What the means count

With the help of King Juan Carlos, the prime minister Rodríguez Zapatero tries to turn into the voice of Latin America in the Summit of Washington that George Bush has summoned with the countries of the G20 in the middle of November.

With this end, making use of the Latin-American Summit of San Salvador, which ends this Friday and with the help of the host of the conclave, the Central American president Elías Antonio Extracts, the Spanish diplomacy has been working with the different delegations assistants (there have been neither Hugo Chávez, nor Raúl Castro, nor the Uruguayan Tabare, nor the Portuguese Cavaco Silva) so that our country turns into the spokesman of Latin America in the Summit of Washington.

In the beginning a meeting was foreseen, enclosed, to four in the King, Rodríguez Zapatero and two of the presidents of the emergent countries that are invited by Bush: Mexico and Brazil. In the end one has desisted and a work breakfast has been mounted with the Mexican Felipe Calderón and a separate interview with Luiz Inacio ‘Lula‘ gives Miscellany. Al final se ha desistido y se ha montado un desayuno de trabajo con el mexicano Felipe Calderón y una entrevista aparte con Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva.

Finished article | Shoemaker looks for the support of the Summit of El Salvador (Estrella Digital)

The sale of safes has gone off in the USA in the last months for the suspicion of the investors to the banks. The same reaction happened already during the Big Depression. Many thifty persons wonder what to do with his money. The answer is not simple. The crisis through that the markets live has a distinguishing fact with other moments of turbulencies: almost no assets are saved from the fire. The variable revenue accumulates falls of 45 % in the year, the investment funds and the pension plans lose of average 4 % and 6 %, respectively, the price of the apartments falls down, the market of fixed revenue is moribund for the absence of liquidity and the fear of more suspensions of payments … Before this panorama the only alternative to the safe seems to be in the public debt, more for his safety than for his profitability, and in the bank deposits. Muchos ahorradores se preguntan qué hacer con su dinero. La respuesta no es sencilla. La crisis que viven los mercados tiene un hecho diferencial con otros momentos de turbulencias: casi ningún activo se salva de la quema. La renta variable acumula caídas del 45% en el año, los fondos de inversión y los planes de pensiones pierden de media un 4% y un 6%, respectivamente, el precio de los pisos cae, el mercado de renta fija está moribundo por la falta de liquidez y el temor a más suspensiones de pagos… Ante este panorama la única alternativa a la caja fuerte parece estar en la deuda pública, más por su seguridad que por su rentabilidad, y en los depósitos bancarios.

The financial advisers consulted by THE COUNTRY believe that in the short term the volatile nature will keep on being extreme therefore they advise to those investors with not top temporary horizon at the age of 12 months and with a conservative profile to support the bet in the assets of low risk (Treasury bills, monetary funds and deposits). If the thifty person, nevertheless, does not have a need for immediate liquidity and his nervous system allows him to design a long-term strategy it can be a good moment to make portfolios with more risk.

Finished article | And now: where do I invest my money? (The Country) ¿dónde invierto mi dinero? (El País)

1 - The lechery speculator

A petroleum ship is late more than four weeks since it goes out of the Persian Gulf until it comes to the United States. In this time, it is possible that the load has devaluated so much that the proprietor of the ship ruins with the trajectory, which has paid for the crude oil a major price in the port of origin of what he will receive when it comes to the refinery. To avoid this risk - in the oil and on other markets of prime matters - the futures contracts were invented: a formula that consists of agreeing in advance on the price of sale of the order for a certain date. When the contract closes, the buyer has not even paid not the seller has delivered the goods; but the commitment is equal of road surface. Para evitar este riesgo -en el petróleo y en otros mercados de materias primas-, se inventaron los contratos de futuros: una fórmula que consiste en pactar de antemano el precio de venta del pedido para una fecha determinada. Cuando se cierra el contrato, ni el comprador ha pagado ni el vendedor ha entregado la mercancía; pero el compromiso es igual de firme.

In that moment it was looking like a good idea. The problem came later, when the speculators took advantage of this ideal market for the trileros, since it is possible to sell and to buy what is still not had. If you bet with hundreds of million dollars on the futures market that the oil will rise, in effect, the oil rise and you win; in economy the predictions tend to be fulfilled if there is sufficient money. The same investors who first created the bubble point com and later the bubble of the brick, managed to raise the price of the barrel of crude oil of 40 up to 140 dollars in only four years. With impunity. Si apuestas con cientos de millones de dólares en el mercado de futuros a que el petróleo subirá, en efecto, el petróleo sube y tú ganas; en economía las profecías tienden a cumplirse si hay dinero suficiente. Los mismos inversores que primero crearon la burbuja punto com y después la burbuja del ladrillo, consiguieron elevar el precio del barril de crudo de 40 hasta 140 dólares en solo cuatro años. Impunemente.

