Andres Oppenheimer writes in the Miami Herald: “If political biographies of recent U.S. presidents and top foreign policy officials are any indication of what goes on in their mind — and I think they are — the new book by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks for itself: it’s about 98 percent about the…
We spend more, don’t we need to invest?
Pagina Siete has a excellent article today: The budget for recurrent expenditures (salaries and wages, goods and services, interest and other debt) tripled between 2006 and 2011; during that time it went from 22,158 million to 69,453 million Bolivianos (exchange rate is “appreciating” the Bolivian currency, thus benefitting imports which are mostly sumptuary goods, subsidies and damaging our fragile export industries; one…
Governmental inflation estimate, falls short for 2011
El Deber’s website reported last night about current Bolivian government falling short on their inflation estimates. By the end of the year, the government was expecting a 6% annual inflation rate. Which was adjusted earlier this year, with an incredible 50% increase, yes that is right, 50% increase following the aftermath of the “gasolinazo” (government generated chaos by trying to…
Money laundering & terrorism financing update
The link below is from an earlier post about the Bolivian performance regarding anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism in the international arena, as evaluated by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF, GAFI in Spanish). https://bolivianthoughts.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/anti-money-laundering-combating-the-financing-of-terrorism/ Los Tiempos newspaper sent some questions to current Bolivian government regarding about our performance and today a reply was printed,…
Stolen vehicles and bureaucracy
Pagina Siete reports an estimated 8,000 stolen vehicles (mostly from neighboring countries) are currently in the process of nationalization, as declared by the president of the National Customs of Bolivia (ANB), Marlene Ardaya to ERBOL network, and published by Pagina Siete on Monday Oct. 31 . Ardaya previously indicated that, as a result of allowing over 128,000 vehicles that were smuggled and now in the process of making…
Rain and lower temperatures from Nov 2011 to March 2012
If you are in Bolivia and are planning outdoor activities over this weekend, today included; take your precautions as the Senamhi forecast is rain in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and La Pas, see the chart on the left from La Razon. Acting Director of Meteorology (Senamhi), Victor Hugo Perez, reported that this behavior is linked to climate…
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