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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Cafayate Tango

Outback Cafayate 2

Outback Cafayate

A Ride Through Cafayate

Cafayate Winery 3

Horse Back Ride

Cafayate Winery 2

Cafayate Winery

Cafayate Hospital 2

A Cafayate Hospital

Cafayate Outdoors

Grace Hotel Cafayate

In Praise Of Doug Casey And La Estancia de Cafayate

My readers I have been a fan of Doug Casey's books for almost 34 years. In all of that time I have never heard of Mr.Casey being involved in a scandal,a serious lawsuit, or any kind of criminal or civil investigation. In short he is an honest man.

I accepted Doug's invitation to come and visit him for a week at La Estancia de Cafayate. This is a wine estate that he bought long ago and now is offering lots, homes and apartments for sale.

I read some negative publicity on La Estancia de Cafayate. There was a silly claim that one had to be prepared for tropical diseases like malaria, dingy, and yellow fever. I was told that this wildly over priced property development was in the center of an area of poor peasants suffering all sorts of diseases and dying too early.

I have been on six of the seven continents. I have been to areas where diseases like yellow fever and malaria are rampant including Libya and Kenya. The area around the small town of Cafayate and La Estanciade Cafayate was not such an area.

As far as property for sale being wildly over-priced and unrealistic, I found that this was an exaggeration also. What Doug Casey and his team did is to take the time and the effort to turn La Estancia de Cafayate into a world class real estate development. All utilities are buried underground. The development has its own independent and secure water supply due to an aquifer under the property that is full of water at high pressure. The development has its own sewer treatment plant. If Mr. Casey had built this development near San Francisco, New York City, Vancouver, Toronto, London or Berlin, it would have been approved by the toughest and most hard-nosed zoning boards and planning commissions.

La Estancia de Cafayate is not a hideaway for the super rich. There are a few very wealthy Argentine homeowners who have large houses. They land their corporate jets at the local landing strip. The great majority of people buying and living there are hard working professionals from thirty three different countries. Houses range from middle class to upper middle class dwelling. Apartments are also available.

As far as the claims about serious health problems, I spent an entire morning at the local hospital for the town. It is large and well-organized. It's clean.Excellent medical care is provided free of charge. Infant mortality rates at this hospital are lower than in the USA. I found out during my tour that the hospital had been copied from a Cuban hospital. People in the town were getting the same very high quality health care that Cuba is admired for.

Doug Casey, Anka Casey, David Gellen, Juan, Elisea and the entire team thank you for being wonderful hosts. I have not had so much fun in decades!!!!

A Cafayate House

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Estancia Open Spaces 2

La Estancia Open Spaces

Discovering Cafayate 2

Discovering Cafayate

Exploring La Estancia 5

Exploring La Estancia 3

Exploring La Estancia 2

Travesía por los Bosques de Arrayanes - Neuquén: Conocé de cerca una de las excursiones más emocionantes, viajar a Bariloche , turismo en Bariloche Argentina, Reservas Naturales | www.visitingargentina.com/

Travesía por los Bosques de Arrayanes - Neuquén: Conocé de cerca una de las excursiones más emocionantes, viajar a Bariloche , turismo en Bariloche Argentina, Reservas Naturales | www.visitingargentina.com/:



'via Blog this'

La Estancia Fitness

Cafayate Lake 2

A Lake At La Estancia

Road to Cafayate 9

Friday, November 28, 2014

Road to Cafayate 8

Road to Cafayate 7

Road to Cafayate 6

Road to Cafayate 5

Road To Cafayate 4

Brasil Crawls Out Of Recession In 3rd Quarter



November 28, 2014 5:25 pm

Brazil crawls out of recession in 3rd quarter

TOPSHOTS Aerial view of Christ the Redeemer statue, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, taken on June 26, 2014. AFP PHOTO / YASUYOSHI CHIBAYASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images©AFP
Brazil’s economy crawled out of technical recession in the third quarter, boosted by government spending, but the low rate of growth highlighted the challenge facing the country’s newly appointed economics team.
A day after President Dilma Rousseff confirmed former Treasury secretary Joaquim Levy as her finance minister, the government statistics agency said the economy grew 0.1 per cent quarter on quarter in the three months to Sept 30 and shrank 0.2 per cent compared with a year earlier.
“The Brazilian economy is showing solid macroeconomic fundamentals and has all the conditions to grow more intensely in the fourth quarter, guaranteeing and amplifying the achievements of the Brazilian population, especially for the working and low income population,” the finance ministry said.
Extended public holidays associated with Brazil’s hosting of the World Cup coupled with investor uncertainty before elections in October contributed to the lower growth this year.
But economists blame the policies of Ms Rousseff, who won a second four-year term in October in one of the closest elections in a generation on a platform of offering voters low unemployment, pay rises and social benefits.
Her government has tried to stimulate domestic consumption with selective tax breaks for industry, state-bank credit and price controls on fuel and energy.
Critics say this has come at the expense of improving the competitiveness of the economy while the government argues that its stimulus programme has staved off the effects of an extended international crisis.
“The successful performance of the labour market in Brazil is the result of the strategy of anti-cyclical economic policies,” the finance ministry said.
Growth in the third quarter was limited by a 1.9 per cent fall in agriculture as a drought affected coffee and sugar crops.
Tight monetary policy to tackle inflation also squeezed credit to families, the finance ministry said. This resulted in a 0.3 per cent fall in private consumption.
The government averted an overall economic contraction in the third quarter by expanding fiscal spending 1.3 per cent quarter on quarter.
The weak, government-supported growth poses a challenge for Mr Levy – a Chicago-trained economist with a reputation for being tough on budget expenses – when he formally takes over the job in January from Guido Mantega.
Mr Levy has promised a primary fiscal surplus – the budget surplus before interest payments – of 1.2 per cent in 2015.
This means he will have to reverse the current situation where economists say – allowing for accounting “tricks” by the government that give the impression of a primary surplus – the budget is showing a primary fiscal deficit.
Growth will have to come from investment but this was weak in the third quarter at 17.4 per cent of gross domestic product, the lowest in eight years.
Despite the challenges, economists welcome Levy’s appointment.
“We continue to see these nominations as a very positive and surprising shift in economic policy, and believe the targets announced have a high likelihood of being met,” said Tony Volpon, economist with Nomura, in an investor note.
He said this should help re-establish investor and business confidence, leading to an eventual return to more robust economic growth.

