Nestor Kirchner has just passed

[SaraSara]

All of us have faults that is the nature of man . But all this talk of investment funds celebrating the death of Nestor Kirchner is too much. .

Such reaction is natural. Kirchner eviscerated INDEC to create false inflation figures that reduced indexed bond yields by two-thirds.

Investment funds are not the only ones happy at the prospect of a more independent INDEC, now that K. is gone. Argentines put their savings into inflation-indexed bonds, too.

 

[ghost]

Argentina is a whole other ball game. While I don't think real estate prices will skyrocket upwards....I don't see it crashing again either. There is simply nothing else to invest in here in Argentina besides land and bricks.

That pretty much sums up the Kirchner legacy to Argentine business and investment. Prophetically true and sad.
But this begs the question............where is the land and where are the bricks. Most of the smart Argentines I know are buying in Miami because they know the deal is a sure winner. [I guess that makes them "Vultures", huh, Perry]

 

[SaraSara]

This "vulture" bought land in Colonia, not in Argentina. That was five years ago, and since then I've seen land prices more than quadruple, driven in part by the many Arg. landowners selling their properties across the river to buy less productive land here.

They came mainly because of Uruguay's stable and rational tax policies. There are no predatory taxes such as those imposed by the Kirchners' to replenish their "caja", the petty cash box used to pay piqueteros and other "supporters".

 

[sergio]

Apologies, I meant to change how I worded that, could we say he wreaked havoc on the railways then? I think its something like 20 odd thousand km less lines in use, 40 odd thousand fewer workers. When he devolved responsiblities for the railways to the provinces many simply ceased operating the next day. This resulted in hundreds of ghost towns and forced thousands to relocate. I think you could call that havoc. As for other public works, how many schools, hospitals and houses did Menem build during his tenure?

Yes, many railway lines were abandoned and it was a pity however the condition of those lines was appalling. As for the workers, there were many thousands who did absolutely nothing. NOTHING. A friend who was involved at a high level in freight operations in Argentina told me of how there were stations with hundreds of employees on the books where one or two were needed. I agree that Menem had no interest in improving the railways but if he had wanted to do so he would have had to cut personnel radically. I was trying to say that maintaining the status quo would have been absurd. The railways were in a state of decrepitude and unusable by any reasonable standard so the only reason to keep them going without reform was to keep people employed. Anyway, there are quite a few trains now running only many are private with state subsidies. Ferrobaires, probably the WORST, runs horrible trains to the coast of Argentina. It's a public entity operated by the Province of Buenos Aires. Their best train, the Marplatense, was manufactured in the US in the 1940's and brought over by Peron. That's the reality. Kirchner gave lip service to supporting passenger service. There was serious talk of a bullet train to Cordoba -- a complete absurdity in a country that lacks the most basic rail service for its overwhelmingly poor population. If the Kirchners had wanted they could have dedicated a small fraction of the money proposed for the nonsensical bullet train project and the country would have had a decent national rail system that would have created a lot of jobs as well.

 

[SaraSara]

There were huge potential kickbacks and much prestige involved in building a bullet train, but none in maintaining existing rail lines operating.

Luckily, that harebrained project seems to have been shelved.

 

[sergio]

There were huge potential kickbacks and much prestige involved in building a bullet train, but none in maintaining existing rail lines operating.

Luckily, that harebrained project seems to have been shelved.

I don't believe the bullet train project was ever serious. Both parties must have made money on the studies and kickbacks involved in just discussing the possibility of a bullet train. I'm sure the Ministry of Transport got some nice free trips to Paris out of it at the very least.

There actually are kickbacks involved in state subsidies made to the private railways. You can be sure that only a portion of the money the government appropriates for passenger rail ever gets used for that purpose. You're right, though, that the bullet train would have been a huge project involving enormous sums of kickbacks.

It's hard to understand how expats who have had any real experience in Argentina can't see the lies of the Kirchners. Who supports them? The uneducated. Why? Because after impoverishing the nation with devaluation, pessification and other forms of state-sponsored corruption, the Kirchners came along and handed out little subsidies to the poor rather than create jobs, provide serious job training or do those things that would lead to the reduction of poverty. Much easier to string the ignorant along with a hotdog and a few pesos, pay them to take buses to the Plaza de Mayo and allow them to block roads to the inconvenience of everyone who works. The Kirchners got the support of the lowest levels of society because they bought them off with pathetic handouts. Interesting that the most educated people almost uninformly despise the couple.

 

[earlyretirement]

This "vulture" bought land in Colonia, not in Argentina. That was five years ago, and since then I've seen land prices more than quadruple, driven in part by the many Arg. landowners selling their properties across the river to buy less productive land here.

They came mainly because of Uruguay's stable and rational tax policies. There are no predatory taxes such as those imposed by the Kirchners' to replenish their "caja", the petty cash box used to pay piqueteros and other "supporters".

Sara,

Like you I invested in Uruguay many years ago. I've sold much of the land I bought at good profits. Definitely Uruguay is a model in South America for how to conduct business and banking. Argentina's financial system is quite a disaster.

Uruguay is really simple to invest in and things run smoothly. Their banking, financial system and judicial system works well. The only downside is I just find it boring compared to BA.

 

[sergio]

All of us have faults that is the nature of man . But all this talk of investment funds celebrating the death of Nestor Kirchner is too much.
His body is still warm as we speak . Let him rest in peace......

To be honest, I don't believe that he is resting in peace.

 

[ghost]

To be honest, I don't believe that he is resting in peace.

My friends from the other side have informed me that he has already been reincarnated into a Carancho.

 

[texxaslonghorn]

Was it him/her that was connected to that guy who was caught in an airplane on the way to the US with a suitcase containing 800K in cash? Sorry if someone already posted that story here. I'm at work and don't really have the time to read all 100+ posts.

It might have been connected to an election in Guyana, not Argentina. I just can't remember.