thought then, that the United States was not similarly plagued by crony capitalism! However, watching Goldman Sachs's seeming lock on high-level U.S. Treasury jobs as well as the way that Republicans and Democrats alike tiptoed around reforming Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae -- among the largest campaign contributors to Congress -- made me wonder if the differences between the United States and the Asian economies were only a matter of degree."
"Does anyone really doubt any more that the predominant characteristic of our political culture is "the incestuous relationship between governments and large corporate conglomerates"? Yet another former Goldman Sachs official and long-time derivatives advocate who played a major role in the repeal of key banking regulations, Gary Gesner, is now poised to become Obama's chief of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the body charged with regulating commodities and financial futures."
"In other words, the country's financial elites would use the catastrophes they'd created themselves in order to do what they'd always wanted to but couldn't get away with in normal times. They took the profit, and then imposed all the costs on everyone else."
After seeing how the NYT's Frugal Traveler article on internet calling went to #1 today, I thought I would take another look at what's available out there."At first sight, Miramar looks like a typical local bodegón, one of the last few left, with a rotisería (deli), accessed through another door in the corner. But once you are inside, the options on the menu and what you see on the impeccably white-tableclothed tables wil still surprise you. Apart from the famous cold cuts and prepared nibbles, the special character of the place lives in the choice of snails, frogs, partridges, oysters, rabbit, and anchovies amoun other exquisite local delicacies."
...mountain oysters, calf fries, criadillas ...call 'em what ever you want. They are the testicles of young calves and they are delicious when prepared by an old hand. The NYT article describes them well as Basque comfort food.
A lot of readers are beginning to think about Uncle Sam right about this time of year.
(kind of a fun legal brain teaser)
The Argentine Post is reporting that tourism is down for the 4th consecutive year (correction: this is the 4th consecutive month that tourism has fallen when compared with that month's prior year figures.) Spending is down too. Good post, as usual, from Taos and the gang.
Riot in Buenos Aires 13 years ago. The Ramones had announced that their very last concert was going to be at the 45,000 seat River stadium ...the boletería sold out and sold out fast.
“I have been told that consulting the information available on the Internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on,” Benedict wrote. “I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news.”"Two sentences unique in the annals of church history", says today's NYT.
The strange spectacle of the US dollar rising while the US and world economies falter ...just keeps comin'."The dollar seems to be the only safe haven left right now, with both the yen and Swiss franc under pressure," said Robert Blake, senior currency strategist at State Street in Boston.A former safe haven may have taken in some 3,000 Argentine investors. Bernie Madoff's ponzi may lead to the creation of an international financial court.
"We're certainly in risk aversion mode and the trade right now is to buy dollars, which to a large extent reflects huge repatriation flows to the United States."
For once, it's not just raining in Retiro.
I meant to post this gem from the University of Chicago months ago.
(email: letters@yanquimike.com.ar)
I'm striking out on a particular issue for any of us down here on a Rentista Visa."my rentista visa expires march 6 and we had a baby here so we are applying for permanent residence. do you know the tax implications since i disclosed my bank account in the US to them? i.e., will they tax me on the total value of whats in that account?"Argentina does tax accumulated wealth in a way that often surprises yanquis ...but not people from many other countries with similar policies.
Con motivo de los cambios en el seno del Ejecutivo, algunas agencias cablegráficas se rasgan las vestiduras.
BILL MOYERS: The global meltdown has become so enormous, volatile and dangerous, that the Director of the CIA told reporters this week President Obama now receives a daily top secret briefing on the national security implications of the worldwide recession. That comes on the heels of an earlier warning to Congress from the Director of National Intelligence who said global economic chaos has replaced terrorism as America's number one threat.
DENNIS BLAIR: Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one-to-two- year period, and instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.
BILL MOYERS: Hoping to stave off that chaos, the Treasury today took steps to shore up the failing giant Citigroup -- so poorly managed and so deeply in debt the US government is quadrupling its stake in the bank, and shaking up the board of directors. It's the third time since October the government has stepped in to pull the bank -- considered too big to let die -- back from the grave.
Remember when economists poked fun at Ronald Reagan's voodoo economics? Well, now they are dead serious about so-called "zombie banks" - financial giants like Citigroup and Bank of America whose debts are greater than their assets, with stock worth less than zero, and they're only able to stay alive by devouring federal bailout bucks. Those banks, in turn, are terrified by talk that the government might come in and nationalize them. Well, some critics ask, why not? Given all this, I wanted to talk to a man with a clear-eyed perspective on the worldwide economic impact of this banking crisis. Robert Johnson was once the Chief Economist of the Senate Banking Committee under the chairmanship of that fiercest of budget pit-bulls, the late Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire. Johnson became a Managing Director at Soros Fund Management, and now serves on a United Nations Commission recommending reforms of the international monetary and financial system.
BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the JOURNAL.
