It was a stunning reversal for the 59-year-old former businessman who came to power in December 2015 vowing to make Argentina a “normal country”, after 12 years of leftist rule by Mr Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernández.
Not ‘normal country’ ! Macri paid a ransom to Vulture Capitalist Paul Singer, as the admission price to the utterly dysfunctional Family of Neo-Liberal Nations!
Two days ago, in this newspaper, there were at least three ‘news stories’ about the present Argentine Crisis that I read, two of those ‘reports’ had disabled comments sections. There is nothing this newspaper fears more than The Rebellion Against The Elites, except the open contempt of its readership! Those ‘news stories’ brimmed with the symptoms of the ‘run on the currency’. But the pseudo-technocrats at The Financial Times demonstrate that the Dismal Science is in fact Political Economy, in the vulgar ill-fitting party dress of Statistical Data!
Austerity has never worked even in its ‘gradualist’ iteration of Macri. Wunderkind Alfonso Prat-Gay was Macri’s Minister of Finance for a short time but look at his record of achievements in ending ‘the clamp’ and the part of his record that is equally dubious :
A decade later, as Minister of the Economy of Mauricio Macri, he lifted 4-year-old government controls on the Argentine currency (“the clamp”), a mere 4 days after taking office.[4]
…
Prat-Gay was appointed minister of financed in 2015, by president Mauricio Macri. In that capacity, he successfully ended the currency controls established by Cristina Kirchner and the sovereign default declared in 2001. He also helped to restore international relations, and the update of the figures of the wealth tax, which had not been updated in previous years in line with inflation. He had conflicting views of the economy with Federico Sturzenegger, president of the Central Bank of Argentina. By demand of president Macri, he resigned on December 26, 2016,[15] and was succeeded by Nicolás Dujovne.[16]
…
Prat-Gay was appointed minister of financed in 2015, by president Mauricio Macri. In that capacity, he successfully ended the currency controls established by Cristina Kirchner and the sovereign default declared in 2001. He also helped to restore international relations, and the update of the figures of the wealth tax, which had not been updated in previous years in line with inflation. He had conflicting views of the economy with Federico Sturzenegger, president of the Central Bank of Argentina. By demand of president Macri, he resigned on December 26, 2016,[15] and was succeeded by Nicolás Dujovne.[16]
Could the removal of ‘the clamp’ and the ‘gradualism’ of the Austerity of Macri be the root of the present Argentine Crisis?
I can’t find any information on ‘political analyst’ Carlos Germano in English. My cynicism tells me he is an Investment House or Think Tank employee.
“When you talk about the IMF in Argentina, you are talking about a crisis,” says Carlos Germano, a political analyst, who says that “Fund” has become a dirty word in Argentina. “The Kirchner government worked hard to [demonise] the IMF. The vast majority now believe it is synonymous with crisis and usury.”
More quotes from Macri apologists is predictable, Juan Cruz Díaz, managing director at Cefeidas Group, a Buenos Aires risk consultancy. :
“No one seriously thinks that,” says Mr Díaz. “We are a long way from 2001. It is still a solid government — with problems, yes, and there have been a lot of criticisms of the way economic policy has been handled — but no one is questioning the strength or the capability of the government to run the country, which is what was happening in 2001.”
And Nicolás Dujovne, Argentina’s treasury minister:
Last, the IMF has changed. “Today it is very different from the one we knew 20 years ago,” Nicolás Dujovne, Argentina’s treasury minister, said on Tuesday. “It has learnt lessons from the past, and I repeat, it has helped our gradual programme.”
Here is a quote from Ricardo Alfonsín of the Radical party, on the $30 billion loan by the IMF (via the Guardian):
“More than an agreement with the IMF, what is needed is an agreement between Argentinians,” Ricardo Alfonsín of the Radical party told the Guardian. “I’m worried by the IMF’s conditions. With time, the remedy could prove worse than the disease.”
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/argentina-seeks-emergency-credit-from-the-imf-2018-5
Ricardo Alfonsín comment is instructive about a more that likely political outcome of the Macri’s failure. But this failure is carefully garnished by the Neo-Liberal apologists at The Financial Times, and their allies in the present Macri government, not to speak of the ideological fellow travelers in the Policy Technocracy.
As reported in The New York Times of October 22, 2017, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner lost to a Macri candidate Esteban Bullrich by a mere 4%.
In the closely watched province of Buenos Aires, where the Senate candidate aligned with Mr. Macri, Esteban Bullrich, faced off against Mr. Macri’s predecessor and political rival, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the governing coalition won by four percentage points.
“Today, the winner wasn’t a group of candidates nor a party. Today the winner was the certainty that we can change history forever,” a beaming Mr. Macri said at his campaign headquarters before he danced on stage alongside his wife, Juliana Awada, and key members of his coalition.
Macri’s appeal to the IMF to rescue his failed attempt at his ‘gradualist reforms’ ,of the Argentine Economy, looks like the perfect opportunity for the political return of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. And her collection of Porteños, criollos, mestizos and indigenous people. In fact, it looks like a gift!
Political Observer
https://www.ft.com/content/025d288e-5325-11e8-b3ee-41e0209208ec
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