Ufff....
1) INDEC: yes, they lied. But we were saved of bankrupcy by that.All that money was used to ameliorate poverty, in a clientelistic way, but it was DONE. Less people died, more people had a better life. We lied to the pirates, and we won. I don´t know how many times I will tell this story. In the short term we were hugely benefited by this move. The long term... we have China, which is not slowing down for at least a decade.
2) Foreign investment has been detrimental for the Argentinian economy in the near past. More money did go out that came in, you would not expect a foregin company to keep its profits inside Argentina,don´t you? If they created jobs or brought technology to the country we can gain something, but witness Aerolineas, Telefonica, Telecom, trains, etc etc etc. We lost jobs and money because of these foreign investors.
There is revolution in the air...especially in the developing countries...and one of the contributing causes for revolutions is HUNGER.
How long before the poor people in Argentina start to loot the shops?
Not gonna happen because people now have jobs and eat. Inflation affects them, but they now HAVE an income to be affected! In 1995-2001 they were unemployed, entire families living from one depreciated income (inflation in 1991-2001 was 60% for all the period if I remember correctly,so people lost more than half their wages in a 25-50% unemployment environment, according to social class). The suburban trains are full of people going to work. The highways are chocked full of new cars. Money is on the streets. The vacation spots are full every season.
3) Computers: I travelled in Europe and SE Asia. A generic computer bought in Galeria Jardin costs more or less the same (really,try to buy a computer in France). Apple shiny things cost more in Argentina. Buy generic. Yep, plasma and LCDs are more expensive. I don´t really care, a generic Pentium has the same educational uses than an state-of-the-art MacBook, it is only less shiny. Not every country must be gadget-consumption based as the US. If we get money from middle-high class people trying to import an I-Pad, it is ok with me. But again, I am a "socialist"
"6-7-8" is a government sponsored program, and it has an agenda, but it is done with some journalism involved. "La Nacion" feels like an arm of the CIA right now, and almost does not involve journalism, other than copy/past cables and tweaking everything, every little snippet of info, including outright lies (and it is every day done like that,it is in some way amazing how they do it).
Grondona is a very shady character that openly supported mass murder in the past, and actively helped people now in prison for crimes against humanity. You would never take seriously somebody that helped Milosevic or Pol Pot to do what they did, don´t you? The same applies to Grondona.
The government does not use "patotas". The "loyal" unions (Moyano) have patotas, the opposition unions (Barrionuevo) have patotas, Macri has patotas (Boca Juniors plus the unit that beats homeless people on the streets south of the city),Duhalde has patotas, and some intendentes of the districts surrounding Buenos Aires have patotas (Merlo, Moreno, etc). K. has a specific policy (very critiziced by La Nacion) of avoiding repression. Any case of violence by any government supporter will be wildly over-reported in the news (as in the 2008´s countryside patronal lockdown manifestations). The idea of the government sending patotas to silence you has the same credibility of Obama´s "death panels".