Martin Langfield's Blog, page 7
December 8, 2015
Tightrope (or as you say in Spanish, slackrope)
My latest column: Cuerda floja, or howLatam pro-business leaders face a welfare conundrum http://reut.rs/1jKFyRq
December 5, 2015
Running on empty
My latest column: Venezuela’s populist revolution runs out of gas
The Andean nation has the world’s biggest oil reserves but can’t get basic goods like milk and medicine into stores. Voters will punish the inept heirs of leftist caudillo Hugo Chavez in Sunday’s legislative elections, but no quick turnaround is coming. Default is a risk in 2016.
December 3, 2015
November 25, 2015
The sickness is the cure
Some thoughts on Brazil. Sometimes the sickness is also the cure …
Brazil’s crisis may have a silver lining: the rule of law
Latin America’s biggest economy will get worse before it gets better. The arrest of billionaire banker André Esteves suggests room for further nasty surprises from the Petrobras corruption probe. But feisty independent courts and stronger institutions point to a brighter future.
Some thoughts on Brazil. Sometimes the sickness is also...
Some thoughts on Brazil. Sometimes the sickness is also the cure …
Brazil’s crisis may have a silver lining: the rule of law
Latin America’s biggest economy will get worse before it gets better. The arrest of billionaire banker André Esteves suggests room for further nasty surprises from the Petrobras corruption probe. But feisty independent courts and stronger institutions point to a brighter future.
November 23, 2015
Macri-economics 101
My follow-up column today:
Argentina’s vote for Macri may show Brazil the way:http://reut.rs/1Sg3ckA
(Photo mine from a 2005 trip to Buenos Aires: Plaza de la República.)
November 22, 2015
My latest column: Muggle time
My piece from Friday: Argentina faces a choice between magic and realism
Voters look likely to choose uncharismatic, pro-market Mauricio Macri as their next president in Sunday’s runoff election. Latin America’s No. 3 economy needs a dose of orthodox management after years of Kirchnerist magical thinking. But he could become unpopular very fast.
October 26, 2015
La sorpresa
(Some more thoughts on Argentina)
Presidential elections will go to a runoff after business favorite Mauricio Macri surprised ruling-party candidate Daniel Scioli in Sunday’s vote. Scioli will surely now say Macri wants to slash social programs. But voters may rather see Cristina Fernandez’s economics as unsustainable.
http://reut.rs/1jM8gSR
(Photo mine from a 2005 trip to Buenos Aires.)
October 24, 2015
My latest column – Illusion’s end
Argentina’s election Sunday heralds an end to the magical economic thinking of President Cristina Fernandez. http://reut.rs/1PGPWay
July 10, 2015
My latest book review: Dealmaking when lives are at stake
Financiers like to compare their negotiations to military strategy. Yet the art of the deal matters far more when those talking also kill. Jonathan Powell’s “Terrorists at the Table” is a primer like few others, by a worldly ex-diplomat of stubborn hope. It’s also darkly funny.
(I took this photo of guerrillas taking a break to play soccer in rebel-held territory in El Salvador in 1991.)
