THE DYNAMIC DUO

Well, by now you may have read the NY Times 8/28 article that I forwarded to you. It details the exploits of the Russian version of Batman and Robin. Forget the Penguin, the Joker and other worthies. These guys are better. Maybe ten billion missing but ...."it wuz somebody else," the bosses took it, they knew when the devaluation was coming and cashed in their high interest Russian bonds and converted to dollars. We only watched!

Well, what do you know, the Russian version of the "bicicleta" an old game played in Argentina and Brazil for many years! I kind of believe them, it is too much food for one mouth. Others were feeding at the trough. These guys are only the observable players and it really is not a duo it is a full orchestra.

But wait, I hear some unidentified voice in the background (could it be the conductor?) that says : "We learned a new trick. Bank moratoriums. Not to avoid runs on banks, (this is only a capitalist hang up) we gave a 90 day moratorium on withdrawals so that the banks could also convert their Russian bonds and cash reserves into dollars and send them abroad. Naturally after this they were insolvent, since the assets are not in the Banks books but on those of specially created subsidiaries. He, he, we are not that stupid comrades. After all we have been trained to manipulate, take and survive, and not to create. That takes time and it is boring. It requires hard work, a vocation only for the masses". "Besides, we got away unscathed after 70 years of doing what we pleased, are we now expected to be poor"? No my friends, impunity means we have a license to steal, why they even lend us the money! Capitalism is really great!" The former is virtual Russian yuppie thinking. The sons of the comandantes in Cuba are the same: communist "nin~os bitongos" (daddy's boys) To those of you that may have optimist friends that want to invest in today's' Cuba I would ask to pass on this message: "My esteemed would be investors and unconditional transitionists. If you think you can do business with them, by all means try it but remember they may have equivalent names in Spanish to Kagalovsky and Khodorkovsky (the KH sounds as a J in Spanish) so if you end up as the names imply do not complain."

PS: If you don't know Spanish Any Cuban friend will no doubt be able to translate the pun.

END

Dr. Alberto Luzárraga

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