Daily Archives: October 12, 2020

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina tempted wary investors with a dollar-linked bond on Tuesday, issuing around $1.8 billion of the instrument it hopes will help bolster the peso amid a domestic currency crisis, stringent capital controls and tumbling foreign reserves.

FILE PHOTO: Argentine one hundred peso bills are displayed in this picture illustration taken September 3, 2019. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian/Illustration

The bond is part of a series of measures by the government and the central bank to revive confidence in the peso and encourage local savings. Argentina restructured over $100 billion in foreign-currency debt in recent months.

The restructurings, including $65 billion in foreign-law debt, helped pull the grains-producing nation out of default, but its access to global markets is very restricted. A mission from the International Monetary Fund arrived in the country on Tuesday to start talks for a new deal.

The government has to show a change of direction quickly, said Federico Furiase, director of consultancy Eco Go, adding Argentina had very little gasoline in terms of reserves.

The government is trying to buy some time but these are all patches that are unfortunately arriving late.

Argentina has temporarily cut export taxes on industrial, mining and agricultural products to boost sales and international reserves.

The IMF team started meetings in Buenos Aires as the government seeks a new program to replace a failed $57 billion facility struck in 2018. An IMF official described the visit as being in listening mode.

We have been very clear in this crisis that it is important to provide support to firms and more importantly, to workers, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told CNN Spanish in comments later shared by the government.

So we are not coming with the idea of, oh, well, lets see how we can further tighten up spending in these times.

Bank of America said in a report the new bond was aimed at stimulating peso savings by giving holders some protection against fluctuations in the currency, but it was no miracle cure.

Dollar-linked securities are imperfect substitutes of USD assets, it said.

Argentinas peso was 0.08% weaker at around 77 per dollar. In the black market it fell more steeply to 152 per dollar, widening the gap with the official rate to 97.2%, the highest in years. Over-the-counter bonds dipped an average 1%.

The success of the dollar-linked bond will help gauge confidence in the policies of President Alberto Fernndez as his administration looks to take pressure off the peso. The issue, with an annual interest rate of just 0.1%, was well above the initial plans for around $500 million.

The Economy Ministry said the debt, maturing on Nov. 30, 2021, helped expand the governments financing options, cover short-term repayment needs, soak up excess pesos in the market and widen the local debt market.

Argentina is headed for an economic contraction of about 12% this year, which would be the third straight year of recession.

Reporting by Jorge Otaola and Eliana Raszewski; writing by Cassandra Garrison and Adam Jourdan; Editing by David Gregorio, Marguerita Choy and Richard Chang

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UPDATE 3-Argentina lures wary investors with dollar-linked bond as IMF arrives - Reuters UK

When director Kinji Fukasaku adapted the yakuza novel Graveyard of Honor for the screen in 1975, he was coming off of an extraordinary streak of Japanese gangster films that began with Street Mobster in 1972 and ended with New Battles Without Honor and Humanity in 1974. In between were six other yakuza pictures that transformed the genre in the same way that Francis Coppola reinvented the American gangster movie with the Godfather films. Like Coppola, Fukasaku was intent on deepening and critiquing the conventions he was working with, and in placing his stories at an intersection between myth and socioeconomic commentary; Graveyard of Honor was in many ways the culmination of this project, a crime tale set against the backdrop of post-WWII Japan in which the lead characters turbulent journey from violent triumph to paralyzing drug addiction reflects the anxieties of a country trying to rebuild amidst the American occupation. In 2002 Takashi Miike directed a new version of Graveyard of Honor with a significant change in setting. This time around protagonist Rikio Ishikawas story is set primarily in the 1990s, the lost decade when the Japanese economy was in freefall. As Miike biographer Tom Mes points out in his excellent audio commentary for the new Arrow Blu-ray boxed set that includes both versions of Graveyard, Miikes Ishikawa reflects his era just as the hero of Fukasakus version reflected his; his excesses in the first half of the film are indicative of his cultures excesses during the economic bubble, and when that bubble collapses he moves from excess to desperation. In addition to Mes narration, Arrows Graveyard of Honor Blu-ray set includes an equally fine commentary on the Fukusaku version by Mark Schilling and numerous making-of documentaries, along with an outstanding visual essay on Miikes work by author and critic Kat Ellinger. Both films are proof positive of the absurdity of the notion that movies need to have likable characters; each director presents Rikio Ishikawa as an unredeemable sociopath from beginning to end, and the insights that emerge are far more thought-provoking and rewarding that what one could ever get from a more conventionally relatable hero.

