MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Cristina Fernandez administration launches yet another price control program
Argentina's government formally launched on Friday its latest price control program as double-digit inflation sets the stage for tense annual wage talks in coming months. The one-year program sets prices on 194 supermarket items including staples like milk, meat and pasta as well as discretionary items such as beer and ice cream. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesThey could have added Diesel to the list. Just put 600 pesos worth in my truck today with room to spare.
Jan 04th, 2014 - 12:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0Alas this is just a band aid on the ruptured jugular of Argentina economy.
It will be connected to the BS stats that INDEC will be regurgitating in May.
Nice final paragraph about the unofficial exchange rate showing how the whole scheme is a mockery.
Jan 04th, 2014 - 06:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0They set the price on alist of 194 items, then say it is not price fixing.
Jan 04th, 2014 - 07:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0WTF is it then? Advice!
More to the point, what happens to the retailers who do not follow the advice?
Probably get 15 years in prison and the equivelant fine of the cost of a million barrels of oil, whoops sorry, that's a different story!
Silly waste of time, its merely a political stunt.
Jan 04th, 2014 - 12:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I looked at the list and the milk I used to buy has gone up 720% in 8 years.
My Rg friends on FB are taking pictures of all the pickets and talking about how bad it is.
and next week the heat is back
The Soy crop must be ruined.
This will be fun to watch people
as long as we don't have to live through it
Comment removed by the editor.
Jan 04th, 2014 - 12:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The black marketeers must be rubbing their hands with glee at all the profits they will make from these 194 items.
Jan 04th, 2014 - 01:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The supermarkets will run out of the price fixed goods and be unable to purchase any more at a price that allows them to make a profit, so they will stop stocking them. The shelves will empty and many will panic buy to ensure that they have some stocked up.
The ordinary workers will then have to buy them on the black market at exorbitant prices, maybe 50% or more over what they cost in the shops. The black marketeers will keep the authorities sweet by allowing the officials to purchase at reduced rates. Meanwhile, the ordinary person will find it increasingly difficult to find the goods, let alone to be able to afford the prices.
Riots will ensue when people start to starve because they cannot get the bread or milk or vegetables or meat that they once took for granted.
This is the slippery slope to a revolution and the armed forces will once again have to step in to stop the country falling into anarchy, run by a few crime barons.
It very much looks like 2014 will see the end of CFK after all.
Let's start a sweepstake on when she will be deposed and how.
Let's hope there's plenty of piano wire to hang her from the lamp post!
Mind you, by then, I suspect that will be a price controlled goods!
I have only one thing that is relevant here:
Jan 04th, 2014 - 04:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxmCCsMoD0
ENJOY!
It'll be a repeat performance of the disaster when CFK banned the export of beef, in order to ensure it was plentiful - and cheap - in the domestic market...so what happened ? cattle breeders, disgusted with these arbitrary measures, slaughtered their herds, and the little beef that DID reach the Argies tables, became as expensive as hell.....and the stupid b. refused to back down....they just don't learn, do they ?
Jan 04th, 2014 - 04:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0When the items listed start to get scarce, then become unobtainable, will they then introduce rationing?
Jan 04th, 2014 - 04:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If they follow bird-brain CFK (no offence to birds!), they probably will....they'll just dig the hole deeper...
Jan 04th, 2014 - 06:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Read somewhere someone commented that 'Brasil is becoming Argentina, Argentina is becoming Venezuela, Venezuela is becoming Zimbabwe' I still hold out some hope for Brasil but
Jan 05th, 2014 - 03:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0Where are Stevie Boy and Sunny Boy, now.
Jan 05th, 2014 - 05:49 am - Link - Report abuse 0C'mon kids, give us the 'real' story here!!
Better yet, Zany Dany Berger can explain the economics to us!
LOL, nary a Troll to be found !! :-D
An economic disaster this bad can only be caused by two factors.
Jan 05th, 2014 - 10:50 am - Link - Report abuse 01. Catastrophically poor management by the politicians.
A fundamental failure to grasp the basics of economics. A desire to internally rob the country of its wealth by corruption. A failure to uphold to the countries debts and international obligations.
2. Failure of the ordinary Argentine citizen.
By voting in politicians willing to bribe the public for votes. By failing to work hard and expecting the world to give you all you need in return for nothing. By exploiting anyone you can to make a fast buck and then moving that money out of reach of the robber government. By failing to remove a robber government when their actions cause untold misery to the majority of the population.
Put bluntly, the entire population of Argentina is to blame for this mess.
Argentine politicians like to assign the blame outside the country. They'll blame “The Usual Suspects” for their economic failure, but they are only deceiving themselves, because until Argentina wakes up and realises that the world does not owe them a living, then they will live in poverty and no amount of price freezes will stop the disaster getting worse.
They could start by removing CFK.
