YPF, and another mistake /// YPF y otro error

This week we saw the government of Argentina expropriate a private Spanish company called Repsol from its right to own YPF. What made matters worse is that they sent a branch of the army to escort the Repsol employees to avoid any resistance of being removed from their workforce.

In the last 12 months the government of Cristina Fernandez of Kirchner has closed all imports, and to foreign companies such as HP and Dell the administration said that for every dollar that they imported they had to export another dollar, which meant that they had to mount factories in Argentina. Dell said thank you very much and closed their local office.

The Obama Administration told the Kirchner administration that they would review and reconsider the favorable duties provided to Argentina.

In the past days Mrs. Kirchner administration was told by the Obama administration that this idea of taking over YPF and remove and rescind Repsol rights to YPF was not acceptable.

Let us analyze what the recent history about YPF. In the 90s President Menem was obsessed with privatizing government run companies.

He shoved down the Argentine Congress the privatization of the phone company, the merchant company, the oil company, the utilities, the water company, the railroads, the national airline, even the interstate road system. Menem become extremely wealthy at the expense of denationalizing all the government owned and run companies, receiving kickbacks in the process.

A little over a decade later let us look at the privatizations, there is no competition on the phone system because of the way he setup the bidding, the national airline was totally defunded and was eventually  taken over by the government, the railroad is in a total state of disrepair, an they’ve had two major accidents in the last twelve months in the Buenos Aires area with many deaths, the oil company Repsol, owner of YPF pushed Argentina from an exporting nation to one who needs to import just to satisfy its local consumption because of lack of investment, and the list goes on.

During the privatizations they gave the key of the henhouse to the fox.

Mrs. Kirchner and her followers think this idea of re-nationalizing a private company is the right thing to do. Even former president Menem, who is a senator, said that he is in favor of the law.Argentina has not had, and does not have a separate judicial power. It is just an appendix of the Executive branch.

The European Community is extremely upset with this one sided decision. The Argentine government doesn’t seem to understand that they will be global ramifications to a unilateral decision such as this one. They are even asking the other nations of the G-20 to expel Argentina from this group.

The Kirchner administration is under the illusion that Argentina is Venezuela, and that they can be as provocative as Chavez is. The Venezuelan president is not a beloved figure in the US and in many other places, but Venezuela has something that the world wants, oil. Argentina has oil but not enough to supply the market, or make a dent in it.

Mrs. Kirchner, in every single opportunity she has quotes her husband. She should remember that her husband was in favor with the privatization of YPF. Back then she was a state senator in the province of Santa Cruz, and she said that it would be the right thing to do.

Argentina is sinking in debt, after years of surpluses, and as the coffers are starting to run empty, they are trying to find different places where the government to lay its hands. They wasted money left and right, lived beyond their means, and bought elections, by financing and maintaining huge sections of the population with big subsidies to maintain a class of non-workers, paying people for having multiple kids, demonstrating in the government acts in support of this administration, and blocking any opposition. It seems that the chickens are starting to come to roost.

Hopefully the people who supported years and years of corrupt governments will wake up and make the right decision. I have recently written that Argentina has always blamed the rest of the world for its shortcomings, they need to grow up and accept responsibility for their own wrong decisions and mismanagement.

Esta semana fuimos testigos de como el gobierno argentino expropio a la compañia española Repsol del 57 % de sus acciones de YPF. Lo peor de todo es que el gobierno mandó a la gendarmerie a sacar a los empleados de Repsol para evitar medidas de represalias.

En los últimos 12 meses el gobierno de Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner cerró las importaciones, y les dijo a empresas extranjeras como HP y Dell que por cada dolar que importaran deberian exportar otro dolar, lo que equivalia a montar fabricas en la Argentina. Dell le dijo al goberno muchas gracias y cerró sus oficinas locales.

La administración del presidente Obama le dijo a la al goberno argentino que por las medidas de cerrar la importación iba a reveer y reconsiderar las tarifas favorables que tiene la Argentina con EEUU.

Con respect al caso YPF en los pasados dias la administracion Obama le ha comunicado al gobierno argentine que no es aceptable lo que hicieron.

Tenes que analizar minuciosamente la reciente historia de YPF. En los noventas el Presidente Menem estaba obsesionado con privatizar las compañias estatales.

