Peru..... Parras..... Precisely

One of these has been the most profound influence on the
acceptance of the United States as Peru's partner.
One of these is hated by every single Peruvian.
The other used to be a President.

This an excerpt from Guillermo Parras-Bernal's earlybird today (here's the link you need to see the charts he mentions)

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PERU -- Former President Toledo Urges Government Transparency for Anti-Crisis Plan (Comerico):President Alejandro Toledo, the former president and whose economic platform is credited with having earned the rich of Peru the honourable title of Investment-Grade bastards, suggested the government's plan to face the crisis is being too ''optimistic´´ and that there would be a scenario where things don't go just that fine. Maybe this lends us enough reasons to understand why Toledo was the most unpopular president Peru ever had (check graph on right-hand side); too much sincerity.

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Exactly. Couldn't put it better myself. The mark of a good wordsmith is to say a lot with just a few words.

News round up (serious edition)

When you live in a seismic zone and see photos like this, you know
what it means. Thinking of you, Costa Rica

"Pura Vida" (I hope). In Costa Rica the death toll from the 6.1mag quake yesterday is at 14, with unconfirmed reports of another 18 dead. No more, please. Aguante ticos.

Check this out for an excellent early morning news review as he does this nearly every day. Headlines from all over the LatAm region all neatly packaged and a line of comment to boot. Put this dude on your RSS immediately and then I won't feel so obliged to be all serious here.

Wow, what a coincidence. As soon as the Peruvian petroleum exploration business comes under close corruption scrutiny a whole bunch of international players stop getting busy. Add to the list of deferred projects this JV between Royal Dutch Shell and BPZ yesterday. BPZ dropped 17% on this news that was blamed on the market's "current environment". Yeah right. Wanna see this bridge I have for sale again? It's a really nice one...got arches and everything.

In other regional countries insider stock trading is positively encouraged, but Chile is more serious than most (as we know). Land of the Mapuche wins more anti-corruption brownie points by fining and upholding this ruling against a director of airline LAN.

Finally, an excellent report from the London Financial Times about the economic downturn and how it's affecting the whole region, written by Stephen Fidler. This article is highly recommended as balanced and accurate. Personally, I know the world has gone totally gaga when I start agreeing with Ricardo Hausmann. Sheesh...i need a stiff drink.

another recommendation for the blog "Market Memorandum"

GPB has been doing a great job at his Market Memorandum of covering the swathe of sovereign bonds deals that have suddenly popped up all over the continent (and beyond, for that matter). This is one (just one) of the dude GPB's specialties in life and he knows the field backwards.

Here's the link to the latest overview post, but check the main page for the multiple reports already there and waiting for you. Great coverage of this new fashion in local finances, and recommended reading.

Also, as an added bonus I'm happy to say he's dumped the crappy dark template he was using and now has an easy-on-the-eye format.

Financial reporters: Never believed me about how bad they can be?

OK, read somebody who used to be one.

Buy the man a Gillette

Guillermo Parras-Bernal at his quickly-becoming-must-read blog Market Memorandum wrote this today:

"...The real purpose of this blog is to tell people who have little or no idea how markets work how the media reports market events. And how bad or good (in my opinion) they do that."

Oh, I like. I like. I very, very like. As regular readers know, this is one of the themes regularly revisited here. The problems that can come between the real, raw story and the end user (that's you...and me) are manifold, but include things such as lapdog subservience at the altar of business, over-deference to the rich'n'famous, deliberate political bias in the reporter's writings, errors of omission that skew the story away from reality, "favouritism" (and that's putting it as gently as possible) and more....and more.

So who better to tell us about the ways of LatAm business journalism than someone who worked in Latin America as a biz journalist for over 10 years? Put Market Memorandum on your radar, people. Here's the link again. Thus ends the OttoPump.

I wondered where he was

Guillermo Parras-Bernal* was a Bloomberg journalist I used to speak with (or spar with depending on the subject) quite regularly in my real job, but then kinda suddenly he kinda disappeared on me....kinda. Well the good news (for me at least) is that he's suddenly resurfaced as a blogger.

This is good news for you too, methinks. GPB is a smart watcher of LatAm affairs and his English language blog is well worth your time. As from today it's on the links list over there on the right. Any of you that don't just come for the snarky gossip and really do want to know more about what's going on down here would be wise to add his blog to your list.

Here's the link to his blog, named Market Memorandum. Use it. In fact, why are you still here at my cheesy blog? Go on.............go.........................now.

*crazy name, crazy guy