Virada Cultural Paulista | The Second Life Effect

Why we avoided the Sambodian Virada Cultural Paulista | 2012, or, traduttores traditores. Neuza and I have not been consuming our fair share of Sambodian culture lately, owing both to ennui and to the odd work schedule of a traduttore traditore. We are also somewhat puzzled over the latest pet project supported by federal and state [...]

Currency Wars | Welcome to the Desert of the Real

O Brasil acorda para a guerra cambial | Brasilianas.Org. The daily column of Luis Nassif, the notable Brazilian business and economics «spreadsheet head». Last Friday, March 9, 2012, will be regarded by posterity as the day Brazil officially awakened to the currency wars, which for so long have eaten away at the fabric of Brazilian [...]

Todd-Frank and The Risco Brazil

Source: Folha de S. Paulo | 19/02/2012 In an item on financial market regulation in today’s Folha, the São Paulo daily appears to be mistaken or confused about the Dodd-Frank Act of 2011  when it summarizes legal provisions that actually belong to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Dodd-Frank deals extensively with oversight of trading, banking and [...]

Rio-Sampa: Trading Places?

The Rio de Janeiro based tip sheet Relatório Reservado passes along a rumor about the future of Brazil’s CME-afiliated commodities exchange, to wit: that Rio governor Sérgio Cabral is engaged in lobbying for a change of venue for commodities and derivatives trading, or possibly the creation of a third venue, in his home state.. The move is [...]

«Networks, Markets and Bureaucracies» | Boi Zebu Learning Annex

Valor Econômico, the business daily, is a JV between Globo and the Folha group. Globo also licenses its TV retransmissions to the Câmara and RBS groups. New and noted by the annotator who annotated it: The Networked Organization, Markets and Bureaucracies | Boi Zebu Learning Annex. I managed to wreck a Drupal installation I had [...]

BMFBovespa-MervalNEXT: Autoreg to Take Effect

Valor Online: In 90 days, a new autoregulation scheme for the BM&F-Bovespa goes into effect. I gistlate — translate a little here, gist a list there — the brief item, although I am sure you probably already read about it from Mondo Visione. The self-regulator, not dissimilar to NYSE Regulation, is known as the BSM, [...]

BATS Brasil | “Catalyst of Consolidation”?

You stop paying attention to a subject for a couple of years and suddenly you have know idea what is happening any longer. To the announcement that the BATS exchange — third-largest in the U.S. — would enter Brazil, and will seek to kick off a process of consolidation of exchanges through M&A, for example, [...]

Argentina | “All The President’s Organs”

“Newspapers are like revolvers: You keep them around jsut so you can pull them out when it’s time to open fire.” — Julio Mario Santo Domingo Happiness, is a warm gun, momma … New and noted: E-mail calls Clarín the “organ bank” of Nestor Kirchner | Tribuna de Periodistas. This episode surrounding a government lawsuit [...]

Papel Prensa S.A. | The Man in the Middle?

Clarín of Argentina remains under the gun in the Papel Prensa S.A. case. From the official news agency of the Republic of Argentina: Papel Prensa: la Secretaría de Derechos Humanos denunció a un ex directivo de Clarín Above, an interview granted by the investigator in the case to TV CN23. I translate and annotate. Actually, there [...]

Papel Prensa S.A. and the Editora Abril

The lawsuit brought by the government of Argentina against the newsprint monopoly Papel Prensa S.A. — controlled by a partnership comprising the two leading national dailies, El Clárin and La Nación — is being primarily treated as a story about big government attempting to muzzle the press. This strikes me as nonsensical. The allegation that [...]