Another new Arrow release, ivansxtc., is one that Ive been longing for for 20 years. The lacerating show business drama about a cancer-ridden agent (Danny Huston) in a sex and cocaine-fueled free fall was shot on a Sony HDW-700A HDCAM at a frame rate of 60i and then projected at 24 frames when it was theatrically released in 2002; the film never really got the distribution it deserved, partly due to technical complications stemming from the shooting format and partly due to the industrys uneasiness with director Bernard Roses bleak take on Hollywood. Yet to categorize ivansxtc. as a Player-esque Hollywood takedown is far too limiting; adapting the same Tolstoy novella that served as the basis for Akira Kurosawas Ikiru, Rose and co-writer Lisa Enos use their Los Angeles milieu as a vehicle through which to explore harrowing questions about mortality that ultimately give way to a spiritually transcendent climax this is both one of the scariest and one of the most comforting films about death Ive ever seen. Its also a sharp and very funny time capsule of Hollywood at the turn of the century thats chock full of great performances, many by non-professional actors playing variations on themselves. The film has barely been available for decades, but Arrows Blu-ray was worth the wait: in addition to three different versions of the film (the theatrical release in both 24p and 60i and an extended producers cut recently assembled by Enos), the disc contains multiple recent and archival interviews and a great audio commentary by Enos and filmmaker Richard Wolstencroft. My personal favorite extra: a 2018 American Cinematheque Q&A moderated by screenwriter Larry Karaszewski, who does a great job of eliciting hilarious anecdotes from Rose, Huston, Enos, Peter Weller (who is great as an obnoxious movie star in the picture), and Adam Krentzman Roses agent at the time who gives one of the best performances in the movie as an agent trying to do damage control following his colleagues implosion.

My final recommendations this week are two Westerns, one classic and one brand new. Director Henry Kings 1950 The Gunfighter is a contemplative rumination on violence and regret with a central character Gregory Pecks Jimmy Ringo who is one of the American cinemas all-time great antiheroes. The movie has many pleasures, but one of its most vital uses for independent filmmakers is as a case study in how to build drama and suspense with finite resources; although its a studio movie, most of The Gunfighter takes place on one set in a time frame of just a couple hours. The filmmaking lessons go beyond those of using limited space and time, however theres also The Gunfighters superb editing by frequent King collaborator Barbara McLean, who provides one of the greatest (and most easily imitated) cuts in cinema history in a scene where Ringo displays his gunfighting prowess without the camera ever showing the moment in which he pulls his pistol from its holster. That cut and many of King and McLeans other innovations are expertly dissected on the supplementary features of Criterions new Gunfighter Blu-ray, a must for filmmakers and Western enthusiasts. The disc includes an interview with filmmaker and archivist Gina Telaroli about Kings career and approach to directing, a video essay by film historian J.E. Smyth on McLeans work, and audio interviews with King and McLean themselves. Aaron Koontzs kinetic 2020 Western The Pale Door, which is out this week on DVD and Blu-ray from RLJE, is about as far as you can get from the reflective, subdued tone of The Gunfighter; although it begins as a riff on Delmer Daves oaters like Jubal and 3:10 to Yuma, it swiftly takes a left turn into supernatural horror territory when its outlaws find themselves trapped by a coven of centuries-old witches. Koontz switches between genres with deft formal control, delivering the jolts of horror and the moral inquiry of the Western with equal impact and effectiveness. He also assembles a first-rate ensemble the compelling performances by Bill Sage, Zachary Knighton, and Melora Walters, among others, alone make The Pale Door worth a look.

Jim Hemphill is the writer and director of the award-winning film The Trouble with theTruth,which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi. His website is http://www.jimhemphillfilms.com.

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Graveyard of Honor, ivansxtc, The Gunfighter, The Pale Door: Jim Hemphill's Home Video Recommendations - Filmmaker Magazine

The future is here: A guide to the post-COVID world 10/08/2020

Welcome to your guide to where the world is headed during the pandemic era and beyond. Each week, well bring you the latest and most significant expert insights and international news about how coronavirus is reshaping international affairs. To stay updated each week,sign up to the newsletter here.

Lets take a spin around the globe, in seven minutes or less.

The story of the COVID-19 pandemic is primarily about public health. But its also about power. And perhaps nowhere is that becoming most evident than in the Mediterranean. In a new issue brief by the Atlantic Councils Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, we investigate coronaviruss political, economic, and societal impact in North Africa and the wider region.

