January 12, 2018

Argentina fails to tame stubborn inflation

Argentina significantly overshot its inflation target in 2017 as prices rose around 25% from the previous year, raising questions about the country’s ability to tame a problem that has plagued it off and on for decades.

Consumer prices surged 3.1% in December from the previous month, pushing the annual inflation rate to 24.8%, far beyond the central bank’s target of 17%. The City of Buenos Aires measured inflation at 26.1% - in line with private estimates.

Last month, officials relaxed the inflation targets for the next two years, acknowledging they have been unable to combine stronger economic growth of about 3% last year with a significant decline in the inflation rate.

Consumer prices have meanwhile risen by 85% since Macri took office, while average wages have done so by around 70%.

The problem has been compounded by a decision to raise public utility rates by up to 1700% since March 2016, which the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration defends as a way to cut $4 billion of dollars in subsidies.

The nation's budget deficit, however, has more than doubled in peso terms since Macri took office in late 2015 as tax cuts for agroexporters, mining, and other sectors erode revenues.

Record interest payments - some $15 billion in 2017 alone - have also pushed budget deficits upward mainly due to the issuance of LEBAC 30-day bills, which until December yielded around 13% in dollar terms.

A record, $27 billion LEBAC maturity on December 18 was largely redeemed (63%) rather than rolled over. The resulting purchase of dollars, whose trade was deregulated by the Macri administration, devalued the peso by 10% in a week, from 17.50 to 19.50.

Consumer prices, accordingly, are expected to rise another 4% in January alone.

At: https://www.wsj.com/articles/argentina-fails-to-tame-stubborn-inflation-1515708458

January 3, 2018

Owner of city's famed Strand Book Store, Fred Bass, dead at 89

Source: New York Daily News

Fred Bass, a lover of literature who transformed the Strand Book Store into one of the world’s most famous, died Wednesday morning. He was 89.

Bass died at his Manhattan home surrounded by relatives. The cause was congestive heart failure, according to Leigh Altshuler, the Strand’s director of communications.

“It is with a heavy heart we share that Strand's owner, Fred Bass, passed away early this morning at home surrounded by loved ones at the age of 89,” the Strand said in a statement.

Bass spent more than 70 years at the East Village literary haunt founded by his father Benjamin Bass in 1927. The younger Bass first began working at what was then a little-known used bookstore on Fourth Ave. in the early 1940s at the age of 13.

“We can't overstate what Strand Bookstore means to the literary community of NYC,” the National Book Foundation said in a tweet.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/owner-of-city-e2-80-99s-famed-strand-book-store-fred-bass-dead-at-89/ar-BBHPTEX

---

Fred Bass, 1928-2018.

January 1, 2018

'Make them taste their own blood': Sheriff David Clarke sends graphic tweet slamming press

Source: Business Insider

Former Milwaukee county sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr. tweeted out a graphic post on Saturday unleashing on a frequent target: the news media.

The tweet was one of many that Clarke sent bashing the press after an FBI affidavit that was unsealed on Thursday alleged that he used his official position as sheriff to detain a fellow passenger on an airplane.

"BREAKING NEWS! When LYING LIB MEDIA makes up FAKE NEWS to smear me, the ANTIDOTE is go right at them," Clarke wrote. "Punch them in the nose & MAKE THEM TASTE THEIR OWN BLOOD. Nothing gets a bully like LYING LIB MEDIA’S attention better than to give them a taste of their own blood #neverbackdown."

He also attached a doctored photo to the tweet depicting President Donald Trump's face superimposed on that of a wrestler, who was holding another wrestler labeled "CNN," while a smiling and triumphant Clarke was shown kicking "CNN" in the face. The photo was reminiscent of a doctored video Trump shared of him body slamming CNN in July.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/david-clarke-graphic-tweet-slams-press-amid-fbi-probe-reports-2017-12