The economic future from Argentina

[Mad_Maxx]

Forget teaching culture. There are many an Argentine mother who might appreciate someone teaching their children to do their own laundry before they are 30 years old.

 

[danish_boy]

"Danish Boy you have taken a small section of youth here and defined all Argentines as what you see in Big Brother."

That "small section of youth" represents the whole. What I see on Gran Hermano reflects a way of thinking and acting that is prevalent among Argentine youth. You are really uninformed, my friend... And you obviously haven't read the article, which btw was written by ARGENTINE EXPERTS.

"In actual fact compared to what I see in Big Brother Europe where sex and sleazy behaviour is the norm Argentines are very well behavioured,"

Well, adults have sex ya know... Does that equal bad behavior??? Maybe if the Argentine participants weren't so "histericos" about sex and relationships, they would be doing the same. Funnily enough, that is an Argentine characteristic which is also addressed in the article. The author says that young arguies are known for their "histeriqueo". Does any of this sound familiar to you?

"I have noticed that many people have come to this forum with very little knowledge of this society and have judged it with a arrogance that is grossly unfair and untrue."

Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black? The only arrogance I see stems from Argentines who claim to be superior to other cultures and deny reality.

"This is not a perfect country and it has poverty social inequality and bad footpaths dog*bleep* and terrible drivers but on the other side it has tremendous scenery excellent food and in Buenos Aires City outstanding nightlife."

And your point is?

"I read somewhere in this forum about bookshops and Argentine reading habits and I can tell you that as a citizen here for 4 years that the cultural life is equal to any in the world and the bookshops here are tremendous and numerous . Walk along Avenida Santa Fe and you will see literally dozens of bookshops on every second block there is at least one . One of the most beautiful in the world el Atheneo is located on Callao and Santa Fe . I find this place full night and day with eager readers and buyers as well. Argentines buy a lot of books certainly more per capita than other societies I have lived in ."

Yeah, the bookshops are great. Unfortunately, Argentines' reading habits are NOT.
Here are some facts for you:
"Tres de cada diez argentinos no leen nunca y el 45% no leyó ningún libro durante el año que pasó."
http://www.elcronistaregional.com.ar/cultura/2002/05/15/340

"I do not understand how someone living in small towns of United States Or Europe coould possible judge us without knowing or visiting us."

I said I LIVE IN ARGENTINA and no, I don't come from any small town. I've always lived in big cities.

"I feel that this attitude stems from the feeling that Europeans and Americans beleive that South americans are lesser than them which is a form of ingrained snobbery."

What about Argentines??? Do they ever see their own snobbery? Perhaps they should look themselves in the mirror more often.

 

[ramon]

Danish Boy HISTERIA seems to be your last name.

 

[Granadaiscool]

Good Argument Ramon

 

[danish_boy]

Danish Boy HISTERIA seems to be your last name.

You obviously have nothing intelligent to say. You seem to like childish name-calling more than facts. Really sad...

 

[sergio]

Back to the economy...The IMF report much criticized by K. this week predicts "galloping inflation" for Argentina in 2008. Residential gas has just gone up 14%, RETROACTIVE to 2005. Consumers will be billed for the retroactive charges in something like 56 monthly installments. It will be interesting to see what happens to utility / transport prices after the elections. It seems likely that the government will relax controls.

 

[bf4]

Sergio,
There will be no need to relax controls. Even with controls the inflation will keep growing. I only disagree at the pace this will be achieved. I don't believe we are in the way to the Alfonsin 1989 hyperinflation though it will surely hurt consumption, and investment.

 

[nikad]

What about the price of the dollar? What are you going to do if it goes down to 2 pesos? I wonder what expats with Us income are going to do if that happens (?) Usually when there is inflation the salaries increase, at a lower rate but they do. Now try to imagine what could happen to the people that have beencoming here in the last years because of the exchange rate... it just doesn´t look good. I have never see the dollar go down, except during Meme´s 1:1 that was an artificial strategy ( well just like this 3:1 ).
When I talk to others about inflation and the dollar price, they all say it will go down, I am no economy expert so I really don´t have much of a clue... what do you guys think about this?nik

 

[Granadaiscool]

Back to the economy...The IMF report much criticized by K. this week predicts "galloping inflation" for Argentina in 2008. Residential gas has just gone up 14%, RETROACTIVE to 2005. Consumers will be billed for the retroactive charges in something like 56 monthly installments. It will be interesting to see what happens to utility / transport prices after the elections. It seems likely that the government will relax controls.

