MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina seems to have managed Tuesday's challenge, but what comes next?
Argentina’s central bank on Tuesday rolled over billions of dollars in short-term debt, providing President Mauricio Macri’s government with a shot of confidence after weeks of economic volatility. In a statement, the Argentine central bank said it refinanced all of the US$ 26 billion of peso-denominated short term bonds that matured on Tuesday. Investors were attracted by renewal rates of 40% for 36-day Lebac and 38% and 38,5% for 90 days and plus, Lebacs. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesThe renewal of the Lebac bonds is now presented as an accomplishment of the Macri government.
May 16th, 2018 - 04:35 pm - Link - Report abuse -1How short sighted.
If the Lebacs had not been renewed, the explosion would have been right away.
With the Lebacs being renewed, the explosion has been only delayed for some time and, when it happens, will be larger. Why? Because in order to get investors interested, the government offered 40 per cent interest rates--and this will make the snowball much larger: in mid-june, the central bank will pay interest payments for over US$ 800 million.
And so the financial gambling party continue with banks and investors making huge profits by moving their money around, taking advantage of the lack of government control over financial flows.
At the same time, the country's repayment capacity rapidly deteriorates as businesses suffer from depressed consumption, high-price energy bills, expensive credit and an avalanche of imported products.
But hey, who cares about such trivialities? The IMF is coming to the rescue.
It's not enough to just change the monkey handlers.
May 16th, 2018 - 04:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0At some point you have to retrain the monkeys.
Enrique...
May 16th, 2018 - 10:40 pm - Link - Report abuse +1It is an accomplishment...what do you think they should have done...defaulted?
Also how else would they have attracted investors short term, if not by attractive renewal rates?
There was probably little else they could have done...
Would you have been happier if the country had defaulted so that it would prove you right about the Govt...?
None of this affects you at all, so why all the criticism...?
...and I don't remember the country booming with the previous Govt...
The decline has been over decades so I imagine it will take decades to rectify that...
There is no short term remedy or prosperity for Argentina...
@V
May 17th, 2018 - 01:52 am - Link - Report abuse -3Oh come on. What a bland, pitiful posting you have penned here. Read it again please:
“I don't remember the country booming with the previous Govt...”
Listen up, Voice. Nestor Kirchner received a country fresh off its worst economic crisis in 2003. He did not talk about the “heavy inheritance.” He just set up to work for his country.
By 2006 he was liquidating Argentina's debt with the IMF and the country was indeed booming.
At the end of 2015, Mauricio Macri received a country that was in relatively good shape. Its foreign debt was manageable.
In two and a half years, he and his team of CEOs have managed to bring the country to the verge of disaster. They have destroyed a large part of the country's productive capacity.
What has been the Macri's way to manage the economy? Borrowing. Then, borrowing some more. Now that investors are alarmed and unwilling to take excessive risk, he'll borrow from the IMF. And so on. Do you believe there is merit in governing a country on the basis of foreign borrowing?
Does Macri have an economic plan to take Argentina out of its current stagnation? No sir. He does not have any.
Of all your post, I love this pearl of yours:
“None of this affects you at all, so why all the criticism...?”
It's 45 million Argentines who are affected--and you would like me to keep quiet about it just because I happen to live elsewhere?
Or you would like me just to be quiet?
“and you would like me to keep quiet about it just because I happen to live elsewhere?”
May 17th, 2018 - 06:33 pm - Link - Report abuse +2But you keep very quiet about the 32 million Venezuelans who've been brutally affected by Bolivarian economics while you live elsewhere.
Why? Why exactly haven't you said one word about their suffering? If you care about the suffering of so many, why not so much as a peep about the Venezuelans?
Venezuela is a Latin American country and was an important socialist partner to the CFK administration.
You don't care about people suffering so much as you care about socialism. Otherwise you'd have cried about the socialist economic disaster in Venezuela at least a bit instead of not once.
Many in Argentina will be affected by what is happening there. They are going to be shackled terribly by debt payments again.
But that quote by Voice, which you love as a pearl,
“None of this affects you”,
is absolutely correct. You live in Canada.
When was the last time you went back to Argentina because you care soooooooo much about Argentines?
Argentines just want to print money or borrow money. Not enough people there want their money by working for it, same in the U.S. They just want that free Universal Basic Income you think is such a good idea.
That's why a pile of their money just isn't worth anything.
You should be crying also in support of free enterprise if you want Argentina to prosper.
Hold on to your hats everybody, and grab an umbrella.
“Oh come on. What a bland, pitiful posting you have penned here. Read it again please:
May 17th, 2018 - 06:47 pm - Link - Report abuse +1“I don't remember the country booming with the previous Govt...”
Listen up, Voice. Nestor Kirchner received a country fresh off its worst economic crisis in 2003. He did not talk about the “heavy inheritance.” He just set up to work for his country.”
