News of Michael Soltys

Michael Soltys

Michael Soltys, who first entered the Buenos Aires Herald in 1983, held various editorial posts at the newspaper from 1990 and was the lead writer of the publication’s editorials from 1987 until 2017.

FROM A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Incessant Monetary Frustration: the IMF and Argentina

Today 12:21 The first president in hock to the IMF was Arturo Frondizi, who signed the first standby arrangement (for a now paltry US$75 million) in late 1958.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: PROVINCIAL BREAKDOWN (EPILOGUE)

Under the volcano

17-08-2019 11:45 Far from deciding the election, Buenos Aires Province was just one of the 14 provinces giving Fernández an absolute majority, even if obviously the most important.

by Michael Soltys

ANDREW GRAHAM-YOOLL

Borrowed time, repaid with interest

20-07-2019 09:38 For Andrew, journalistic independence was an absolute and there could be no compromise.

by Michael Soltys

GREATER BUENOS AIRES

The megalopolis of the metropolis

13-07-2019 09:50 Greater Buenos Aires is relatively new as a factor in Argentine history. It can be described as really coming into its own with the 1960 census, which for the first time recorded more people as living beyond the city limits as within them – four million as against three million in an Argentina of 20 million people.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE

A not so pampered pampa

06-07-2019 10:42 Underrepresented numerically, the province nevertheless seems overrepresented in quality – of the 35 deputies listed here, little more than a dozen have made much of a name for themselves.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: CAPITAL FEDERAL

That’s life in the big city

29-06-2019 10:05 Today’s column has at least two unique features within this series – it is the first which does not study a province (Capital Federal is no more a province than the District of Columbia is a state) and it is also the first with the candidates clearly defined after last week’s closure of the electoral lists.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: MENDOZA

Old wine in new bottles

22-06-2019 09:00 Founded in 1561 with an original population of some 2,500 (of whom just 47 were Spanish) only eight years after Santiago del Estero, Mendoza is Argentina’s second-oldest city but does not look it – the result of a series of devastating earthquakes, the worst of which occurred in its tricentennial year of 1861, killing around half of the then 20,000 inhabitants

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: SANTA FE

Put out more flags

15-06-2019 08:58 Santa Fe, the cradle of Argentina’s 1853 Constitution, was Juan de Garay’s first choice to found a city (1573) ahead of Buenos Aires in 1580.

by Michael Soltys

COMMUNITY

Swedish ambassador prepares to bid farewell to Buenos Aires

08-06-2019 12:14 Swedish Ambassador Barbro Elm, who ends a three-year mission to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay next month, last Wednesday hosted a reception to mark the Scandinavian country’s national day (June 6).

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: TUCUMAN

Sugar and lemons, sweet and sour

08-06-2019 11:09 Argentina’s smallest province, where independence was declared in 1816, is also its most densely populated and the same could be said about tomorrow’s electoral offer.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: ENTRE RIOS

Two rivers run through it

01-06-2019 11:15 Entre Ríos today takes its turn with almost perfect timing – it will be voting next weekend along with three other provinces among a total of 10 gubernatorial elections due in the upcoming fortnight.

by Michael Soltys

The famous entrance to Anfield, Bill Shankly -master of the quip- and Salah.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Red is the colour of my true love’s shirt, even if in Poch’s Argentina I often walk alone

01-06-2019 09:12 By amazing coincidence, the Times small staff includes lifelong fans of both Champions League finalists. Honorary Editor Michael Soltys explains why red is the colour of his true love’s shirt, even if in Pochettino’s Argentina he often walks alone.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: SALTA

High jump, low bar

25-05-2019 10:43 A pioneer of electronic voting alongside this city in 2013, Salta will be employing the single ballot this year. The province has always been governed by generally centre-right Peronists since 1983, apart from the 1991-1995 period when it was ruled by 1977-1983 military trustee Roberto Ulloa.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: CHACO

Impenetrable resistance

18-05-2019 11:06 The weather is a cyclical setback but Chaco also has structural problems. Resistencia is Argentina’s poorest provincial capital after Corrientes (on the other side of the Paraná River) with 41.4 percent below the poverty line.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: CORODOBA

The muddle in the middle

11-05-2019 08:35 Opinion polls are giving Schiaretti 40 to 45 percent, Negri around a quarter of the vote and Mestre about 10 percent – this leaves little more than 20 percent for the other nine candidates.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: MISIONES

Cascade strategy

04-05-2019 10:13 In presidential voting, Misiones joined Radical Raúl Alfonsín upon the return to democracy in 1983 but has voted Peronist ever since (even being one of just four provinces to vote for Eduardo Duhalde in 1999).

by Michael Soltys

Queen Elizabeth II's birthday celebration.

