Daily Archive

We’ve been working and traveling heavily of late… which has cut down significantly on our posting… But we’re going to fight this trend and do our best to start posting regularly again.

We enjoyed our trip to North Carolina, it was familiar, easy, and relaxing… plus great to see friends…

But we’re happy to be back in Buenos Aires… where we have to stay on our toes in terms of the language, of course, but also in terms of opportunity… We met a guy at the wedding in North Carolina who had just returned from Argentina. He was extremely bullish and excited about our new home country… Evidently his business mentor told him, “if I were a young man, I’d move down here immediately”. He was trying to figure out how to persuade his wife to move the family (three kids) down… We, of course, identify with his enthusiasm. But we didn’t do him any favors when we accidently dropped the bomb on his wife by saying, “So, you’re planning to move to Buenos Aires?” “No.” was the abrupt reply… That little faux pas probably set him back a couple weeks in his plans, but, he still seemed confident that he could persuade her…

There are opportunities out-the-whazoo here. A couple of Americans recently opened The California Burrito Company on Lavalle in el Centro. When we went there the place was packed, business looked brisk, and the burritos were tasty… We’ve met a number of foreigners and Argentines involved in real estate, and the opportunities in this arena are virtually endless. There are places in Argentina where land is selling for less than $5 an acre…

We must admit to you dear reader, that we’ve been a bit tight-lipped about some things because we don’t want everyone to know about these opportunities… For that we apologize, but we’ll reveal all, or nearly all, in due course… Also, we don’t want to mislead you. As one Argentine friend said, “Argentina has opportunities, but it’s opportunity from crisis. Don’t forget that.”

We’re working with our Argentine financial writers, as that’s our biz, to prepare a report about what to expect in the markets around here in the short, mid, and long term. There’s anxiety here on the eve of the presidential elections, and certainly some pessimism. There’s inflation no doubt. Will it expand? Contract? What’s going to happen…? We don’t know any better than anyone else. But we won’t let that stop us from making some predictions…

Hasta la proxima.

We attended our good friends’ wedding this weekend in Asheville, North Carolina. It was well worth the trip. The wedding was held on the grounds of the Biltmore estate in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains… It’s the largest private home in the US, at 150,000 sq feet, and is still owned by the Vanderbilt family.

George Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius, had the house built in the 1880’s, it was completed in 1895. The place was stunning. We’ve visited many chateaux around Europe and this baby is as spectacular as any of them…

George Vanderbilt’s father built the family fortune up to $200 million by the early-mid 1800’s.  That’s the equivalent of around $87 billion in today’s dollars, double the individual wealth of today’s richest men. (There was no income tax in those days!) At the time the Biltmore was being constructed Vanderbilt’s employees where buying up the surrounding land. It took over 600 real estate transactions to cobble together the 100,000+ acre estate.

The Vanderbilts of today have done an excellent job preserving the place. Not only that, but we’d venture to guess that they might even be making a tidy profit off of it. No doubt the maintenance and operational costs are staggering. But the estate hosts around 1 million visitors a year. The place was packed when we were there and it’s not even peak season. The entry fee to the house, the basic tour, is $50. Then, there are upgrades galore available… the audio tour, the guided tour, the secret places tour, the rooftop tour, etc. The winery on the property is the most visited winery in America. The giftshops were humming with activity as were the restaurants. If the average visitor generates $50 in revenue, which is probably on the very low-end, that’s $50 million right there… the real numbers I’d venture are much higher.

The Biltmore was fairly pricey, but it delivered value… all the visitors we talked to were very impressed with the place. Speaking of delivering value, that’s one thing that, in business, Americans are pretty darn good at… We were impressed by the level of customer service we received at the Enterprise car rental in Charlotte, NC… With typical southern hospitality the office door was opened for us and we were greeted by a friendly, efficient, and clean cut young guy. Inside, the place was bustling with activity of these young go-getters enthusiastically executing the business of car rentals. The little economy car we rented was less than $30 per day… good value…

Likewise at the Best Buy in Asheville we shopped for some electronics… we were impressed by how cheap things were… $19 for a cell phone, $149 for a 7 mega-pixel digital camera, $499 for a laptop… All these things cost double or triple in Argentina… Argentina, however, delivers good value on other things like food, clothing, transportation, real estate etc. which is partly why we like living here.

Anyway, let’s get back to the wedding that we attended in the west Carolina mountains… The rehersal dinner was held at a ranch outside Asheville. Southern BBQ was on the menu and it was fantastic… We hadn’t had a good southern meal in a long time. The setting was a picture perfect lakeside pond and a converted barn… likewise, the wedding reception and ceremony were held at a converted historic barn on Biltmore estate. Everything was very natural and relaxed, but also elegant.

Our friends who were getting married invented their own service and wrote and selected all the vows and readings. It was non-religious, but not non-spiritual or non-emotional… It was original and special. We’re very happy for our friends. It was a long way to go for a weekend wedding, but we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. And we feel very fortunate to have gone…