IMF are retards anyway. Atleast if you believe K.
The gas prices have gone up because there is no gas anymore. Everybody knows it, even the government does because they are going to start importing Bolvian gas from 2010 on. Price raises are the way forward eventhough it will hurt inflation
Transport-prices can't be raised because then hell will brake lose. Prices should be around 250%-300% higher anyhow, and should start to increase, but that will never happen in Argentina so state spending will be out of control even more, untill there is no deficit anymore
1:4 is more likely then 1:2

 

[Granadaiscool]

Congress just anounced the name change of INDEC to INDEK to honour the greatest president ever.




ENGLISH VERSION

More con than CoL

HERALD STAFF

VERSIÓN ESPAÑOL

Costo de vida y de la mentira

El editorial del lunes pasado titulado “¿A quién creen que engañan?” concluyó con las palabras: “Hasta ahora no se ha cometido ningún delito estadístico — al momento de escribir este editorial la manipulación de las cifras de la canasta básica sigue siendo una sospecha, no un hecho. Todavía no es demasiado tarde para pedir al gobierno que vuelva a reflexionar sobre este disparate: gran parte del éxito de un no muy carismático presidente depende de la oleada de buenas noticias económicas durante los últimos cuatro años, y si el gobierno ahora insiste en falsificar las malas noticias, ¿quién se creerá las buenas en el futuro?” Este consejo no fue escuchado y ese delito estadístico fue por tanto cometido el miércoles: lejos del aumento del 3,6 por ciento de los precios de alimentos básicos, como se anunció en un principio, se nos pide que creamos que esos precios efectivamente cayeron un 0,2 por ciento el mes pasado, bajando así el umbral de la indigencia de 444 a 427 pesos por mes para una familia tipo. Lea más

Last Monday’s editorial entitled “Who are you trying to kid?” concluded with the following lines: “So far no statistical crime has been committed — at the time of writing, fiddling the family shopping-basket figures remains a suspicion, not a fact. It is still not too late to appeal to the government to think twice of this folly — much of the success of a not very charismatic president depends on the stream of economic good news over the past four years and if the government now insists on falsifying the bad news, who will believe the good in future?”
This advice was not heeded and that statistical crime was duly committed on Wednesday — far from basic food prices rising 3.6 percent in March as originally announced, we are asked to believe that those prices actually fell by 0.2 percent last month, thus lowering the threshold for slipping into destitution from 444 to 427 pesos per month for a four-member household. No explanation of the error accompanies the revised figure. It is true that the 3.6 percent figure was never consistent with the overall 1.1 percent average posted for the “food and beverages” item but neither is a deflation of -0.2 percent. Nor would there appear to be any mathematical consistency in maintaining the 0.8 percent inflation originally announced for March while such a basic component as family shopping-basket prices is undergoing such drastic change — not for the first time the Néstor Kirchner administration seeks to have it both ways by not going back on the general inflation figure for the outside world while denying the price increases which hit the poorest hardest. The INDEC statistics bureau’s loss of credibility is now surely total.
The trouble with replacing serious inflation figures with notional ones is that anything goes once all orientation is removed. The government might now be perfectly free to publish the inflation data which Kirchner would like to see but neither is there any ceiling on the fears of the public at large without any objective data to act as a reference for expectations. It is especially foolish to play these games at the height of the collective wage bargaining season — without such blatant manipulation of the data the government could reasonably seek to impose a wage increase guideline of 15 percent but now that inflation is in the eye of the beholder, the trade unions are more likely to gun for 25 percent. As Sir Walter Scott once wrote, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive.”