Finished article | Seven capitalist sins (Escolar.net)

The ex-president José Maria Aznar has rushed forward at “the standard-bearers of the climatic Apocalypse” and “the inquisitors who protect them” because, to his judgment, they are the founders of “a new religion that he condemns to the bonfire of the public square to those that dare to doubt his thesis, his prognoses or his reprimands”. Although it has admitted that he does not know with certainty if a climate change exists or not “because I am not a scientist expert in these topics”, Aznar has underlined that is not prudent to destine “thousands of millions” to relieve the climate change “in crisis times, “one of these econo-climatic cycles that happen whenever a socialistic Government comes to the power in Spain”.

Finished article | The climate change according to Aznar (Earth sciences and Environmental)

The one who is cruel with the animals cannot be a good person, was thinking the philosopher Schopenhauer. And being located further away: the one who enjoys observing the one that exercises cruelty with the animals, in position of attentive and joyful complicity, it cannot be either, it is me who believes. quien disfruta observando al que ejerce crueldad con los animales, en posición de atenta y gozosa complicidad, tampoco puede serlo, creo yo.

From the ends of the XVIIth century the bullfighting - as we know it today - has been present in Spain. The traditional spectacle of the heroic man, the excellent male who opposite to the animal risks his life, has been part of the universal culture; and many artists like Federico García Lorca, Ernst Hemingway or Pablo Picasso have been nourished of the singular esthetics of the called holiday of the bulls. The bullfighting develops by means of an elaborated protocol, which includes the lights suit, a sophisticated set of instruments and he structures one well defined in three thirds or times: luck of poles, banderillas and the supreme moment, which culminates with the dying death of the bull. But all this paraphernalia masks a haughty "epic" act of cruelty exercised on an animal, to which he is tortured for hours for esthetic use of those who enjoy sadistically the blood, the pain and the death. y muchos artistas como Federico García Lorca, Ernst Hemingway o Pablo Picasso se han nutrido de la singular estética de la llamada fiesta de los toros. El toreo se desarrolla mediante un elaborado protocolo, que incluye el traje de luces, un sofisticado instrumental y una estructura bien definida en tres tercios o tiempos: suerte de varas, banderillas y el momento supremo, que culmina con la agónica muerte del toro. Pero toda esta parafernalia enmascara un soberbio acto “épico” de crueldad ejercido sobre un animal, al que se le tortura durante horas para goce estético de aquellos que disfrutan sádicamente con la sangre, el dolor y la muerte.

Because earlier enclosed of entering already the square he has banged to its bull in the testicles and the kidneys, fat has smeared itself in the eyes to make his vision difficult and in his paws there him has spread a substance that produces a constant ardor to him, this way to prevent him from being calm during the fight. The spear that one fixes to him in the loin and that destroys his muscles, blood glasses and nerves drains the bull and debilitates it, while to the horses a bib is placed to them to conceal the wounds inflicted by the astado, without valuing that perhaps the vision of the exhibition of guts would suppose one more incentive for the most fervent spectators and ultra. Then, the banderillas prolong the desgarre and ahondamiento of the internal wounds. When the bull is more exhausted and moribund it is crossed by a sword eighty centimeters long that has just destroyed him inside: liver, lungs, arteries … The bull often suffers on the sand between blood vomiting. Luego, las banderillas prolongan el desgarre y ahondamiento de las heridas internas. Cuando el toro está más agotado y moribundo es atravesado por una espada de ochenta centímetros de longitud que le acaba de destrozar por dentro: hígado, pulmones, arterias…El toro muchas veces agoniza sobre la arena entre vómitos de sangre.