Forzo al congreso a pasar las privatizaciones de ENTEL, ELMA, YPF, Obras Sanitarias, Ferrocarriles Argentinos, Aerolineas Argentinas; llegó al extremo de privatizar las rutas nacionales. Al privatizar y en definitiva desnazionalizar todas las empresas estatales, Menem se volvio muy rico, recibiendo coimas en el proceso.

Dado que ha pasado una decada desde las privatizaciones no hay competencia en el sistema telefonico porque no hubo licitaciones abiertas en donde podia existir la libre competencia, Aerolineas Argentinas fue vaciada de sus capitales, no hubo modernizacion de la flota y ha sido tomada nuevamente por el gobierno argentino, los ferrocarriles estan en un estado absoluto de descuido, al punto de haber existido 2 grandes accidentes en Buenos Aires con muchos muertos y centenares de heridos, la compañia Repsol, mayorista de las acciones de YPF transformó a la Argentina de un país exportador a uno importador de hidrocarburos para su consumo local, y podemos seguir con la lista.

Durante las privatizaciones se le dio la llave del gallinero al zorro.

La Sra. Kirchner y sus seguidores piensan que la renacionalización de una empresa privada es lo correcto. Hasta el ex-presidente Menem, hoy senador, dijo estar en favor de la ley. Argentina no ha tenido, ni tiene, un poder judicial independiente, siempre ha sido un apendice, una marioneta del Poder Ejecutivo.

La Comunidad Europea esta extremadamente descontenta con esta decision. El gobierno parece no entender que va a haber medidas mundiales a una decision unilateral como esta. Estan considerando pedirle a los otros paises que forman el G-20 que Argentina sea expulsada del grupo.

La administracion Kirchner esta convencida que Argentina es Venezuela, esto es una illusion. Se piensan también que pueden ser tan agresivos como Chavez. El president venezolano no es una figura muy querida en EEUU y en otros lugares, pero Venezuela tiene algo que el mundo quiere, petroleo. Argentina tiene petroleo pero no lo sufuciente para abastecer al Mercado mundial, o para hacer una diferencia en el.

A la Sra. Kirchner le encanta citar en oportunidad que puede a su marido. Deberia recordar que su marido estaba en favor de la privatizacion de YPF, sin ir mas lejos ella, que era una senadora provincial en Santa Cruz, dijo que la privatizacion era lo correcto.

Argentina se esta hundiendo en deudas, despues de muchos años de superavits, y dado que los cofres se estan vaciando, el gobierno esta tratando de poner sus manos en todos los lugares que puede. Han malgastado a diestra y siniestra, han gastado mas de lo debido, han comprador elecciones, manteniendo grandes sectores de la poblacion con subisidios por no trabajar, subisidiando familias numerosas, asisitendo a manifestaciones en favor del gobierno, ahogando la oposicion. Da la impresion de que a cada chancho le llega su San Martin.

Uno siempre mantiene la esperanza que la gente que alimentó años y años de corrupcion comiencen a tomar decisiones acertadas. En un blog que escribí recientemente que Argentina siempre culpó al resto del mundo por sus errores, es hora de que crezcan y asuman responsabilidad de sus decisiones incorrectas y por su mal manejo.

Women, their reproductive decisions and the coming election

This coming election will certainly be decided by several groups including Hispanics and women.
These groups decided the election in 2008, and women switched their vote in 2010 during the mid-term elections.
This November there will be two clear options in terms of how they view women.
President Obama’s first legislation was the equal pay for equal work, or, as the law is called, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The Republican Party voted against this legislation because they say that this will only help trial lawyers. When Mitt Romney was recently asked in a phone conference if he supported his camp did not have an answer.
During the whole Republican primary the candidates out gunned each other on how much they would control women's sexual and reproductive decisions. Republican Governors across country together with their state assemblies and senates passed all kinds of restrictions and outrageous legislations deciding on women reproductive systems.
Republicans are saying that what women really care about is just the economy, and that President Obama is guilty for having women displaced in the workforce. They seemed to have amnesia because the financial collapse happened under the Bush Administration.
Women, in most cases, are involved with the family's health care decisions.
Republicans are trying to bring down a legislation that would cover more people, with pre-conditions, and college students who receive coverage under their parent’s health coverage.
I was talking to a relative that I have in the UK, and has lived there since 1958, about all these issues, and she could not believe that we are still arguing about reproductive and contraception issues in 2012. She is 88 years and looks at these trivial things as part of the past. These things have been settled in the 60’s and 70’s. How long more are we going to talk about sex? We have a real unemployment close to 20% and we think that what is important is that people be straight. We have people sleeping under bridges or in cardboards, and we still want to argue if the pill should be included in the health care bill. The rest of the world is laughing at us.

