How Argentine bondholders were cheated

In 2005 Argentina sold bonds linked to statistical information on Argentina's economic situation published by INDEC - the national bureau of Statistics. In later years, it became obvious that the figures of INDEC did NOT reflect reality so even the World Bank stopped using them. The University of La Plata (my alma mater) made a study about what happened, analyzing INDEC hard disks and mail, and discovered the  Ipn_Calind_Pkg.SQL program. This computer program was used to calculate the indices and contained a "top" function that, in case of reaching an undesired figure - recalculated the index so that it was more "government friendly".

Several foreign holders of Argentine indexed bonds demanded the State for falsifying the data and cheating them. The London tribunal accepted the demand and now Argentina will pay about 1.5 billion dollars.  Triste.

See https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/2017/02/21/the-case-of-indec-in-argentina-shows-that-statistical-neutrality-is-an-unachievable-ideal/

In One Word

 

TASE is 10% behind the NASDAQ. That is very irregular, investors have been frightened by the demonstrations. In one word: BUY.

It is not only here. Look at Vonovia in Germany. Not even 13 billion euros remained on the market for a company that has 560,000 apartments with a book value of 96 billion euros on its balance sheet. We have Summit investing in real estate in Germany but mostly in the USA. Maybe there are others too. 

Spiceries

 
I was reading the history of the London Merchants Honorable Company - the first stock society - that financed expeditions to the end of the world to import spices. Nutmeg, specifically. 

The nutmeg trade in the 17th century was dominated by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which had a monopoly on the production and distribution of nutmeg in the Spice Islands (now known as the Maluku Islands) in present-day Indonesia. The VOC made enormous profits from the nutmeg trade, but individual people who became rich through the trade were often Dutch merchants, investors, and VOC officials.

One of the most famous examples of an individual who became rich through the nutmeg trade was Jan Pieterszoon Coen, a Dutch merchant and VOC official who founded the city of Batavia (now Jakarta) and helped to establish Dutch dominance over the Spice Islands. Another example is Isaac le Maire, a Dutch investor who financed several VOC expeditions to the Spice Islands and made a fortune from the nutmeg trade.

During the 17th century, Amsterdam was a major center of Jewish trade and finance, and many Dutch Jews were involved in international trade, including the spice trade. In particular, the Dutch Jewish community had close ties to the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which controlled the nutmeg trade in the Spice Islands. Some Dutch Jewish merchants and investors, such as the de Pintos and the Pereiras, were involved in financing VOC expeditions and trading in nutmeg and other spices.

Why would a European in the 17th century pay a fortune for nutmeg? I can buy any amount for a few sheqels in the local shuk. Asked IA and it became clear, nutmeg contains a psychoactive excitant. Is it a drug? asked IA. Yes, it is a drug.  There were no other drugs available in Europe at that time.

Nothing can stop human economic progress. Fueled by drugs.  

The History's Most Successful Pro-Population Policy

 Pic. of Ratko Anna, a Hungarian Communist Politician, in only 3-4 years added one million Hungarian babies to the population. They are called the Ratko generation. In general, the postwar Communist dictatorship executed several exceptionally successful programs, moving Hungary ahead. The success of forced-march industrialization and population growth and accelerated everything were phenomenal. But in a decade the people could not take it anymore and rebelled. 

What is the formula for her success?

1/ The country was a declared dictatorship of a well-organized party - no liberal press nor social media

2/ The borders were closed hermetically - no escape

3/ No anti conceptive pills at all

4/ Severe penalties for abortion and for abortionist doctors

5/ Six months of paid salary for mothers

6/ money incentives

7/ patriotic propaganda - motherhood is heroic 

8/ liberal social laws - promotion of single mothers (there was a gender imbalance)

9/ Pressing rural poverty that made incentives super valuable (not like today's rich urban societies)

Flint 2014 Water Pollution Aftereffects

 

The settlement includes $600 million from the state, $20 million from the city, $5 million from McLaren Regional Medical Center, and $1.5 million from Rowe Professional Services. 

As remembered, Flint Waterworks employees did not add antioxidants to the water, and the private pipes made of lead leached lead into the drinking water. No one died and probably did little harm because it was soon discovered and the population received free bottled water, but Flint is a privileged AfroAmerican city and President Obama declared a National Emergency gifting millions to the dysfunctional city. All private pipes were excavated and substituted - by the American government.  Somehow the blame was fixed on the Michigan State governor ("racism") and now the State transfers another 600 million to the city. 

Also prosecuted were Veolia and Rowe engineers, that consulted for the city and did nothing but verbal warnings. Veolia had good lawyers but Rowe pays 1.5 million and continues working for the now-rich city. In an unrelated fiasco, the local hospital's water was contaminated with Leptospirosis and killed several patients, and is being forced to pay too. 

"Justice" was done. America will pay forever for importing slave labor. 

Potash

 MOSCOW, March 24 (Reuters) - Russia could extend restrictions on fertiliser exports for six months until November to help support the domestic market, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said on Friday.

Moscow introduced temporary quotas on some of its fertiliser exports in late 2021 to ensure domestic supplies but has extended them continuously since. The current restrictions are due to expire at the end of May.

"Together with the trade ministry and the Federal Antimonopoly Service we are working on extending the existing set of measures on fertilisers for another six months, up to November inclusive," Patrushev said.

Interpretation: There will be a hole in the international potash market and prices should rise. 

Bad Week

 

Friday 24/3/23. I slept well and had a dream where the family (as we were 20 years ago) moved to a new big house. I woke up - in the dream - and there was a big TV on the wall, and Tehila's lost phone on the floor. The house was on a hill looking down at a dam and a lake. I was looking for my wallet with 300,000 sheqels and woke up searching for it in that big house. 

The AMPM project is becoming complicated. I feel Mey RG is blackballing me because I protested. Caught a cold and am tired. Wifey is nervous and crying because of Shany's impulsive decisions. The whole country is tense because of the reform of the selection of supreme judges. Yesterday the "house of death" (Tel Aviv homos, feminists, anarchists)  walked to "the house of life" (the religious neighborhood of  Bnei Brak) to protest the judicial reform.

On the other hand, Noia was identified as a gifted student. My friend IA congratulated me. No one else did even mention it. "Gifted" is relative, and she is gifted relative to Kfar Saba children, the number two city (in school grades) in Israel.