bloody_bloo said:
That is correct. You should also add that different from the US, Argentina can't export its extra pesos, and for example buy some oil. Moreover it is necessary to point out the impeccable work done by IMF emissaries telling every one to keep and accumulate dollars while in the other hand lowering local interest rates so JIT printed franklins rush out the country.
From the early 70s, thanks to Nixon the US has been pumping a big bubble mainly taking advantage after a successful post war experience. Since the WWII the US tried to find new wars or generate them even on false arguments just to ensure monetary dependence. Oil went from less than 5 dollars/barrel close to 150.. in approximately 30 years, speaking of inflation btw.
I agree, the situation in the states is different as the FED is not a Central Bank but something a lot more sinister.
I keep agreeing about the (long) financial bubble, and I admire how well you explained this.
However both oil and US influence must be taken with a grain of salt:
Oil was bound to go up as a finite commodity that moves the world, and we gotta keep the energy flowing somehow. We still have a lot of uranium and alternative sources, in the freest of markets those sources are maximized and so we can produce enough (technology inevitably included) until we find a way to cheaply extract energy from the nearest star. Scientists, or College dropout asperger geniuses wont be able to find a way to extract energy from the sun at a competitive price before oil runs out if the state directs their actions and thoughts. It is fact.
As for US influence:
A currency if only as influential as its military might protects its free trade. (I mean the free movement of the currency, not necessarily Capitalism).
This has been the way it worked for centuries. There are examples in Rome and obviously China, but let's just take the last 600 years:
From 1500 to aprox 1805 (Trafalgar) the Spanish Metal Weight (Peso) was the international currency, it was also the time when the Spanish Empire controlled 3/4 of the New World and some more of the Old One. Even the Protestant countries dealed in Spanish Coins. Even the American Dollar, while the name comes from Dutch Thaller, the $ sign comes from the Spanish Coins. I think the II stands for the Spanish Shield of Plus Ultra (more beyond), symbolizing the trait of Gibraltar, the gate to Globalization.
When the British gained the military upper hand, its free ports and its currency replaced the Spanish Weight. And after WWI and WWII when the USA safeguarded/control the world from Korea to Germany, the Dollar finally replaced the Pound and other Imperial Weights.
Now a little detail happened in between, the destruction of the gold standard. Its implications are more complicated than it seems at first sight.
bloody_bloo said:
I beg to differ, far from lobbyists, "piqueteros" become an unorthodox way of strike. After a while it would seem legitimate but many of them kneeled before government payroll clientelism to ensure street control in the event of an actual "real" strike.
You may good think of me as an anti-capitalism moron. That maybe true, a little bit =) But i deeply think that many of us have the same common ground problems, for some of us, problems are already here, for others they are just about to start.
As true as it can be, also is the fact that the US makes the world tic. Thats the reason why for example China and Japan keep lending US money buying crappy debt securities in order to enable US to buy stuff back. We are all part of the same game. Even down in Argentina we contribute to the ticking.
I
beg you to try to cross town on a token "business day".
And btw I can clearly see you are not a moron, and as for Anti-Capitalist, that's a pretty black and white way to see things isn't it?
If you are going to use black and white you should circumscribe it to GOOD and EVIL, not tagged ideologies that are so easily misunderstood.
I could bet my assets what you refer tp as Capitalism and what I refer to as Capitalism has as much in common as a fish and a dog.
Have you actually seen the unorthodoxy of the piqueteros? Have you seen from less than 10 ft away the nice head-scarfed guys holding heavy sticks while they control traffic as the police stands by carelessly or powerlessly, and ambulances queue for 15 minutes to traverse a sudden closed off urban artery?
Do you really, honestly believe, even consider the sheer possibility, that the people participating in those "strikes" are there spontaneously / voluntarily / knowing what they are doing? and the last thing I mean literally, as people are paid to "march" and they couldn't care less what they are marching for. They don't even need to read the banners, they just follow, it's just a jog, a gig, I don't even blame them, it pays for their children's' milk!
But if there's a way in which money can manipulate masses and transform them into vote-fodder, amputating any chance of ever making a living for themselves, then the piqueteros is the most perfect example after ACORN.