Russia and Turkey, for example, are trying to expand their spheres of influence in the Mediterranean, potentially producing a redistribution of power there. And as migration flows from North Africa to Europe ebb or reverse as a result of the pandemic, nationalist political forces across Europe have shifted from championing anti-immigrant agendas to advocating for the self-interest of individual countries over that of the wider European Union.

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In Libya, the civil war initially overshadowed the outbreak of coronavirus. But now that Khalifa Haftars military offensive from the east has been defeated, the population is turning its attention to the viruss spread and the governments lack of preparation for fighting it, posing a challenge to the legitimacy of the Government of National Accord in Tripoli. The firm perch that Turkey has now established in Libya promises to reshape the regional energy and economic landscape.

The Tunisian government, by contrast, has swiftly and effectively implemented a preparedness plan to mitigate the spread of the virus, bolstering its standing in the region and relations with Europe. But the pandemic has also magnified pre-existing domestic challenges such as political deadlock, an economic recession, and the risk of the public deficit and debt imploding, which threaten economic reforms that are critical for Tunisias future.

In Algeria and Egypt, COVID-19 has hastened economic and social trends already underway. Both regimes have tightened their grip on society and information, invoking the virus to justify crackdowns against dissidents. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been more focused on silencing those who criticize the states response tocoronavirus than on containing the outbreak itself, which further harms the governments credibility and ability to tackle pressing socio-economic challenges. That, in turn, could frustrate Egypts ambitions to regain its position of power in the region. The health crisis has also exacerbated unemployment and added to the economic headwinds that Egypt and Algeria already faced.The bottom line: To develop effective policy toward North Africa and the Mediterranean, its vital to understand the interplay between states responses to the pandemic and their struggles to manage conflicts, economic problems, migration, and protest movementsand the ways in which that interplay is remaking the regions power system.

Insights from across the planet, in ten bullets or fewer

Insights from the Atlantic Council

Wed, Sep 30, 2020

America cannot move forward in the way that we need to without cooperation with our partners and allies around the world, Buttigieg maintained, especially with the pressing challenges of a rising China, climate change, and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Elections 2020byDavid A. Wemer

Wed, Sep 30, 2020

Nepals poor governance track recordcharacterized by inadequate leadership after the 2015 earthquake, a divided ruling party, corruption and mishandling of funds by the government, and questionable governance practices by the prime ministernot only puts the population at a disadvantage in weathering the pandemic, but it also may deal additional blows to the countrys health and economic wellbeing.

New AtlanticistbyCapucine Querenet

Wed, Sep 30, 2020

In spite of the overall worsening of transatlantic relations over the past four years, and more inward looking foreign policy choices, Italy and the United States were able to preserve consistently positive relations. As far as trade is concerned, Italy managed to avoid the brunt of US tariffs on European goods, and trade exchange between []

Issue BriefbyGiovanna de Maio

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The post-COVID world this week: A new prediction for back-to-normal, passes for safer travel, and a power shake-up in the Mediterranean - Atlantic...

Days after announcing a major financial climate initiative, financial leader JPMorgan said it will commit $30 billion over the next five years that will be specifically allocated toward Black and Latino communities.

The funding, which follows Black Lives Matter protests calls for an end to racist socioeconomic redlining, aims to help communities of color financially recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recession induced by the coronavirus pandemic laid bare the persistent racial inequalities present in the U.S. due to its history with slavery.

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A recent report conducted by the U.S. Federal Reserve revealed that despite a slowly closing wealth gap, Black American families average wealth is still less than 15 percent of their white counterparts.

Systemic racism is a tragic part of Americas history, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, said in prepared remarks. We can do more and do better to break down systems that have propagated racism and widespread economic inequality, especially for Black and Latinx people. Its long past time that society addresses racial inequities in a more tangible, meaningful way.

Some of the key pillars in JPMorgans commitment include improving access to homeownership for Black and Latino families a key component of building wealth.

Refinancing options and other home lending initiatives will be the foundation to making homeownership more accessible, and the bank is allocating about $4 million in capital to fund this venture.

Helping Black- and Latino-owned businesses grow is another component of the initiative, with JPMorgan aiming to improve access to loans and other capital to help businesses survive the COVID-19 economic pinch.

A goal of 1 million new low-cost checking or saving accounts, in addition to financial mentorship to Black and Latino account holders.

Diversifying the JPMorgan workforce is another component of the plan, which includes a new reporting system to hold executives driving these programs accountable for their outcomes.

JPMorgan is the latest large corporation to pledge to overhaul its business practices to make their financial products more accessible to historically underserved communities.

The program is timely; the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted Black, Latino and Native American communities in the U.S., with each group more likely than white people to be hospitalized with a severe infection.

