There are no free lunches

If you get higher interest rates, that is because you are investing on higher risk assets. And you need to assume those risks - you are getting higher compensation because of that, remember? If those assets default and don't pay back, you need to assume your losses. I know it is is grim and might seem cruel (it is, actually), but that is why you should strive to manage balanced portfolios.

EFTA's Court (I had no idea it still existed!) rule just highlights and presses on the sentence - there really aren't free lunches. Higher return, mean higher risk. If not... why shouldn't we all be doing that?

http://www.publico.pt/economia/noticia/islandia-vence-caso-icesave-e-nao-tem-re-reembolsar-reino-unido-e-holanda-1582473

There we go again

Over the past 3 years, I am always asking the same 2 questions to Portuguese politicians:

- When do they start seriously cutting public expenses?

- What is their strategic plan for growth?

I would just like to state that, as any of these questions has been so answered so far, I will keep on hammering them. Sorry...

Kirchner's flight?

Argentina is financially broke. Only the ones who have limited contact with the country don't realize it. The social instability (limited and contained looting in a couple of specific incidents are the most recent examples), galloping inflation, capital flows limitations, power shortages, unstable power of law show it clearly. And the crescent rhetoric concerning the Falkland is just another clear example of it - because it again (like in 1982) seems like a Government trying to shift internal attentions from economic problems to sovereign ones. 

Argentina doesn't deserve this. It is not broken as a nation. Argentinians are incredibly proud, hard-working and resourceful. They have governing issues (they have had so for many, many years, probably since the beginning of the XX century, like my country), but I am sure they will be able to overcome them. And I really hope so - because I love the country, the nation and have high expectations of it.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/03/world/europe/argentina-falklands-letter/index.html?iref=allsearch

Great example

I think this article just highlights how pervasive, unnecessary and inefficient bureaucracy is - and, in the case of Portuguese Justice system, how corrosive for the integrity of results and effects in the normal rule of society bureaucracy leads to. We need to simplify systems, reducing its costs to do two things that people usually think opposite - improve deliver and value while lowering costs. It is possible when systems are as inoperative as this example highlights.

http://www.publico.pt/sociedade/noticia/metade-da-duracao-media-dos-processos-e-gasta-com-notificacoes-1577840

Don't overtax success

Really! Don't overtax success! Governments should ensure honest hard work and talent are rewarded - that is what pushes a society forward! Too much tax and people will start asking "why should I work so hard?". Taxes should be progressive (who earns more also should pay more, to help promote social balance and as solidariety), but 75% tax rates on income are an absurd! A dangerous absurd!

http://www.publico.pt/mundo/noticia/belgica-recusa-ser-bode-expiatorio-no-caso-depardieu-1577715

Is this what I have been asking for?

Over the past years, you have read me bickering about the need for a growth strategy in Portugal, that would allow us to focus resources while thinking on the long term. Might this industrial foster strategy be a significant part of it? I really hope so!

http://www.publico.pt/economia/noticia/estrategia-de-fomento-industrial-sera-apresentada-em-fevereiro-1577085

Growth is an assumption of any Wellfare State

I agree with Ferreira do Amaral. And I think this is quite obvious. You need sustainable growth to fund a wellfare state. The solution on the medium term should thus be to actually fuel and promote that growth. You can't keep on taking responsibilities without a clear way to fund them. Very simply.

http://www.publico.pt/economia/noticia/raiz-da-crise-do-estado-social-e-economica-diz-joao-ferreira-do-amaral-1576816