Showing posts with label oppenheimer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oppenheimer. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2009

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

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Andres Oppenheimer apologizes

WORLD EXCLUSIVE!!! IKN has got its grubby hands on tomorrow's Andres Oppenheimer column to be published in the Miami Herald and syndicated media. This is hot!

December 4th, 2008

Dear loyal Miami Herald readers,

On many occasions I have tried to make out I get privileged information from high ranking authorities and pass this information on as exclusives. There are many examples of this, but one was on July 9th 2008 when I wrote that:

"...According to thousands of e-mails found in the laptop computers of slain FARC commander Raul Reyes, which Interpol forensic computer experts certified were not tampered with by the Colombian government, Chavez and the FARC were pursuing a two-tier strategy.

Dozens of e-mails in the rebel computers show that the FARC commanders and Chavez were building what they referred to as a "strategic relationship" to strengthen the Bolivarian movement in the region."

It has now emerged today that the Raul Reyes computer contained no e-mails at all, this confirmed under oath by the head of the Colombian investigation team.

I have misled you, my audience. I apologize for indulging in my own anti-Chávez fantasies and pretending they were real. I also offer my apologies to President Chávez of Venezuela for having misrepresented him for all this time.

Sincerely, Andres Oppenheimer