¡Buenos dias, glibs!  Sloopy is out getting paid, can’t blame him at all.  So lets see what we have this morning.

I was told mass shootings were a uniquely American phenomenon.

A bit of a human interest story about Argentine farmers.

It was a moment of victory for Macri, who had recently taken office, and of hope for farmers, who had been hobbled by the strict export limits imposed by the previous government. Since then, it has only been ups and downs.

Rossi says improved weather gave them some “oxygen” for this year’s harvest. But then Macri surprisingly turned in a worse showing in primary elections than the left-leaning Peronist candidate Alberto Fernández, causing stocks to plunge and the peso to depreciate even further in recession-hit Argentina, which has been struggling with rapidly rising prices and increasing poverty.

The primary results also coincided with a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that lowered estimates for Argentina’s soy and corn crops based on weather conditions, said Esteban Copati, head of agricultural forecasts at the Buenos Aires grains exchange.

“There was a double whammy,” Copati said. “On the one side, there was this change in the political scenario that changed the intention of growers to plant since they started to become fearful of what the policies of this new government could be. And on the other hand, there was the impact of the drop in international prices.”

This brings to mind this article regarding China purchasing said soybeans….grudgingly.

Cubans are now allowed to purchase certain goods with foreign currency.  What goods you ask?

Cuban officials announced Tuesday night that the prices of some consumer goods would drop for Cubans who create special new hard-currency bank accounts denominated in U.S. and Canadian dollars, Euros, British pounds, Swiss francs, Mexican pesos, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish kroner and Japanese yen.

Cubans will also be able to use the accounts to import goods through state-run companies, officials said on national television, although the precise mechanism for those private-public imports remains unclear.

Products that will be available for foreign currency include 43-inch flat-screen televisions, standing freezers, refrigerators and mini-split air conditioners. The discounts over current prices appear to be marginal — Reports in state media indicated that the government would still charge some 75 percent above the wholesale price. A 43-inch Samsung television, for example, would sell for $549, state media said, about twice the cost of a similar item in the U.S.

Buenas suerte…

They’re taking out free shit away! Burn them!

For some reason, government subsidies for gasoline are common in Latin America.  Protests in response to the removal of said subsidies are also common. What isn’t common is the government fleeing the capital in response to the protests.

Something that may be of interest to OMWC.

 

Have a catchy tune, and make Thursday great again!