Devastating.

[bigbadwolf]

Not once did I mention value added manufacturing?

Didn't say you did. It's the mendacious Economist article that is chockful of lies, distortions, and half-truths.

 

[Page8383]

Vaca muerta? Uh .... ok. Let's see, the Argentine government took over a fully functioning oil production company called YPF that was supposedly expropriating lots of f*ing money back to Spain. YPF (Argentina) has yet to increase production. They might not even be making a profit. We should have confidence that this government can get oil out of the ground, transported, refined, and distributed either by itself or in partnership with a company that has the capacity without blowing up the relationship with the blame game?

This government has demonstrated over and over again that it doens't have the capacity to do that. So, I wouldn't bet on Vaca Muerta.

Anything else on the "asset list?"

It'll be a good litmus test for this and perhaps the next couple of administrations.
I'm prepared to wait and see and give Argentina the benefit of the doubt that they can make this a success.

It really will come down to how YPF are operated and how Chevron are managed. Exxon and DCC are over there as well. If there are too many pigs with their noses in the trough I can see these contractors getting fed up with their client. I think the project will work though and it will be worth the private sector's while to keep investing there.

The next step is how the cash is spent though. A sovereign wealth fund would be a step in the right direction.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I seriously want to do a public art project with them.

I'd like to put them all around Retiro and Villa 31. If I could only get the money to do so...

Just join up with La Campora.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Matias is correct. The structural situation of Argentina changed about a century back. The very economic model -- agro exports -- that allowed Argentina to become a rich country (by the standards of the day) stopped working because of the new configuration of global trade, and the country has never found an adequate replacement since. Just saying the country should have focused on "value-added manufacturing" is devoid of meaning: easier said than done. Not everyone can do it, and particularly not today, with saturated world markets and global over-capacity. One can make an argument that the supposed economic mismanagement of the economy over the decades was really an attempt to square the circle: to reconcile a flagging economy with popular demands for a better standard of living.

So what you're saying is that Argentina has consistently failed to adapt to changing circumstances.

 

[homeinbuenosaires]

I remember those, too. I thought, "Any country or entity that is truly serious doesn't need to say it is serious. It would be obvious."

Hahaha, I thought the same when I started seeing the "Argentina: Un país con buena gente" posters after the last presidential elections, sponsored by La Presidencia de la Nación, of course.

 

[kre8ivelyXposed]

Have been dealing with this country for about 20 years now off and on. The best advice I really ever got was from a very astute and intellectual Argentine psychotherapist here who just said to me two things when I expressed my frustration with this place: 1) This is not a serious country. 1) Everything here is resolved with money.

Have found it sadly true and effective.

 

[Bkentfc]

I absolutely agree, but the thing is; the country suffers from huge financial repression as a result of a complex socio-political battle of which no side takes any responsibilty whatsoever and every iniciative evolves round blaming the other for the mess the country finds itself in.