CELEBRATIONS

British Embassy marks Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday in style

27-04-2019 10:32 Over 800 guests filled the residence and gardens.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: CORRIENTES

Deep waters run still

27-04-2019 09:06 One of only five districts aligned with President Macri, Corrientes has swum against the tide much longer than others like, say, Jujuy – the birthplace of independence hero José de San Martín (in Yapeyú, 1778) has almost always bucked the national mainstream.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO

First among unequals

20-04-2019 09:13 Perhaps Santiago del Estero might escape being rockbottom in institutional terms – political subtlety seems in even shorter supply in Formosa, for example – but the province has produced an iconic strongman unrivalled for “autumn of the patriarch” longevity.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: SAN JUAN

Apostles or baptists?

13-04-2019 09:37 Current (if disputed) Justicialist Party chairman José Luis Gioja kept a firm grip on the Lower House deputies during his three terms as San Juan governor between 2003 and 2015 but today only Daniela Castro remains with him in the Victory Front caucus.

by Michael Soltys

SECURITY MINISTER

Bullrich: Inflation will hit 70% if Macri doesn’t win re-election

13-04-2019 09:08 Security minister admits to ‘unforced errors’ in speech to Rotary Club focused on election campaign.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: RIO NEGRO

River deep, mountain high

06-04-2019 10:26 In most provinces the gubernatorial race is the main interest after the presidential showdown but Río Negro’s voting will offer a competing focus – the apparent departure of that ultimate wheeler-dealer Miguel Angel Pichetto after three terms in the Senate.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: JUJUY

White gold and other miracles

30-03-2019 10:16 Jujuy has a historic claim to uniqueness in being the only Argentine province not belonging to either the original 13 United Provinces of the River Plate in 1810 or to the clusters of northern and Patagonian territories promoted in 1955 – it formally separated from Salta in 1834.

by Michael Soltys

BREXIT

German delegate to EU talks Brexit with members of the Rotary Club

30-03-2019 09:06 With the United Kingdom scheduled to leave the European Union yesterday, Kropp – Germany’s delegate on the EU’s Social and Economic Committee (Europe’s link-up with its private sector) – said that Britain has to decide what it wants after saying for so long what it does not want.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: FORMOSA

This Formosa is no Taiwan

23-03-2019 10:25 The national representation consists of three senators (José Mayans and María González for the Victory Front and Radical Luis Naidenoff) and five deputies (Luis Basterra, Ramiro Fernández Patri and Inés Beatriz ‘Betty’Lotto for the Victory Front against the Radicals Mario Arce and Martín Hernández).

by Michael Soltys

Borges and Irish writing by Juan José Delaney, Ediciones El Gato Negro, 2018, 67 pages.

BOOKS - ST. PATRICK’S DAY SPECIAL

Author finds common ground between Ireland and Argentina

16-03-2019 10:49 For years Juan José Delaney has been a tireless and erudite explorer of the common roots between his ancestral Ireland and his native Argentina – what better moment to honour his work than the eve of Saint Patrick’s Day?

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: CHUBUT

Welsh rarebit

16-03-2019 09:46 Chubut will be holding its PASO primaries tomorrow, prior to the provincial elections on May 19. Given that its Patagonian neighbour Neuquén voted last Sunday, any lessons there?

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: NEUQUEN

What’s in a palindrome?

09-03-2019 03:20 All the main protagonists in a three-cornered gubernatorial race (which will not necessarily translate into a 30/30/30 result) are committed to the continuity of Vaca Muerta fracking but it is also necessary to read between the lines.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: SAN LUIS

The bridge of San Luis Rey

02-03-2019 07:53 One of the five provinces eternally Peronist since 1983, this did not prevent Adolfo Rodríguez Saá from running his own presidential candidacy in 2003 and 2015, sweeping all three Cuyo provinces in his first bid.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: CATAMARCA

Valley of the dolls

23-02-2019 09:16 Catamarca is historically the poorest of the three main oases lying in the generally arid stretch between Mendoza and Salta (along with San Juan and La Rioja).

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: LA PAMPA

Pampas not always pampered

16-02-2019 08:24 La Pampa has had just four governors since 1983, all of them multi-term except Néstor Ahuad nd all Peronist, of course.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: SANTA CRUZ

Penguin random

09-02-2019 09:38 Santa Cruz is one of just three provinces permitting indefinite gubernatorial re-election, so in theory Alicia Kirchner could carry on as many terms as her age permits.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: LA RIOJA

Tigers of the plains

02-02-2019 09:54 This small province has contrived to give Argentina two of its three Peronist presidents of the 20th century – María Estela ‘Isabel’ Martínez de Perón and Carlos Saúl Menem (currently one of the three senators in his 89th year).

