Argentina is the world example of a failed economy.
Blessed with abundant natural resources of grain, shale gas, lithium and a talented population, including a great national football team, it has produced only disappointments.
Currently, the country faces the prospect of its tenth sovereign debt default in modern times, forecast inflation of 185 percent by the end of this year and has seen four in ten residents fall into poverty. poverty.
Populist president-elect Javier Milei has the unenviable task of solving this problem. He shouldn’t despair.
With the right policies and governance, countries come back from the dead, as Greece has demonstrated over the past decade.
Maverick: Argentina’s populist president-elect Javier Milei (pictured) may be considered a radical, but his ideas are not without merit.
Unfortunately for Argentina, it lacks the support of the European Union to save it from oblivion, but it does have the International Monetary Fund (already owed £36 billion) and the Inter-American Development Bank to provide financing and advice.
Milei may be considered a radical, but his ideas are not without merit.
When your country has a currency as distrusted as the peso, which trades on most exchanges at twice the official price of 350 pesos to the dollar, finding an anchor makes sense. Disastrously, El Salvador in Central America opted for bitcoin!
Milei wants to adopt the dollar. This may not be as crazy as it seems. Hong Kong’s economic and financial independence from its homeland in Beijing has been based on the link to the dollar.
If the Argentine president-elect goes ahead with his plan, it will almost certainly mean a huge devaluation so that Buenos Aires can align with the dollar.
It would simplify the country’s trade relationship with the rest of the world and could keep it out of China’s clutches.
Among Milei’s other proposals is abolishing the central bank, presumably allowing interest rates to be set in Washington.
Breaking free from a 133 percent base rate would certainly be popular. But like Hong Kong, it will need a credible monetary authority if dollar policies are to be implemented.
Recent studies show that what the Economist magazine called “reckless” economics can work.
That means reducing the size of the State and liberalizing it by eliminating trade barriers and exchange controls. Given Argentina’s checkered past, it has little to lose.
food chain
The initial reaction to the results of UK catering world champion Compass was to write down the stock.
Yet in most respects Compass is precisely the kind of innovative multinational that is a credit to the UK services sector.
In the financial year just ended, it increased operating profit by 30 per cent to £2.12bn, despite struggling with the last vestiges of working from home in its largest US market. More of the same is promised in 2024, but with less momentum.
It is enjoying rapid growth in the United States, which accounts for approximately two-thirds of its revenue. In addition to its more mundane work of catering for offices and universities, it has an impressive events franchise.
Among his accomplishments was providing catering services at America’s Sports Equinox, when the NFL, NBA, Major League Soccer and NHL held major games on the same night, October 30. Wimbledon is held here in the UK.
There was some discontent among analysts that chief executive Dominic Blakemore capped the latest buyback at $500m (£413m).
The company’s aim has been to prioritize returning to shareholders the £2bn in rights issue funding it raised in May 2020 amid lockdowns on both sides of the Atlantic. Blakemore wants to keep some funds behind the clock for future investments and acquisitions.
It is better for a British group valued at £35 billion to be a buyer rather than be bought out, and keep its listing firmly rooted in London.
Sports opportunity
Cricket may have conquered Afghanistan, but so far Saudi Arabia is not a future World Cup contender.
That doesn’t hinder his style when it comes to sports investing. Mohammed bin Salman’s advisers, not deterred by Australia’s win, have begun talks with the Board of Control for Cricket in India over acquiring a $5bn (£4.1bn) stake in the Premier League India’s $30 billion (£25 billion).
He will join a portfolio that includes Newcastle United, LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, and is tempting heavyweight boxers from Las Vegas to Riyadh.
