I'm not saying that all politicians who are dirty go to jail. I think Dick Cheney is a sleaze and should have been indicted. Bill Clinton was impeached by the House for lying under oath and obstruction of justice. I don't know about Sudan and Haiti. The Scalia / Jeb issue is debatable - depending on which direction you actually wanted to the vote to go. We should eliminate lobbying, period. In my opinion it is legalized bribery. But, under the law it is legal.
There are many examples where politicians and judges do go to jail. In this case I don't believe Griesa has been bought. This decision is completely correlated with both his prior decisions as well as prior decisions by the US Supreme Court. Having said that, I don't agree with the decision. I think it is bad law, it serves only the loan sharks, and it undermines sovereign immunity. Yes, yes, yes I know Argentina explicitly waived that right but the impact of the decision is still the same.
What I find really funny are the posters now hanging around the city. Afuera Yanquis! Afuera Buitres! It's really the Yanquis who are supporting Argentina. There have been multiple amicus briefs presented to the Supreme Court by the elected US government in support of Argentina's position.
What the posters should say is: Afuera Tribunal Independente! Afuera Buitres! That would be accurate, and quite the humorous twist.
I think a lot of people are sympathetic to Argentina. I don't know anyone who hasn't found themselves/friends/loved ones in Bankruptcy,
damn close to it, or recovering from it. However, the way Argentina handled it wasn't very humble as has been said.
The important thing we need to address from this whole experience is the fact that there is no Chapter 7/11/13 for sovereign nations.
I have no idea how it would be created and administered, but something similar to Chapter 11 via the IMF/WB (yes I hate them too) would
prevent these sorts of things from happening again. Yes, Argentina ceded a lot of sovereign rights by agreeing to have the 92%'s bonds
subject to NY/US law, but this is problematic irregardless.
It's that Evita Peronist league making them, I rip them down, the ones that explicitly say it's the USA's fault or imply it, whenever I see them.
There's enough BS here about the States and animosity that I don't think the flames of misinformation should be flamed, though even BAHerald
(the excuse of a news entity that it is) does this too sadly.
I agree; I think the Anti-Buitre/ Anti-Griesa propaganda is just that-- schlock for mass consumption. Argentina is a sovereign country and should assert her sovereignty in this case in spite of the fact that previous Argentine administrations made serious attempts to undermine it by issuing bonds under NY law. The silly propaganda campaigns do no good.
That said, your point that somehow the US justice system is equitable while the Argentine one is corrupt is laughable; both are incredibly corrupt-- but the US, with greater resources, takes corruption to new heights thus far unreachable to petty Argentine pols. The division of powers envisaged by the US founding fathers has been utterly decimated by Supreme Courts that decide elections and FISA courts that rubber stamp assassinations ordered by the executive branch. And this isn't even bringing the influence of Wall Street into the equation (the Financial Industry has 4 lobbyists for every member of congress for crissakes!)
On the other hand, Argentina has at least managed to jail some of its criminal former leaders, something the US has unfortunately yet to do.
Corruption is rampant in both nations and almost all for that matter, but I think the point being made is that there are degrees of corruption that lets the state
function and people seek justice still, and in that regard, at least based on the number of "likes" our Expat community feels that it is worse here.
Our justice system leaves much to be desired, but at least people still get to see their day in court (sometimes) where here many cases die (and people too)
in legal purgatory, waiting for the Honorable Godot.
