Andres Oppenheimer nearly makes a good point.....

...but in the end manages to prove he's a wanker again.

So the "Doing Business in 2010" World Bank report (which IKN mentioned in passing two days ago) is doing the rounds of the chattering classes and of course LatAm's worst journalist* gets on the bandwagon. He actually starts off by making the fair, though blindingly obvious, point that LatAm has suffered, suffers and will continue to suffer from a massive overdose of bureaucracy. He compares the region to Asia and LatAm is found wanting. OK, fair enough, it's 6th grader stuff but it's true. However he can't help getting on his fave hobbyhorse and saying....

In Venezuela and Bolivia, it's forbidden for a business owner to fire an employee -- no matter if the latter spends the day sleeping on the job. Venezuela and Bolivia are the world champions of employment rigidity, according to the study.

...which proves three things:

1) He's a liar (but we knew that already). Really, it's total tosh. This is what comes of writing about places you never visit. Forbidden to fire an employee? I mean where do you start or finish with this? In the end you can only say "No, that's 100% wrong" and be done.

2) He hasn't read the report (too important to do any DD, probly). In no place does it say anything close to that. It mentions there are regulations on dismissals, but they're something every country has to some degree. If he wants to take issue with the tightness or laxity of said controls well fine, but why talk balderdash? What's the point, really? Are we supposed to take him seriously on anything here?

3) He can't count (Venezuela comes in 19th place on his "world champ's" table and Bolivia 17th, not even making the top ten, let alone the medal positions).

I try to limit my cusswords on IKN, but sometimes they are necessary. The guy's an asshole.

*and oh my stars there's competition for that one

Honduras: The World Bank "pauses", the coup is finished

I am the operator of my pocket calculator

Holy Moley, I never thought I'd see the day. Robert 'Kraftwerk' Zoellick (here pictured with Lula), is "working closely" with the OAS and as a result has "paused" lending to Honduras. This might sound rather meek to you, but to your humble LatAm moneyhead correspondent it's a damnation far stronger than anything Hugo could ever cook up.

This coup is official, total, utter toast and I wouldn't want to be in the usurper Micheletti's shoes next week. Here's Reuters;

WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) - The World Bank has "paused" all program lending to Honduras following a military coup in the impoverished country, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday. "We're working closely with the OAS (Organization of American States) and looking to the OAS to deal with its handling of the crisis under its democratic charter," Zoellick told reporters, "In the process we have put a pause with our lending." (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by James Dalgleish)


UPDATE: Holy Moley The Sequel! Even the righties at The Miami Herald agree!

Aaaaahhh... BOHICA*

Are we having fun today, mineheads?

HUI down 5% this morning...oh yummy

Now here comes the strange thing; all I see all around the biznews outlets are the same headlined stories from Bloomie, AP and suchlike screaming about the World Bank dropping world GDP estimates from -1.7% to -2.9% in 2009.

"Stocks Fall on World Bank Forecast; Dollar, Yen Rise", says Bloomie

"US stock market declines as World Bank reduces 2009 forecast for global economy", says AP

But the World Bank announced this revision plenty time ago, as Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism correctly points out (before the G8 meeting, in fact). So what makes it move markets today, oh journalistic world? Smells veeery fishy to me.

*Bend Over Here It Comes Again

Capella Resources (KPS.v): The fun never stops with these scam artists

Capella (KPS.v) today announced that it had started drilling at its Nevada property in Chile today, but we don't care much about that. It doesn't matter if they find the lost city of El Dorado with that diamond drillhead, quite frankly, as the company behind the drilling is the thing that matters here and as we've already noted they're the kind of people that would sell their mothers to work as Osama Bin Liden's bottom wiper if the price were right.

No, far more fun is the news from (what Otto considers to be) totally reliable sources that Capella has had the brass neck to apply for one of those fancy International Finance Corporation (IFC) loans. As a quick aside for those who don't know, the IFC is the financing arm of the World Bank and often buys into resource companies, giving them preferential rates on working capital. A recent example is the money loaned to Greystar (GSL.to) for its Angostura gold project in Colombia.