Road to Cafayate 3

On The Road To Cafayate 2

Drive to Cafayate

Alejandro 1 Hotel

Salta Hotel Room

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Dilma Bought The Election!!!!!



October 31, 2014 6:33 pm

Brazil reveals its largest monthly deficit on record

The Christ the Redeemer statue looks out over Guanabara Bay in this aerial photo taken in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. Brazilian analysts reduced their 2014 economic growth estimate for the 13th straight week after consumer confidence dropped to the lowest since the recession of 2009. Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg©Bloomberg
Brazil revealed its worst monthly fiscal deficit since records began on Friday, underscoring the challenges facing incumbent president Dilma Rousseff after she was re-elected on Sunday for a second term.
Brazil’s real weakened 2.14 per cent to R$2.45 against the dollar on news the overall public sector deficit in September was R$69.4bn, the worst monthly reading since the data series began in December 2001. The country also recorded its first primary budget deficit – the balance before interest payments – for the first nine months of the year, at 0.4 per cent of gross domestic product.
“These numbers suggest that, without a very strong adjustment, Brazil risks losing its investment grade status,” said Tony Volpon, economist with Nomura, in a research note titled “Fiscal Meltdown”.
Brazil’s president won re-election by one of the narrowest margins in the country’s history and now must set back in order an economy that has all but stalled this year.
To try to reignite growth, her government over the past four years has implemented ad hoc tax breaks and price controls and tried to push down lending rates, but to little avail.
The economy is expected to have grown at its slowest rate since the early 1990s, slipping into recession in the first half of this year.
Critics have accused Ms Rousseff’s government of being lax with some of the principles that have maintained Brazil’s economic stability since the 1990s, including tight control of inflation, running a primary fiscal surplus to control public debt and letting the exchange rate float freely.
While inflation was above the upper limit of the central bank’s target range of 6.5 per cent in September, the primary fiscal deficit – the fiscal balance before interest payments – also exceeded expectations at R$25.491bn.
Brazil fiscal deficit
Brazilian bank Itaú-Unibanco had estimated it would be half that figure.
Brazil has in recent years sought to maintain a primary fiscal surplus of about 3 per cent of GDP, the level considered sufficient to pay down part of its debt and meet its interest obligations.
The public sector primary surplus on a 12-month basis was now tracking at 0.61 per cent of gross domestic product compared with the government’s forecast of 1.9 per cent for 2014.
“The central government is showing an increasing inability to control primary spending. While net revenue grew 6.4 per cent year-on-year during January to September, primary spending grew at a much higher rate of 13.2 per cent,” said Alberto Ramos, economist with Goldman Sachs.
Gross public debt has begun increasing rapidly, to 61.7 per cent of GDP in September from 56.7 per cent in 2013 and 53.4 per cent in 2010.
These numbers suggest that without a very strong adjustment Brazil risks losing its investment grade status
- Tony Volpon, economist with Nomura
Mr Volpon suggested the government had delayed some of the bad news from August to September so that the numbers would not come out before the election.
But he said the “terrible” numbers on the fiscal front might help the more reform-minded in the government.
“The fiscal deterioration seen in 2014 will probably strengthen the hand of those within the government and the Workers’ Party who are pushing for the adoption of strong fiscal adjustment despite the election assurances that this was not necessary,” he said, referring to Ms Rousseff’s ruling PT party.

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COMMENTS (12)

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Celso
Protectionism is another remedy for our economical sickness but I don't see it as central. Our government cannot print US$ and our current account balance is already in minus 80 b$ per year, partially offset by foreingn investment and speculative capital.
We are lacking real leadership on what kind of Nation we want to be.
Like one more modern western country or like another LA Bolivar Nation exporting commodities and living as another parasite of China growth.
Looks like we made our choice last Sunday.