After the announcements, now “the coin is in the air”

Those who know him well, who are many, describe a Sergio Massa negotiate through the head of customs, Guillermo Michel, with grain companies, oil companies, mining companies, the meat and fishing industry. And, in parallel, by calling personally a ensure attendance at its inauguration ceremony.

exporters entered foreign currency from the field to the final draft of the standard in which dollar accounts and support in credits and taxes are promised if their shipments grow beyond 2021.

As for the actsomeone like Roberto Lavagna disappointed him, but he came from Geneva José Luis Manzano and the presidents of the main entrepreneurial realities were present. other le they refused offers such as Marina dal Poggetto to support him in Economics.

In that dizzying style, a pragmatic politician always appears in Massa, “Of those who do not see the adversary as an enemy”, they say. And this was intuited by the winemakers who were in what was his last activity in Deputies.

They went to see him with their Leviathan on their backs, that biblical beast that devours every effort. For them it is a dollar that is delayed here as the world competitors run ahead. José Zuccardi, from the group that bears his surname, witnessed the undisguised joy of the new super-minister.

Massa told them about his experience in Congress as a wall that welcomes all the stones in the midst of the crisis. They let him know that not having access to foreign currency to pay for the services of distributors abroad means that Argentine wines are being taken off the shelves. To make matters worse, the devaluation of the euro has put French and Italian wines in the same price range as Argentine wines.

Claudio Cunha, who heads Enel, owner of Edesur in the country, believes that something has changed with the new policy of cutting subsidies. But from the chair of a company that has been around for three years has an income that has fallen by 30% compared to a cumulative inflation of 150%, warns that it is not enough. “Of the 43,000 megawatts installed in the country, there are 10,000 in a situation of absolute obsolescence,” she says. will come back cuts?

Other articles are enthusiastic about a mass that can do anything. Even if they immediately clarify that omnipotence has a limit. The trade unionists, in fact, slipped in front of some entrepreneurs who were surprised when they visited Cristina Kirchner. “I don’t miss anything, I have knowledge of everything”, he surprised them.

The union leaders have made it known that Massa’s fate depends on the damage capacity of that sector of the ruling party. “They won’t make him breathe easily”, to keep those who decided to keep the march of 17 to defend trade union power in the face of an advance of La Cámpora on the trade union sector. In this context we can read the rejection of the increases by decree which, in the union view, only tries to clean them up.

According to Guillermo Cerviño, from Comafi, Massa seems determined: “There are no miracles in the face of a comatose economy. The measures aimed at reducing the deficit, strengthening the reserves and improving the income of pensioners go in the expected direction ”.

An industrialist who frequents him often says Massa will appeal to the “magic of politics” in an alliance with governors that may include Rodríguez Larreta, Jorge Macri and Gerardo Morales. “The crisis forces them”, loose.

José de Mendiguren knows this and, elated by his return to industry, he discovered that there are agricultural machines that cannot be delivered due to lack of parts. “If this trap continues, the factory will be scorched earth.”, She alarmed him. The first thing he did was talk to the head of the UIA, Daniel Funes de Rioja, and try to reconcile with Luis Betnaza, of the Techint group.

Naturally, he left in the hands of Matías Tombolini, whom he barely knows, the delicate task of distributing import permits.

At the Ministry of Energy and the pace of possible changes, they were surprised by the announcement of the second section of the pipeline. There they focused on signing the contract for the first section. The deed will be in Salliqueló and nobody wants to miss the photo. They would be Cristina, Alberto, Massa and Kicillof.

The Government ensures that the money for that first section is protected in the Pellegrini fund managed by the Nation. There was concern after Eduardo Hecker’s firing. But the respected mathematician and old militant executioner, Daniel Otero, will continue to lead.

In the meantime, it is ensured that Massa will be able to land at the YPF, where he sculpts La Cámpora. The oil company will publish a balance sheet next week with record-breaking cash figures. Will he have to pay the advance profit for that extraordinary income that Mercedes Marcó del Pont has devised?

During the week there was an exclusive cocktail that Shell organized to greet its president Sean Rooney and welcome Ricardo Rodríguez, a Venezuelan expert on the Permian, the main shale basin in the United States.

There was no talk of anything other than the quality of the Vaca Muerta rock, which with its gas reserves would exceed that of the United States equivalent to 170 years of consumption in the country. It has been said that the importance is growing at a time when Bolivia is running out of gas due to the geological effects that also reach the north of Argentina and the irrigation of the fields. Yes, the wells contain water. The oil companies are ambitious for a package of works that includes the overturning of the northern gas pipeline that brings gas from Bolivia to export gas to Brazil through there.

-What do you need ?, they were asked.

– Convincing shareholders. It’s hard if they can’t get the dollars later. Nor do they understand that there is a local and an international price. And there is something else. The free availability of foreign currency for production associated with incremental export was promised. Resolution 277 is there but they haven’t regulated it. They can’t keep procrastinating.

However, there are those who put the chips in a liquefied natural gas plant. 5 billion dollars are needed. Argentina is not decided. Qatar, Australia and the United States are building them for a Europe that has stopped relying on Russian gas.

To all this, the oil transport system from the Neuquén basin was saturated last year. Oldeval, the company that brings together all the producers (YPF, Tecpetrol, Exxon, PAE, among others) has developed the Vivaldi project bringing it to 45 million cubic meters per day. With an investment of 700 million dollars, 90 million cubic meters for export would be reached. But the concession expires in 2028 and if they don’t extend it, it gets nowhere.

Javier Madanes Quintanilla, president of Aluar and FATE, wonders if a company with tourism demand that is inconsistent with the country and which has already absorbed 5 billion dollars in an Argentina with 20 million plans, is ready to tackle the origin of the problems. “The exit from the pandemic has put the world in a state of elation with abnormal inflation rates. But the other countries have currency, credit, reserves. We are without thread on the spool ”.

Some of these are suffering at his tire plant in San Fernando, which has been working 50% for three months due to a labor conflict.

Of course, Massa is convinced that he will get international funds. And a little flexibility with the IMF with the wink of the US Treasury In Washington Jorge Argüello works against the clock to unlock the IDB immediate disbursement loans amounting to US $ 800 million.

But the super-minister and his supporter Manzano have their lobbyists. apple tree, with oiled ties to Bill Clinton and a son of Trump, “would pave the way”. In the center appear characters such as Juan Verde, linked to Obama and Freddy Balsera, linked to Biden.

At the super-minister they summarize with the title of the book by Pablo Gerchunoff, “The coin is in the air”. And in Casa Rosada a heavy official recalled in recent days the end of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee: “We are brave when, knowing that the battle is lost in advance, we try “.

Is this the fate awaiting Massa?