Governor Christie and the tunnel under the Hudson River

The Government Accountability Office, also known as GAO, has come out with a report that shows that Governor Chris Christie from NJ had overstated the cost to the citizens of his state of the building of another tunnel that would join New York and New Jersey.
Governor Christie is one of the prima donnas of the Republican Party. Conservatives love him because they say he is a straight shooter, that he “tells it as it is”. Is that right?
The study that the GAO is providing now disproves that theory. Governor Christie, in fact behaves in most cases as a bully, putting anybody down who may disagree with him, even name calling including when it came down to an Iraq vet.
Governor Christie is another example of what is wrong with the Republican Party. Everything that can move this great country into the future, such as education, infrastructure, modernization, including investment in mass transportation, the republicans say that it is something that the country cannot afford. The thing we can afford, as far as they are concerned , is tax cuts for the wealthy, and a bloated Department of Defense. For that there seems to be limitless amounts of money.
We can say that we are bleeding money. Nobody can dispute this. But are we bleeding money because we are spending too much, and/or because we have are not getting enough taxes from people, and we are paying too much in unemployment benefits? I’m a believer in unemployment benefits, but it would be smarter to get something back for the money, and infrastructure would be a good place to start. Pay people to work in the improvement of the nation.
Now we can also wonder if it's because there is a Democrat president in the White House that we are not investing, or like Republicans would call it, spending money. If that is the case then it is all political, and we can say that they are not looking out for the future of the country.
Either way everything would indicate that this party is stuck in the past. They think that if the country has built a bridge you don't have to maintain it or modernize it. That is how we are falling in the world competitiveness. The rest of the world invests in bullet trains, modern infrastructure. All these projects are either being funded or built by governments across the world, but here we believe that unless the private sector does not it is not worth doing it. When was the last time that the private sector flew to the moon, built the Hoover Dam, built the highway system.
If the Republicans from the past, such as President Eisenhower, and others, would have waited for the private sector to get involved in these mega projects, we would have never have a railroad that joint both coasts, and we would still be fighting native Americans.
As far as Christie he has been a disaster for New Jersey in every single aspect, starting by being dishonest and untruthful, settings us back in everything thing we can think of.