Finished article | On the cruelty (Rebellion)

The history is known, and, in those ancient times in which the school she was proclaimed a perfect educator, he was taught to the children like example of the modesty and the tact that they should always accompany to us when the demon was touching us to think about what we do not know or know little and badly. Appeal he could withstand that the shoemaker was aiming at an error in the footwear of the figure that had done, for that one of that the shoes were his office, but that was never daring to give his seeming on, for example, the anatomy of the knee. In sum, a place for every thing and every thing in his place. At first sight, Appeal it was right, the master was he, the painter was he, the authority was it, while the shoemaker would be called when of putting half half soles to a pair of boots it was talking each other. Really: up to where are we going to come if even the most ignorant of all, it is allowed to think any person about what he does not know? If it does not have the necessary studies it is preferable that it is kept silent and leaves to the knowing ones the responsibility of taking the most suitable decisions (for whom?). En suma, un lugar para cada cosa y cada cosa en su lugar. A primera vista, Apeles tenía razón, el maestre era él, el pintor era él, la autoridad era él, mientras que el zapatero sería llamado cuando de ponerle medias suelas a un par de botas se tratase. Realmente, ¿hasta dónde vamos a llegar si cualquier persona, incluso la más ignorante de todas, se permite opinar sobre lo que no sabe? Si no tiene los estudios necesarios es preferible que se calle y deje a los sabedores la responsabilidad de tomar las decisiones más convenientes (¿para quién?).

Yes, at first sight Appeal it was right, but only at first sight. The painter of Felipe and of Alejandro de Macedonia, considered to be a genius in his epoch, ignored an important aspect of the question: the shoemaker took knees, then, as a definition, it was competent in these joints, although it was alone to complain, if this was the case, of the pains that he was feeling. At this point, the reader committed an outrage already it will have understood that it belongs neither to Apeles nor to the shoemaker of what it is a question in these lines. It is a question, yes, of the most serious economic and financial crisis that is convulsing the world, up to the point of which we cannot escape to the distressing sensation that we come at the end of an epoch without it becoming possible to glimpse what and how will be what it avenges next, after an intermediate time, impossible to predict before the ruins get up and new ways should be opened. How do we do it? An ancient legend to explain the today disasters? Why not? It is we who are the shoemaker, all of us, that we attend, impotent, the crushing advance of the big economic and financial, crazy potentates for conquering more and more money, more and more power, with all the legal or illegal means from his scope, clean or dirty, normalized or criminal. el zapatero tenía rodillas, luego, por definición, era competente en estas articulaciones, aunque fuera solo para quejarse, si ese era el caso, de los dolores que sentía. A estas alturas, el lector atento ya habrá entendido que no es de Apeles ni del zapatero de lo que se trata en estas líneas. Se trata, sí, de la gravísima crisis económica y financiera que está convulsionando el mundo, hasta el punto de que no podemos escapar a la angustiosa sensación de que llegamos al final de una época sin que se consiga vislumbrar qué y cómo será lo que venga a continuación, tras un tiempo intermedio, imposible de predecir antes de que se levanten las ruinas y se abran nuevos caminos. ¿Cómo lo hacemos? ¿Una leyenda antigua para explicar los desastres de hoy? ¿Por qué no? El zapatero somos nosotros, todos nosotros, que presenciamos, impotentes, el avance aplastante de los grandes potentados económicos y financieros, locos por conquistar más y más dinero, más y más poder, con todos los medios legales o ilegales a su alcance, limpios o sucios, normalizados o criminales.

Finished article | Crime (financier) against the humanity (Rebellion)

As we indicate yesterday in this economy blog, the Spanish government has created a fund of capitalization with which it will be able to nationalize the banking and the Savings banks. In the same sense Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner of Economy of 2008, has shown that this financial crisis demands an intervention because the financial system needs more cardinal. And if the government is going to provide capital to the banks and Cajas de ahorros it should receive what the people who provides capital have right to obtain - it departs from the property - so that the benefits of the plan of rescue are not going only to stop only to hands of those who committed the errors. Namely it would be a question of socializing not only the losses but also the benefits. Y si el gobierno va a proporcionar capital a los bancos y Cajas de Ahorros debería recibir lo que la gente que proporciona capital tiene derecho a obtener -parte de la propiedad- de forma que los beneficios del plan de rescate no vayan sólo a parar solo a manos de quienes cometieron los errores. Es decir, se trataría de socializar no sólo las pérdidas sino también los beneficios.

In the mid term, when the problems of solvency of the Spanish banking (banks and boxes) become more clear (as a result of the financial crisis, the real estate adjustment, the economic recession and the increase of the unemployment) the Treasure is going to need to buy part of the capital of the banks and Savings banks. But, in the long term, once the financial system returns to the calmness and work correctly: Does it should the Spanish State to sell to (privatize) on the market the actions that he had bought during the crisis?. In case of the Savings banks this sale would suppose the privatization of these entities.orrectamente ¿Debería el Estado español vender (privatizar) en el mercado las acciones que hubiera comprado durante la crisis?. En el caso de las Cajas de Ahorros esta venta supondría la privatización de esas entidades.

Finished article | should the Savings banks be privatized? (Economy Weblog) (Economy Weblog)