Café Confidential

On Messi and Milei, copper and cortados, and the windows to the soul of a city...

(Homo metropolitanus, spotted in his natural habitat in Buenos Aires. Photo courtesy of our friends over at Buenos Aires Portal)

“The only left that works is Messi’s left foot.”

~ Javier Milei, Argentine president and fan of winning

Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina...

“Cafés are the windows to a city’s soul.”

Perhaps that sounds like a line from an unread, pre-award-winning novel, the kind penned in quaint little coffeehouses around grand old capital cities.

But it’s true...

Here in our little barrio, we have a dozen or so cafés and espresso bars within a short stroll of the apartment. Birkin... Coco... Rotondo... Malcolm... Volito... Borja... Lharmonie... Lattente... Doxa... Matok... Ivo... Kopi... and many more that do not immediately spring to a well-caffeinated mind.

It is in these salons and brew lounges, these neighborhood haunts, that the local porteños gather to discuss the pressing matters of the day.

Everything from the dollar-peso exchange rate to the temperature in Miami... the price of a cortado (coffee “cut” with milk) to celebrity scandals... the World Cup to the Torah... the children’s piano lessons to the neighbor’s coveted wife... Borges to pastafrola recipes to Milei’s economy... and, of course, all the news that is not fit to print.

What She’s Having!

One of the advantages of not being a native Spanish speaker is that eavesdropping is not so much an annoyance as it is an option. That is, in a second language, one has to actively pay attention if one wants to hear which way the proverbial wind is blowing.

And if we are hearing correctly, there’s plenty to be happy about these days down at this End of the World...

“Three goals in the opening match,” remarks one young man at a table across from us, referring to Lionel Messi’s hat-trick in Argentina’s opening match of this year’s World Cup. “Can you believe it? The man’s a genius. The G.O.A.T. for sure.”

“The only left that works,” his amigo echoes Milei’s well-known quip as the two share a hearty laugh.

Across the aisle, we overhear a pair of pretty ladies in workout clothes, perhaps in their mid-40s, saying something about social club memberships and a certain handsome tennis coach...

“Ay, por Dios... era un bombón.”

“Totalmente. ¿Le viste el físico? Escuché que...”

Sparing our gentle readers the lurid details, to which we naturally paid no heed, we move on...

Copper in La Vicuña

Over by the window, meanwhile, an elderly gentleman in a cardigan vest and well-polished shoes reads from the country’s broadsheet, La Nacion. The headline, as translated, bares more good news:

The Government approved the entry into the RIGI of the country’s main mining project, with an investment of US$9.7 billion

We fill in the details with a little help from Luis Caputo, the nation’s Minister of Economy, via his social media account (from X):

The Evaluation Committee approved today the entry into the RIGI of the Vicuña copper project, in San Juan, developed by BHP and Lundin. With an initial investment of USD 9.7 billion—which could reach USD 18 billion according to company estimates—this is the largest mining project in our history and one of the five largest copper projects in the world.

This project will generate exports of more than USD 2.6 billion per year and more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.

More productive investment, more jobs, and more growth for Argentines.

Adding some context, we discover that Argentina’s mining exports grew a massive 84.3% in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2025, an historical record. Continued the minister, again from X:

Likewise, they were 161.8% above the average level of 2010-2025 for the first 4 months of the year.

Lithium exports grew 137.8% in value, while those of metallic minerals increased 77.6%

Breakfast at Birkin

Within a wistful half hour or so, we learn that inflation is slowing again, but not fast enough (last month’s 2.1% print was the lowest in 8 months)...

...that “everybody” is going to Brazil this year, mostly Florianopolis and Buzios (while Argentina has become expensive in dollar terms, Brazil remains relatively cheap measured in pesos)...

...and that Queridísimo Truman (or Dearest Truman), a musical biography about America’s famous literary figure, is the “must see” production of the season...

Also more about that heartthrob tennis coach, which propriety obliges us to leave to the reader’s unblemished imagination.

And so, listening to the hubbub of the café and satisfying hiss of the espresso machine, we muse on how the times are changing... so too the characters on its pages.

We’ve been coming to this particular coffeehouse to work for over a decade now. When we first moved into the neighborhood, it was just a little hole in the wall. Then, a few years ago, it expanded to take over the adjacent shoe store. And within the past year or so, the owners opened a takeaway window, or espresso bar, for those on the go.

From our perch here by the window, we’ve watched the neighborhood change and its children grow, including our own! (Dear Daughter was just a babe in arms when we first arrived. Now she brings her own reading material to the table...)

(Roman empire historical fiction for dad… classic children’s literature for dear daughter. “But dad, how will your readers know who’s reading what?” “Good question, dear. Good question.” Source: Dear Daughter)

Future Uncertain

For how long we will be writing here, in this café, we have no idea. “For he knoweth not that which shall be...”

A decade ago, there was nary a whisper of AI... no such thing as an “anarcho-capitalist president”... and not a trillionaire in sight (save for those poor Zimbabweans).

What will the next ten years bring?

You can read for yourself the monthly inflation figures from one End of the World to the other... similarly, you can discover the quarterly change in GDP in your own country... the annual rainfall on the Savannah... and the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow (The correct answer, of course, being a superior question: African or European?)

But though crude numbers and tawdry statistics may grasp at the outer perimeters of our lives, they cannot capture yet a fraction of what makes them worth living. Nor can AI, for all its speed and breadth of “collective human knowledge,” comprehend our essential essence.

That in mind, we kindly invite you to stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...

Cheers,

Joel Bowman

P.S. On the off chance you prefer human-produced editorial over machine-generated “content” you might wish to consider supporting these humble Notes (that is, if you do not already… in which case, huge thanks!)

Here’s what a few of our happy human members have to say about their subscriptions…

Thanks again to ALL our generous members. If you can, please consider supporting Free Markets, Free Minds, and Free People, by becoming a Notes Member today…