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: TIERRA DEL FUEGO

Small is beautiful

26-01-2019 08:23 Not only is small beautiful (in the south-western half at any rate) – rapid growth is notoriously easier from a low base.

by Michael Soltys

ELECTION 2019: A PROVINCIAL MINDSET

All politics is local

19-01-2019 08:24 Buenos Aires province does not always clinch the issue. For a start it did not swing the last presidential election in 2015, no matter how much Vidal’s upset win might feed that impression – Macri basically owes his presidency to Córdoba where his landslide lead of almost a million far exceeded his nationwide margin.

by Michael Soltys

2018 IN REVIEW

2018: The year that was

29-12-2018 08:42 Currency crisis, runaway inflation, recession and an IMF deal heads a less than stellar economic year. A landmark vote on abortion fails (for now?), the ‘Chocobar’ doctrine resets the rules of engagement, the ARA San Juan is finally found. A successful G20 summit tops off a stellar year for international diplomacy, as a social awakening brings an end to the year.

by Michael Soltys

Noel Campbell, pictured with Argentina’s G20 Sherpa Pedro Villagra Delgado.

G20 LEADERS SUMMIT

Following the ‘kangeroo model,’ step-by-step

30-11-2018 12:48 The Times meets Australia’s Ambassador to Argentina Noel Campbell.

by MICHAEL SOLTYS

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

A ‘Dear John’ letter from New England

17-11-2018 14:35 I was told that the golden rule of thumb for understanding Argentina imparted by the Foreign Office to all its diplomats heading out here was: ‘Nothing in Argentina is ever as good or as bad as anybody says it is.’

by Michael Soltys

A moment of silence in the German cemetery at Chacarita.

POPPY DAY CEREMONY

Reconciliation to the fore at WWI remembrance service

17-11-2018 14:31 Those lost during World War I remembered at highly symbolic and emotional ceremony at British and German Cemeteries in Chacarita, a century on from the armstice that ended the fighting.

by Michael Soltys

LEADERS SUMMIT

G20 challenges: The soft power of an honest broker

17-11-2018 12:15 The challenge facing the Argentine chair was to reach consensus in a tense and complex world context, continued the young diplomat.

by Michael Soltys

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

Midterms and the medium term

10-11-2018 11:55 Perspectives seem to be broadening from beyond a fiscal and monetary focus, realising that the problem is not just the budget deficit but also the balance of trade and payments.

by Michael Soltys

Bolsonaro and his approach to the Mercosur.

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

The boys from Brazil

03-11-2018 10:00 Bolsanaro’s approach to Mercosur certainly proposes to shake things up regionally but falls short of being a ‘Braxit’ from the bloc.

by Michael Soltys

One of the newly constructed gates linking the British and German cemeteries in Chacarita.

ARMISTICE: A CENTURY ON

Anglo-German reconciliation opens doors for historic Armistice ceremony

03-11-2018 09:03 A century on from the end of World War I, the dividing line between the British and German cemeteries in Characarita will be erased at an event laden with symbolism.

by Michael Soltys

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

Cause I’m the taxman

27-10-2018 08:41 Last month’s trade surplus was certainly welcome news after 20 months in the red – the result of recession and devaluation rather than the protectionism espoused by Donald Trump.

by Michael Soltys

How is compatible paying out interest rates of 57-72 % with freezing the money supply?

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

Home, home on the range

20-10-2018 10:45 The government’s rent bill is a tricky issue ... it is not the demagogic wishful thinking of populism but rationally drafted legislation seeking to balance the various interests.

by Michael Soltys

President Macri and Letras de Liquidez (Leliqs).

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

Leliq-land, the Oscar that never was

13-10-2018 08:42 The unforced error with the gas surcharge is but the latest episode in a continuing process of trying to come to grips with this problem, unsuccessfully until now.

by Michael Soltys

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

Off and running before it can walk

06-10-2018 10:50 Policy is more monetarist than ever when any claim to Central Bank independence has lost all credibility with last month’s abrupt exit of Luis Caputo.

by Michael Soltys

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

A wilder shade of pale

29-09-2018 12:09 Perceiving Caputo’s removal as an IMF imposition would not be completely far-fetched – he and the IMF were at loggerheads over Central Bank intervention.

by Michael Soltys

The sheer insanity of Argentina's economy.

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

The gift that keeps on giving

22-09-2018 12:36 ‘Zero deficit’ in the form of state revenues equalling public spending would not restore the Argentine economy to health because both taxation and public spending are far too high – both need to be drastically downsized.

by Michael Soltys

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS

Heralding the budget

15-09-2018 10:58 Nor are the provinces being asked for too much sacrifice from this comfortable position – only a quarter of the 400 billion pesos is being required from their side and almost half of that will fall on Buenos Aires province in the form of subsidy transfers.

by Michael Soltys