Beethoven: Triple Concerto in C major, op. 56

News from Argentina

I talked to my relatives in Argentina. They are all working. Schools are closed and people live in fear of street crime. 4000 additional policemen (pic) were sent to the Buenos Aires Province to increase personal safety. From my vantage point, their situation is sustainable. 

Argentina's foreign debt of 323 billion US$ is, however, unsustainable. After 160 days of quarantine, 400,000 people are sick and 8,000 have died. 

Kfar Saba Boiled and Steamed

 

The heavy heat will continue over the weekend, with the heat becoming oppressive on Friday afternoon. Along the coast, the air will be extremely muggy.

In Katzrin, temperatures on Friday are expected to reach 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit), while in Tzfat, Rehovot, and Beit Shemesh, temperatures are expected to reach 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Nahariya, Haifa, and Tel Aviv will see temperatures of 34 degrees (93.2), while Tiberias and the Dead Sea area will reach up to 45 degrees (113 degrees). In Tayibe (NEXT TO KFAR SABA CITY), the heat will reach 37 degrees  * (98.6 degrees), while in Ariel, temperatures will reach 39 degrees (102.2 degrees). Jerusalem and Mitzpe Ramon will see temperatures of up to 40 degrees (104 degrees), while Be'er Sheva could see temperatures of 43 degrees (109.4 degrees) and Eilat of up to 47 degrees (116.6 degrees).

(*) It is 10 AM and already it is higher!

Lafayette rejects its neighbors

 

“They’re not our community. They’re not our people,” Scott Morgan, the interim police chief, said at a news conference Saturday. “They’re coming over here for trouble. Don’t support them, don’t get involved with them. Stay out of it.”

Hurricane Laura incapacitated electricity and water supply of eighty neighboring towns and Lafayette refuses to receive the "refugees". This is something new for me, and unlike the generous, welcoming America I knew fifty years ago. The bloggers writing that one should hoard canned food and ammunition may know something. 

Bad.   

US Dollar Fast Devaluation

 The DXY index reflecting the relative worth of the dollar has been showing a 7-8% devaluation lately. You need only 3.40 Israeli sheqels to buy a dollar, when the long stable exchange rate had been 4.0 sheqel. Many maintain that even 3.4 is to high, since the dollar has lost more against the Euro. Surprisingly, my NASDAQ shares like Nvidia are showing more advance than the local TASE shares. It is so confusing that I didnt dare to trade in the last two months. I am starting to be interested in Turkey: it is large, industrial country and many Israelis made money speculating on it, but I always remember Fishman, who lost his pants (his Alliance tire factory) in one bad move. The lira is tanking but President Erdogan is unpredictable, as the official German site Deutsche Welle puts it: President Erdogan hates hiking interest rates like the devil hates holy water. In his unorthodox view of economics, higher rates will only fuel inflation.  

Bottom line: Sit on the sideline, do nothing.

American Jews are sending their children to Israel

It is not yet a mass movement, but a few thousand children are arriving to Israel to start the new school year here. Many are from New York, fearing the epidemic and the savage African riots. Some are from Ucraine and White Russia, where there is pre-war atmosphere. 

Here we have a daily circus in front of the Prime Minister's home. Thousands of actors and entertainers are unemployed because of the epidemic and have much spare time (and no worries - they receive generous social security payments). They undress and/or dress in attention-drawing porn attires, and make noisy street theater. Each day they a public of about ten thousand come to enjoy the free spectacle. 

P.S.: Why that tyrannical Prime Minister Bibi Netaniyahu does not let let that nice girl to live her life? Why is he personally ruining the life of that angelic girl?

Tragic Week in Israel

89 persons died this week in Israel of the coronavirus. More than 20,000 are sick. We are living the second wave of the epidemic. It has been six months of closure, too long, I am not anymore in the university, feel depressed and cannot work. 

P.S.: Yet I worked and finished the Pietrokovsky report.