You read it again and listen up... Nestor Kirchner was not the previous Govt, his presidency ended in 2007...
More than a decade ago...
If you are going to quote facts...make sure they are relevant...
Now... tell me about the boom of the previous govt...
Continuing my previous take on Reekie's airliner analogy.
May 17th, 2018 - 09:40 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Recap: The airliner that was in all sorts of trouble with CFK at the controls who kept making poor decisions that made things worse while telling everyone on board that all was well and providing them with beer and sausage sandwiches has been taken over by Macri. Some people on the plane were complaining about turbulence and the fact that they now had to pay for their beer and sausage sandwiches.
Update: With Macri as pilot the plane's descent has slowed but it is still in serious trouble. The turbulence it just hit was worse than expected and he burnt a lot of fuel so had to ask Mr. IMF to put a tanker on standby in case he needed to do a bit of mid-air refuelling. To do so would be a risky move and might add too much weight to the plane so he'd prefer not to do this but it made sense to have it on standby just in case. As it happens the turbulence reduced and the plane got a bit of a tailwind so he hasn't needed to ask for more fuel.
Will the plane still crash? Will he need more fuel to be able to keep the plane safe? We don't know, but many of the plane's instruments are showing better figures than they were before so it looks like the new pilot has taken at least some correct actions. Watch out for next week's episode!
Meanwhile, Reekie is still advocating a change of pilot even though he himself is safe on the ground having jumped out of the airplane some time previous to CFK starting the plane's descent using his parachute that he calls “Canada”.
BP and V above propose:
May 20th, 2018 - 03:18 am - Link - Report abuse 01. If someone does not reside in a given country, that person does not have a right to comment on said country.
2. Further, they argue that someone who hasn't set foot in a given country in a certain lapse of time (how long?), then that person does not have a right to write posts about said country.
3. If someone does not comment on the situation in a given country (Venezuela in this case), then that person should shut up about the situation in another country (Argentina in this case).
I won’t bother to comment on the above points – just declare them null and void – and utterly ridiculous. This forum accepts comments from anonymous readers without proof as to where they reside. Sorry, bushpilot and voice! Good try though.
In addition, Zaphod gifts us with what he thought a smart application of the plane analogy: If you are not aboard, a person can't speak about the situation in a plane.
“...Reekie is still advocating...though he himself is safe on the ground.”
And to think that I thought control towers had a vital role on planes' safety.
Also: “Reekie is still advocating a change of pilot...”
Now you are totally out of whack, Zaph. I absolutely support continuity of the current elected government. Period. However, if you find any posting of mine advocating for the ousting of president Mauricio Macri, please provide it.
In Summary:
Argentina is, unfortunately, providing a textbook case for yet another neoliberal experiment on a developing country.
I understand many may still believe – or want to believe – that the “best team of the last 50 years” may achieve success in Argentina.
As a result, it would be interesting to hear seasoned arguments, as opposed to going after the messenger, in defense of a model that has managed, in just over two years, to indebt the country to such level as to require a lifeline from the IMF just to keep some semblance of economic activity.
“if you find any posting of mine advocating for the ousting of president Mauricio Macri, please provide it”
May 21st, 2018 - 03:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As you request, most recently:
http://en.mercopress.com/2018/05/15/argentine-admits-less-growth-and-more-inflation-but-exports-could-be-boosted-with-a-dearer-dollar#comments
“There is no much room to maneuver for the Macri government, which has beaten all the previous records on eroding the economy.
Electors better begin now to look for replacement.”
If this isn't a request to change the pilot, I don't know what is.
What, so he wants to see Macri replaced in the usual way at the next election? Big deal. I have an opinion on who should be president of the US, and I have much less connection with America than EM does with Argentina.
May 22nd, 2018 - 12:19 am - Link - Report abuse 0I am a bit disappointed on Zaphod's comprehension skills.
May 22nd, 2018 - 04:53 pm - Link - Report abuse -1He got an excellent response from DT in the previous posting.
In addition, I would add, to help Zaphod, that my sentence “Electors better begin now to look for replacement” contains the word “electors.” Electors are those who vote in an election.
Does it ring something, Zaphod?
I merely said that Reekie sat in his air traffic control tower in Canada was advocating that the pilot of the Argentine plane bouncing around the skies was replaced. I never commented on the mechanism for doing so. It was Reekie in introduced the word “ousting”.
May 22nd, 2018 - 05:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What were you saying about comprehension skills?
To be fair to Zaphod, you *were* advocating for a change of pilot, just via elections rather than impeachment a la Dilma or resignation by helicopter flight from the Casa Rosada.
May 22nd, 2018 - 05:13 pm - Link - Report abuse +1And to add to his analogy, you still have friends and family on that plane and care a lot about what happens to it, even if you're now flying Air Canada yourself.
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