Black businesses have also been more likely to see closures and greater profit loss, largely driven by not having a banking partner that can help them get necessary funding.

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JPMorgan Chase is making massive $30 billion investment in racial equity in the US | TheHill - The Hill

A migrant-inclusive approach to risk mitigation benefits everyone and leads to better development outcomes.

Introduction

People on the move are among the highly vulnerable groups to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis. The disproportionate impact on this group, which includes immigrants and those still crossing borders, shows in the unprecedented, multiple challenges they face in health, livelihood, and additionally for those fleeing war and persecution, in access to protection. These heighten their risk of infection, which has implications on the health of their families and communities.

It is urgent for governments to integrate migrant health and migration policies into their response and recovery efforts. Migrants must have access to COVID-19 health services and be enabled to cope with the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic. Otherwise, their increasing vulnerability could impede efforts to stop the spread of the disease. It is also important to coordinate with governments of host and destination countries on measures targeted at migrants.

Focusing on migrant health and international migration, this brief proposes some policy measures to operationalize an inclusive approach based on the principles of universal health coverage (UHC) and contribute to enhancing public health protection, speeding recovery, and achieving sustainable development. It is based on presentations made at the Policy Actions for COVID-19 Response Dialogues organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Impacts of COVID-19

As of mid-2019, international migrants totaled 272 million, including 164 million workers and 25.9 million refugees (United Nations 2020) but excluding the numerous migrants that are undocumented. While the extent to which COVID-19 impacts migrants varies, depending on their socioeconomic situation, most count among the most severely hit by the crisis and are at greater risk of infection because of preexisting inequities and vulnerabilities. They are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of the circumstances of their journey and their poor living and working conditions. Impacts bear more heavily on women and children, the elderly, and persons with impairments and/or medical conditions.

Increased health risks. Lockdowns and quarantines have intensified the health risks of refugees and migrant workers living in overcrowded camps, informal settlements, collective shelters, and dormitories, often lacking in water, sanitation, and other basic services. Impacts are greater among irregular migrants, who are forced to move from place to place, stay homeless for prolonged periods, or be confined in cramped detention centers. Rising joblessness, income losses, malnutrition, and food insecurity triggered by the pandemic have also amplified these risks.

Compromised access to health services. Obstacles to migrants access to healthcare have heightened with the surge in COVID-19 caseloads and local transmissions. A glaring manifestation is the rising acts of xenophobia and stigma and discrimination. Along with other obstacles, such as migration status, lack of information, absence of health insurance or inadequate finances, and language and cultural barriers, these incidents have deepened their marginalization. Irregular migrants, who are unable or unwilling to access services for fear of detention, deportation, and other punishments, have been particularly impacted. Migrant workers in the informal economy, who often are without contracts and insurances and excluded from social protection schemes, have also been significantly affected.

Rising unemployment and loss of livelihood. The COVID-19-induced economic crisis has cost migrants their jobs and livelihoods. First to go were workers and refugees in the low-wage informal economy. Recent research from the International Labor Organization shows that nearly 75% of migrant women and 70% of migrant men were working in the informal sector before COVID-19. The prevalent last hired, first fired practice also makes migrant workers in the formal sector more vulnerable to losing their jobs than their native-born counterparts. The unfolding global economic recession, according to ADB, threatens the job security of over 91 million international migrants from Asia and the Pacific.

Declining remittances. Migrants income losses impact their families and countries of origin. The World Bank estimates that remittances will drop by 20% because of the pandemic, causing hardship to more than 800 million people depending on remittances for much of their subsistence. A sudden stop in remittance flow, according to ADB, could plunge many households in developing Asiaparticularly Pacific and Central and West Asian countriesinto poverty. The region has at least 10 countries deriving over 10% of their gross domestic product from remittances and six of the worlds top 10 remittance-recipient countries (ADB 2020).

Implications on migration

The pandemic has brought new challenges to migration management. Current developments indicate that as countries reopen their borders, they will be imposing additional health requirements for travel, which could result in disproportionate health expenditures and drive more people into irregular migration pathways. They could also restrict travel and tourism and limit the potential of migration and human mobility in contributing to development.

Challenges could become much more complex with broader geopolitical and economic contexts coming into play in addition to changes in the evolutionary patterns of the disease. Against this backdrop, rethinking mobility and migration management, as part of COVID-19 response and recovery measures, assumes critical importance.

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Coming Out Stronger from COVID-19: Policy Options on Migrant Health and Immigration - World - ReliefWeb