If You Had Your Druthers, How Do You Fix Argentina?

[camberiu]

I wasnt talking of hyperinflation, just of inflation. Every single moment of this country during the XXth century when it happend inclussion, great social stats, great gini, great unemployment numbers, almost no poverty, etc, was under inflation,

And why did the party end then? Why just not keep the inflation going until Argentina became like Sweden? Why would politicians try to ruin such a wonderful thing as inflation?

Let me tell you a story:

I had a friend who when drunk, was always outgoing, funny, daring with women, willing to dance and not afraid of people. Every time the incredible effects of the alcohol worn off, he was vomiting in some gutter somewhere, feeling headaches and being just plain miserable.

I don't know why I wrote that. Maybe there is some co-relation between the stories.

 

[Matiasba]

it is a dispute of two different models of society, ones who like austerity, no social plans and no inflation others with growth, inclusion, social spending and inflation.

The huge majority of the society in argentina (80%) used to be peronista, which means one of the two models, the defense of internal market, pymes, employment, etc, and then the other half, historically linked with a powerful minority, 2% that became government in the dictatorship and menemismo, and now they re like 30% represents a contracted economy. They claim for an ajuste, for mano dura, for agro export model (not internal market), for deindustrialization, etc.

 

[EdRooney]

And yet they are all running massive budget deficits. Seems to me more of a problem of allocation of funds, government priorities and corruption than an "austerity" issue. Greece, for example, devotes 2.5% of it GDP on military spending. No other European country spends this much on their military. Austerity? I don;t think so.

Eeesh Camberiu, we're having a hard time communicating again. Aren't we both saying the same thing, that the problem is distribution of resources? I said

"[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]A better measure would be to look at how resources can be distributed most efficiently, and Argentina obviously has a long way to go there."[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]and you said[/background]

"[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)] Seems to me more of a problem of allocation of funds, government priorities and corruption"[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]The only difference is semantics about what counts as austerity, which I don't see as worth debating at this point. [/background]

 

[sleslie23]

You obviously forget that I lived most of my youth under hyper-inflation. And the people had lots of money. It was not uncommon for me as a 11 year old kid to have 100 thousand Cruzeiros in my pocket. Do you know what I could buy with all that money? One piece of gum. Do you know what I could buy the following week? Not even that gum. It was awesome Matias. I felt really rich. Money to the people.

I've been a millionaire twice in my life. Once in Turkey, where I was worth about 250,000,000. And more recently in in Paraguay where I was worth a cool 2.5 million. Of course 250,000 old turkish lira was worth about 0.25 USD and I never did figure out how much the Guarani was worth. I was exchanging toilet paper and never bothered to calculate into dollars. A colectivo ticket costs 2000.

But as Matias will agree, I was rich!.

 

[nicoenarg]

You are confusing Gabriel Cavallo (the former federal judge) with Domingo Cavallo, an argentine economis with a master in Harvard who was the Minister of economy of Menem and De la Rúa. He was succesful on stoping hiper inflacion (1000% instead of the 25% nowadays we have) but his mesures produce a debt of 90 billion dollars (people wanted dollars and they took loans to give people what they wanted). When the Central Bank run off of dollars, the 2001 crisis hapends.
http://es.wikipedia....Domingo_Cavallo

I wasn't confusing them two. It was a facetious comment.

Off topic but:

his mesures produce a debt of 90 billion dollars (people wanted dollars and they took loans to give people what they wanted)

I seem to recall people saying Cavallo was a "neo-liberal"...what you just described is the farthest from liberal and neo-liberal economics I've ever seen. Sounds more like Peron's first terms as president than anything else. The only difference being Cavallo took loans, Peron just stole from one party and gave to another.

 

[Matiasba]

And why did the party end then?

Every time ended by force, with military coups. 1955, 1963, 1966 and 1976. And the last time, in 1989, due hyperinflation, which the main cause was the creditors of the debt taken during the dictatorship.

After the expansion cycle comes a devaluation, and then again the cycle starts again, demand inflation, devaluation, cost inflation, devaluation, etc

 

[nicoenarg]

One of the meanings of the inflation is PEOPLE WITH MONEY.

Money to the people.

Its awesome and weird because monopoly money has the exact same effect! But the "gorila militars" at the supermarket would have none of it! Evil dictators!

I say screw all that...viva la Campora...viva inflacion, viva el dinero de Monopoly!!!!

 

[Matiasba]

Its awesome and weird because monopoly money has the exact same effect! But the "gorila militars" at the supermarket would have none of it! Evil dictators!

I say screw all that...viva la Campora...viva inflacion, viva el dinero de Monopoly!!!!

Viva!!!