The Emerging Argentinian Crisis

[bigbadwolf]

This seems to be an accurate depiction. It has a pro-working class slant -- but then, it is a socialist site.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/01/29/peso-j29.html

 

[Joe]

I think the plan is to spend down the reserves to the point they are zero at the same time Cristina leaves office and let the next administration inherit the mess and the required cleanup.

After the people feel the sharp slap of austerity they will be begging to have Cristina back.

 

[Page8383]

I think the plan is to spend down the reserves to the point they are zero at the same time Cristina leaves office and let the next administration inherit the mess and the required cleanup.

After the people feel the sharp slap of austerity they will be begging to have Cristina back.

I read that reserves went down $966 mill this week. And the government is blaming the farmers for hoarding crops, detracting from possible export income. Usual blame culture.

Sure, some income will come in, and the government will probably put the skids on this dollar saving program, but they would do well to survive another 12 months.

I am not sure what they are trying to achieve. There just seems to be zero problem solving ability amongst anyone. The government only accepts that there is a possible problem when they are looking to apportion blame.
So perhaps they have some sort of scheme going on to retain a power base, but it looks like it will once again be to the detriment of the country. These guys are hardly masterminds though. I suppose people have been falling for the same tricks here since J.Peron.

 

[bigbadwolf]

I suppose people have been falling for the same tricks here since J.Peron.

The Argentinian mode of governance since at least the time of Peron has been crisis/emergency management as the country lurches from one government-created crisis to another.

Postscript: More philosophically, maybe it's because of trying to reconcile capitalist imperatives with the demands of a populist base.

 

[Matiasba]

This seems to be an accurate depiction. It has a pro-working class slant -- but then, it is a socialist site.

http://www.wsws.org/...9/peso-j29.html

I didnt like the article. It criticizes a lot the current government, that I concede.

What I not concede is that someone who called themselves left, or socialist or whatever, just tells about “speculatives maneuvres” from banks and Shell and corporations and says nothing about it. Just said that CFK blamed them, but not explained more, while they did extended in other analysis. If you call yourdself leftist you MUST have a very clear and marked posture towards “concentrated financial sectors”. Just putting it in Cristinas mouth, who you explicitly don’t like, you avoid any deep analysis of the situation, you avoid getting involved with the problem.

Without any critric to the financial sectors, which clearly are against this government, you cant call your self leftist. That is not the real left. A truly leftist will always be against the (financial, especially) capital. This article is written by a right wing or with information processed by the western agencies from Europe and the US (which opose to this government from the right and obey to these capitals).

 

[dennisr]

Shell did what everyone else was doing and thinking in Argentina on that Thursday including YPF: "this
government does not have a clue what they are doing, get out of the peso now before we loose it all." Government did nothing to prop the peso up until after the market closed: peso depreciated 15%. Too many moving parts for Kicilcoff and some to understand. Shell uses dollars to buy oil FOR ARGENTINA. Fatal flaw, blameless.

 

[Rich One]

I


This article is written by a right wing or with information processed by the western agencies from Europe and the US (which opose to this government from the right and obey to these capitals).

Matias ... you are employing one of the basic Campora doctrine arguments.." Discredit the source call it biased and of questionable credibility"....

 

[EdRooney]

Before I moved here, I met an Argentine journalist in the US who asked me what people up there thought about Argentines. He said roughly:

"So the Germans are orderly. The Japanese are mathematical. The British are aloof. What about us? What do Americans think about us?"

Since his question was already borderline offensive, I didn't hold back. I said "For most Americans if they know you exist, you're probably Mexicans." He was quite taken aback and somewhat hurt. It very much seemed he would have preferred his country to be viewed with some offensive racist stereotype rather than not even entering into the equation, or ninguneado in the local jive.

Another great example of this is last week's devaluation. The government immediately came out to say that it was attacked by a malevolent speculator. The opposition immediately came out to say the government is incompetent and can't control the currency. Yet, what if they're just like my journalist friend?

The fact is if you follow the world news (something the local media dedicates a whopping 2% of their time doing), you would see that there were three ginormous financial stories this month: 1 QE being tapered, thus removing USD 10b from the most volatile economic sectors, 2, moves by the Chinese central bank to limit its shadow banking system, and consequently, 3. an emerging markets crisis, with devaluations in Turkey, Russia, South Africa, Hungary and others. Basically, the world has been being pumped up with frothy funny money for the last 5 years, and the spigot's suddenly being turned down drastically, and the first place where you would expect it to have effect is in investors pulling money out of emerging markets, like Argentina.

This all too logical reason for last week's happenings has no chance of making it into the political discourse of either side, because it would imply the ninguneando of Argentina. Saying maybe Argentina and its bickerings and valijitas and media laws and cepos are not actually as influential as the Argentines would like to think they are.

 

[Matiasba]

It does appear in the government discourse the especulative attack to Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, etc.

http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2014/01/28/agencias/1390919636_825340.html

I also watched a very precise analysis in 678 (although I m not a fan, it doesnt heart to hear what they say once in a while)

 

[steveinbsas]

I think the plan is to spend down the reserves to the point they are zero at the same time Cristina leaves office and let the next administration inherit the mess and the required cleanup.

After the people feel the sharp slap of austerity they will be begging to have Cristina back.

It's too bad that the Argentine people have no idea that freedom and free markets will set actually them free. It's also unfortunate that an old woman who can't turn anyone on has a country's economic balls in her grip. That is grounds for divorce.

(of course I'm talking about my Argentine girlfriend's mother ;-)