They could help by getting rid of the Peso and switching entirely to the dollar (it's worked for Zimbabwe so far).
But they need to get over a fundamental problem - they actually have to work hard and not try to thieve from any other person.
They have to give up their dreams of thieving the Falkland Islands from the Islanders.
They will return Troy after rehearsing a rebuttal that makes sense in THEIR minds. I am not sure about coby, I think he needs to learn some new hand signs from his trainers in la campora.
Jan 05th, 2014 - 01:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0BTW what is this their 8th price freeze?
Jan 05th, 2014 - 05:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0These people need to be in a mental institution instead of gov't
Yankee
Jan 05th, 2014 - 05:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Chile outperforming Argentina since 1980, even with 'official' INDEC figures:
http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ca/2013/02/222013-argentina-v-chile-real-economy.html?m=1
An interesting article summarizing the 2 South Americas:
Jan 05th, 2014 - 10:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Brazil is becoming Argentina, Argentina is becoming Venezuela, and Venezuela is becoming Zimbabwe.”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303370904579296352951436072
17 Captain Poppy
Jan 06th, 2014 - 12:53 am - Link - Report abuse 0It's the non sci fi version of close encounters of the third kind.
STUPID POLICY1!111
Jan 06th, 2014 - 02:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0@6 “Let's start a sweepstake on when she will be deposed and how.”
Jan 06th, 2014 - 05:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0I have heard two rumours:
1. There has been unusual activity around the Kirchner mauseleum (rumoured to be one of the storage locations of some of the K wealth) which might mean she is gathering her funds together ready to leave the country...
2. Some talk of her having a “sabbatical”...
So my bet is that she'll leave Argentina on a “sabbatical” (health reasons?) and happen to take a large amount of her wealth with her...and she'll quietly retire in some safe distant location.
Meanwhile events will run their logical course and things will continue to get worse in Argentina - inflation, devaluing peso, crime, energy shortages, food shortages, etc. How that ends, I don't know but I can see a scenario some years in the future were a new power in Argentina is attempting legal methods to get CFK to account for her actions and her wealth...
We shall see...
@20
Jan 06th, 2014 - 09:20 am - Link - Report abuse 0You may be right. You're not the only person to mention unusual activity.
It could be that they recognise the end is nigh & price controls is not going to work long term, but only for a few weeks at best. When these staple goods come under the control of the black marketeers, life will quickly become unbearable & it won't be pots and pans that they start banging.
Question is will the military do a better job than the incumbents?
We all recall the fools they had the last time they were in charge & the damage they did to Argentina's reputation.
Mind you, Argentina's rep has suffered so much under the mad witch, that even the most incompetent General could not make it very much worse.
About the only thing that most would appreciate is the restoration of law & order, but it would be at the cost of troops on the streets.
On top of that, once the military have control, you can expect a large percentage of Government expenditure to be diverted to upgrading and renewing equipment that has fallen into disrepair. Most of the Argentine air force cannot fly for lack of spares or fuel. Most of the Argentine Navy dare not put to sea, because their ships could sink - even in port! I'd hate to be an Argentine submariner, when the Captain calls for the ship to dive!
Lets face it, Argentina needs outside assistance, but I suspect that their 'brothers' in South America would turn away if asked for help. Even the mighty Brazil is suffering because they have to pay for the World Cup & Olympics construction. When they sought the rights to hold the games, they were hopeful of the prestige and benefit it would bring. But now, the riots in the streets and the cuts in Government expenditure on normal things like pay or benefits is causing many to question the viability of even holding the games.
There are not many countries with the money to help Argentina. Still fewer that would want to risk losing that money to lazy idiots who would sooner steal it for their retirement fund.
#18 Why do you think that Chile and the others have not taken the same route as the others? If it was simply a matter of hating the west and the USA in particular, Chile certainly has many reasons that I can understand. But you guys seems to put people and country first.....and it shows.
Jan 06th, 2014 - 10:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0@11, Juan, your comment that Brazil is becoming Argentina, that Argentina is becoming Venezuela, that Venezuela is becoming Zimbabwe and that there is still some hope for Brazil, is pretty accurate. If in the 2014 presidential elections in Brazil, the people get rid of the PT (Lula, Dilma and the rest of the 'gang'), then 'yes', there is hope....the problem is that a significant part of the population (mostly in the N.E.) receive government handouts, and they are too stupid to see through the PT's real intention - hang on to and increase their power at “any cost”...to the population, well understood. But going back to Argentina : it could be a great country if not overrun by a bunch of thieving politicians - a curse which plagues Brazil too - but it is unfortunate that those who keep on voting in the likes of the Kirchner clan, are the majority, and have little or no notion of what's really going on..but then again, they must be being bombarded with massive government propaganda, so WTF can you expect ?
Jan 06th, 2014 - 04:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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