Anyway, the frauds at Capella want some of the IFC slush, probably because their recent placement at $0.73 has fallen flat on its face and they're getting desperate. Still, Otto predicts that hell will freeze over before the IFC lends this band of crooks cash, but if by some miracle they do manage to land some moolah it will speak volumes about just how inept the World Bank is with its money and just how little DD it does before writing out cheques.

Related Posts
Capella Resources (KPS.v): A fraudulent scam for the ages
More on Capella Reources (KPS.v) and the scum behind the scam

Exclusive: Zo-Lik the Financial Robot to Save World

At the G-20 conference today, Lula won the hearts'n'minds of the blue-eyed whiteys by unveiling his grand plan: Instead of putting the FateOfTheWorld™ in the hands of the very same robberbaron bankers that got us into this clusterf, top Brazilian scientists have designed and built the first ever fully automated financial robot to instil Hope™ throughout the world. Named Zo-Lik by Lula, one will be sent to the Central Banks of each G-20 member in the next 20 days.

• "The robot will perfectly implement all financial mandates and is 100% corruption and bonus-free" remarked President Lula. "As for the design, we decided to go for a mix of Kraftwerk's "I am the operator of my pocket calculator" and Arnie's Terminator, as the Semtex installed in each Zo-Lik will be triggered by the proximity to embezzled accounting files."

If all goes to plan, major banks will be equipped with one per boardroom by the end of 2009.

A fascinating read

Instead of my normal morning routine I've been staring at this e-book sent by reader 'El Otro Miguel'. It's "The Atlas of Global Development" publshed by the World Bank, and not only is it packed with serious amounts of well-founded statistics, charts etc but it's also presented in a very user-friendly and colourful format (not PDF). Once you move to the full page version you'll be as drawn into the report as I was. Click on this link to get wise to what I'm talking about.

Highly recommended reading. Thank you ElOtro for passing this on.

The World Bank's 'Human Opportunity Index' report is very impressive

On Thursday October 2nd, the World Bank published a report on 19 Latin American counties called the "Human Oppotunity Index." (HOI). The HOI attempts to show how socioeconomic circumstances in Latin America mean that people from different backgrounds suffer the "unlevel playing field" of future opportunity, especially children. Of course we've always known this to be the case, but what this report does is to empirically quantify the problem for the first time ever. This will allow governments, social services and national/international organizations to hone their efforts and get maximum bang-per-buck in the future.

You can get your free copy of the full report on this link right here. It's long (the download is 4Mb, the overview is 23 pages long and its main content is 120 pages long, so be prepared). However be clear; it's absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in LatAm social issues. It's an outstanding and innovative report, and the World Bank team who put it together should be warmly congratulated. Also, visit the World Bank page on the study right here, and also check out its LatAm HOI interactive map on this link here. All very good stuff.

I'm under no illusion, and a big report like this isn't going to be the most popular download this site has ever offered. However this is an important study, and if just one person reads it via this post, I'll be happy. For example, did you know that 100% of people who are disadvantaged by socioeconomic factors in Brazil and Peru come from ethnic minorities? That and ten thousand other facts await you.

I'll leave you with the blurb from the World Bank page to get you more interested. I hope you read the report, and once again congratulations to the World Bank team.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Between one fourth and one half of income inequality observed among Latin America and the Caribbean adults is due to personal circumstances endured during childhood that fell outside of their control or responsibility, such as race, gender, birthplace, parent’s educational level and their father’s occupation. These circumstances reveal the level of inequality of opportunity in the region

The new Human Opportunity Index, developed by a Group of economists from the World Bank, Argentina and Brazil, shows how personal circumstances play in gaining or preventing access to those services needed for a productive life, such as running water, sanitation, electricity or basic education among children in the region. This opens up a whole new field of study dedicated to designing public policy focused on equity.