Islas Malvinas // Falkland Islands

With this blog I know I will make enemies on both sides of this issue, everybody is entitled to their own opinion.
Thirty years, during the last days of march 1982, as we were planning the final details of our wedding we could not foresee what would take place on the 2nd day of April. As I woke up the news was that Argentina had invaded the Falkland Islands, and had setup a base in Port Stanley, it’s capital.
People came out to celebrate the “recovery” of the islands, as it felt that they were Argentinians.
Argentina was under military rule, and it had been a long and bloody period called the dirty war, where supposedly thirty thousand people disappeared.
President Galtieri, the latest of a long list of presidents since 1976, came out to the balcony of the Casa Rosada, the Government House, just like a few of his predecessors such as Juan Peron, Evita, and Isabel Peron, had done in the past. Everybody was wearing white and blue flags. The military government and its repression we wearing thin, people had had enough of them, the economy was in the tank, inflation was starting to get out of control. Later people figured that the reason President Galtieri chose that time to take the islands was because he needed the public to get distracted from the local issues.
What he figured was that the Lion, a tired Lion, would not travel thousands of miles to recover the islands. He also calculated that the U.S. would defend the hemisphere. Both of these calculations were completely wrong. Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister in the UK, and Ronald Reagan was the president of the US, partners in pretty much every decision and ideology that we can think of, from union busting to cutting taxes for the wealthy. Margaret Thatcher was not having a good administration at the time, as she had many problems including problems with miners and strikes, and a weak economy because of a worldwide recession.
Galtieri ended up doing a favor to the “iron lady” as she was nicknamed, as she got herself re-elected after the war.
What made matters worse in Argentina was that the government run news was advertising that the armed forces were kicking the British’s ass, but when we would listen to the BBC at my parents house on Short Wave radio the news appeared to be completely different. They were saying that the british were shooting planes down like there was no tomorrow. On June 12th Pope John Paul II comes to visit Argentina. On June 14th the Argentine government comes on tv and radio to say that they had lost. People were in disbelief. They took to the streets, they went to the Plaza de Mayo, across from the government house. To a certain extent, putting aside the loss of life of the soldiers in the war, many of them conscripts, the defeat was the beginning of the end of the military regime, it was the last nail in the coffin, after that the pressure of the public forced them to call for election, and the rest is history. Argentina has had a “fairly” stable democracy since then, with no more military coup d'état, or simply coup as they are called in the US.
We can argue that the islands are Argentinians. That the only landing strip in the islands before the conflict was built by Argentina, that the kelpers would come to Argentina for medical treatment, that the British Government treated them as second class citizens, that all the food and mail used to come through Argentina, that the settlers were totally abandoned by the British Government, that the people in the UK had no idea where the hell these islands were before the conflict, they hardly knew where Argentina was, if it wouldn’t have been because of the show Evita in the West End. But all this at the end of the day, for me, is totally irrelevant.
The British say that we should allow the settlers decide under who’s umbrella would they like to be. That is also totally ridiculous as well as they didn’t apply that concept when China demanded them to return Hong Kong, knowing that China is a communist country, with no civil liberties. The people who were well off were given asylum, and the poor fell under Chinese government. So we can say that they apply the law that suits them best.
The present government in Argentina has come back to the attack to get the islands. We know the kind of government that Mrs. Kirchner has, with lack of freedom of press, lack of imports, even in the event of medications, and denial of inflation, and growth of the national debt under her presidency. So, I look at the timing as another distraction, just like Galtieri tried 30 years ago.
I view the conflict from a distance as something totally different, probably because living far away and having been far away for almost 27 years gives me a different perspective, or so I think.
It reminds of a big boy who has a toy, and has it in the bottom of the closet, with no purpose for it, but who feels good just denying that toy to somebody who wants. The whole idea is that this boosts their ego by denying Argentina of having the islands.
On the other hand Argentina reminds me of a brat who wants the toy, and who will go on forever with this issue. And I say this because Argentina has a tremendous poverty all across the nation, with people starving, with no jobs, and with the government totally abandoning them to their own mercy. Why have the islands as a priority if there other things that need immediate concern, before a few islands, that have horrendous climate, and nobody would move to, even if they had the opportunity.
People can then say that there is oil or petroleum around the islands. Who cares. Argentina has oil in the continent and does nothing to invest in extracting it, or better still it sells its interests to foreign companies with kickbacks for the people in power at the time of the bidding. It is time to stop blaming the rest of the world for the problem the country has, and start taking responsibility for the mistakes the country has made since its conception in the beginning of the 1800’s.


Se que con este blog voy a hacerme un monton de enemigos de ambas partes, todo el mundo tiene derecho a su opinion.
Treinta años atras, durante los ultimos dias de Marzo de 1982, cuando estabamos celebrando los detalles finales de nuestro casamiento nadie hubiera podido imaginar lo que estaria por ocurrir el 2 de Abril. Cuando me levante ese dia la noticia principal era era que Argentina habia invadido las Islas Malvinas, y habia instalado una base en la capital Port Stanley luego llamada Puerto Argentino.
La gente salio a las calles a celebrar la recuperacion, o reconquista de las islas, dado que siempre se consideraron argentinas.
Argentina estaba bajo un gobierno military, habia transcurrido un period largo y sangruiento llamado la guerra sucia, en donde supuestamente teinta mil personas habian desaparecido.
Galtieri, el presidente de turno en uan larga lista de presidentes desde el año ’76, salio al balcon de la Casa Rosada, la casa de gobierno, tal como lo habian hecho mucho de sus predecesores como Peron, Evita e Isabel Peron lo habian hecho en el pasado. Todo el mundo estaba usando excarapelas con los colores azul y blanco. El gobierno militar y su represion estaban en sus ultimas, la gente ya estaba cansada de ellos, la economia estaba en la lona, la inflacion estaba empezando a acelerarse. Con el paso del tiempo la gente llego a la conclusion de que Galtieri eligio el momento para invader las islas porque necesitaba una distraccion de los problemas locales.
El penso que el leon, un leon cansado, no viajaria mas de miles de kilometros para recuperar las islas. Tambien calculo que EEUU defenderia al hemisferio. Sendos calculos estaban equivocados. La Thatcher era la primer ministra del Reino Unido, y Regan, que era el presidente de EEUU, compartian muchas de las mismas idelogias y decisiones, desde destruccion de sindicatos, reduccion de impuestos de los ricos. La primera ministra no estaba pasando un buen momento politico dado que tenia muchos problemas, incluyendo huelgas y manifestaciones en las minas, y una economia muy debil por una recesion mundial.
El presidente argentino le termino haciendo un favor a la “dama de hierro” como era conocida, dado que gracias al conflicto fue re-electa.
En Argentina lo peor de todo fue que el gobierno tenia intervenido todos los canales de radio y television y difundia noticias de que las fuerzas armadas estaban ganando la guerra, pero en la casa de mis padres donde se escuchaba la BBC en la radio de onda corta las noticias eran totalmente distintas. Ellos decian que los ingleses estaban bajando aviones argentinos. El 12 de Junio el Papa Juan Pablo II llego a la Argentina. El 14 de junio, dos dias despues, el gobierno por medio de un comunicado en los medios de difusion informa al pueblo que las fuerzas armadas habian sido derrotadas en las islas. La gente no lo podia creer. Salieron a las calles, muchos fueron a la Plaza de Mayo. Si uno deja de lado la perdida de vida de los soldados en la guerra, muchos de ellos conscriptos, la derrota fue el principio del final del regimen military, fue el ultimo clavo en el cajon, luego de eso la presion del publico los forzo a llamar a elecciones, y el resto es historia. Argentina ha tenido una democracia “bastante” estable, sin mas golpes de estado.
Podemos discutir que las islas son Argentinas. Que la unica pista de aviones antes del conflict fue construida por la Argentina, que los kelpers venian a Argentina para asistencia medica, que el gobierno britanico los consideraba ciudadanos de segunda categoria, que toda la comida y el correo pasaba por la Argentina, que los pobladores fueron abandonados por el gobierno britanico, que la gente en el Reino Unido no tenia ni idea donde quedaban las islas antes del conflict, a duras penas sabian donde quedaba la Argentina, si no hubiese sido por el show Evita en Londres. Por en definitiva todo esto es irrelevante.
Los britanicos dicen que se le deberia permitir a los pobladores decidir bajo el gobierno de quien quisieran estar. Eso es totalmente ridiculo tambien dado que cuando China les demand el devolucion de Hong Kong no utilizaron el mismo sistema, sabiendo que China tiene un gobierno comunista que no cree in libertades individuales. La gente de clase alta y clase media alta en China fueron dadas ascilo politico, y los demas cayeron en las manos del gobierno chino. Ahi podemos ver que aplican la teoria segun como les viene bien a ellos.
El gobierno argentino actual ha vuelto al ataque con respecto a las islas. Sabemos muy bien el tipo de gobierno que tiene la Sra. Kirchner, con libertad restringida de prensa, cierre de importacion, hasta en el caso de medicamentos, niegue de la inflacion real, y crecimiento de la deuda externa en su presidencia. Yo miro al momento elegido como otro caso de oportunismo para distraer al pueblo, como lo hizo Galtieri 30 años atras.
Desde la distancia miro al conflicto totalmente distinto, tal vez porque he vivido lejos por casi 27 años, y esto me permite mirarlo con otra perspectiva, al menos eso es lo que pienso.
Esto me recuerda a un chico grandote que tiene un juguete, lo tiene en el fondo del placard, sin ninguna utilidad, que lo unico que le interesa es negarle el juguete a alguien que lo quiere. Lo unico que hace esto es inflarle el ego por negarle las islas a la Argentina.
Por otro lado Argentina me hace acordar a un chico mal criado que quiere un juguete, y que va a seguir toda la vida con esto. Digo esto porque Argentina tiene una tremenda pobreza en todo el pais, con gente muerta de hambre, sin trabajos, y con un gobierno que los ha abandonado a su suerte. Porque poner las islas en la lista de prioridades si hay cosas que necesitan cuidado inmediato. Las islas tienen un clima horroroso, nadie se mudiaria ahi, por mas que tuviesen la oportunidad.
La gente puede decir que las islas, y alrededor, tienen petroleo. Que importa. Argentina tiene petroleo y no inverte para extraerlo, o vende sus intereses a compañias extranjeras recibiendo sobornos la gente que esta en el poder en el momento de las licitaciones. Es tiempo de dejar de culpar al resto del mundo por los problemas que tiene el pais, y empezar a tomar responsabilidades de los errors cometidos por el pais desde su concepcion al comienzo del siglo 19.