MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentine congress overwhelmingly approves deal with creditors to end 15-year conflict
After 13 hours of debate, Argentina's senate voted overwhelmingly to approve a deal with creditors in the US, putting an end to a sovereign bonds' dispute that had lasted 15 years. The deal was reached in late February, and the Lower House passed it earlier this month. The senate began debating on Wednesday morning and on early Thursday passed the measure by 54 votes to 16. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesMacri succeeded bringing Argentina back to the world. Which means now productive investments will begin pouring into the country, the domestic sectors will flourish, jobs will be created, the middle class will prosper, poverty zero will be reached, and the country will definitely leave behind its tormented past and be welcomed to the exclusive club of the “almost-developed” countries. Who said Macri was the champion of the oligarchic restoration? I did? Oh, sorry, Just dreaming.
Apr 01st, 2016 - 06:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0EM
Apr 01st, 2016 - 07:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0Entertaining sarcasm.
It looks like you actually understand that he has economic goals to reach for and is using all the tools at his disposal to do so.
Seems more reasoned than CFK's giving past creditors the finger and selling out Argentina's resources in an open-ended bailout scheme from China.
They don't spend money for nothing. CFK would have mortgaged Arg's future.
I don't think the “almost developed” countries are that interested in being in that club. They want to be in the developed countries club.
Apr 01st, 2016 - 07:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0A bit like Enrique when he chose a country to emigrate to. He didn't choose and almost developed country. Why should the country he left being choose it?
@1 Kiko
Apr 01st, 2016 - 11:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0Is it Macri who has changed the law or is it the democratic congress?
Well done, Macri. You are not perfect. You will make mistakes. You will hold wrong opinions. But right now you are doing a hell of a job !
Apr 01st, 2016 - 01:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Getting Argentina back onto a road of stability isn't going to be easy.
Apr 01st, 2016 - 02:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0At least it seems they avoided the Venezuelan plight
Although its still early yet.
They are still feeling the inflation caused by the Kirchners and until that's out of the system they're going to have serious problems with the unions and civil stability.
It's not like they had many options left by the terribly destructive Ks.
They're so lucky they didn't go into starvation like Venezuela.
So lucky indeed.
Good result!
Apr 01st, 2016 - 02:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So far.
@1 Reekie
Apr 01st, 2016 - 02:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0the eternal Kirchner bum-sucker...
@1 Reekie..... because Kirchnerism was SOOOOO very good for Argentistan.
Apr 01st, 2016 - 03:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina: ‘Worst Latin American country in which to do business’
“ Doing Business 2013: Comparing Business Regulations for Domestic Firms in 185 Economies” by the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation (IFC)
” The World Bank (WB) has ranked Argentina in 124th place ,after analyzing 185 countries and comparing how easy is to do business with.“
” Argentina, who dropped eight places from the same report in 2011, placed worst among Latin American and Caribbean nations.“
” In last year’s report, Argentina was ranked 116th, and the drop to 124th was due to a bad review in terms of international commerce, a sector in which it dropped from 103rd to 139th due to the consequences of the currency exchange regulations applied by the national government.”
Wonderful - I wonder how long it will take to default this time? http://fortune.com/2016/03/31/argentina-debt-senate/
Apr 01st, 2016 - 06:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#5 Ponte
Apr 01st, 2016 - 06:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Well done, Macri...you are doing a hell of a job!”
Indeed. Seen from “the world,” Macri's deed is, indeed a hell of a job. Paying the vultures what they wanted and then some more is a “courageous” gesture, one that will become the largest step into debt of any country in recent memory. It's $12 billion of which not a single dollar will enter the country, but the deal shoul allow Argentina to borrow more, in a new chapter of a story that those older than 60 remember all too well.
@11 Reekie
Apr 01st, 2016 - 07:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Don't you ever get tired of sucking up to the K bums ? If you agreed with CFK, why didn't you move back from Canada ?
@11 “ Paying the vultures what they wanted and then some more...”
Apr 01st, 2016 - 11:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Characteristic Kirchnerist world-view. But for the record, the agreements with the principals including Singer and all the other tens of thousands of creditors involve paying them a great deal less than what they were asking, and a lot less than what they were owed.
Only the North Koreans and the parallel-universe Kirchnerists could perceive this as “ what they wanted and then some more.”
So Argentina has to borrow money to pay for having borrowed money? Had Kirchnerism not stolen and squandered vast sums of money, and had Kirchnerism had competent financial and economic management, there would be a great deal less owed today to those tends of thousands of creditors.
@11
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 01:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0“It's $12 billion of which not a single dollar will enter the country”
Part of that money DID enter the country. And it should have been paid back earlier, then less money would have left Argentina.
I think you are are right about the Macri administration putting Argentina into more debt. Even after Macri borrows a ton of money to pay back the holdouts, Argentina has some fiscal problems right now that Macri will need to borrow much more money for to keep the masses content.
Borrowed money is supposed to create money, not have a net cost. But government borrowing doesn't seem to work that way. The U.S. should be swimming in money from the 15 trillion it borrowed. But it was just squandered on no value government and Americans will just let them borrow more. Now in debt to the tune of 20 trillion dollars. 20,000 billion dollars!!
In Argentina's case, those politicians are supporting the public borrowing so they can pilfer those funds. You are right EM, the borrowed money won't lead to any significant returns and the country will just be in debt again with nothing to show for it.
Macri IS dealing with his country's obligations. But he is also borrowing money in order to borrow yet more money. CFK printed extra cash to be squandered and pilfered, Macri is borrowing money to be squandered and pilfered.
@14 'CFK printed extra cash to be squandered and pilfered, '..... really? Do they do that sort of thing in RGland??
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 03:01 am - Link - Report abuse 0'An Argentine federal prosecutor in late March opened a criminal investigation against former Fábrica Argentina de Aviones (FAdeA) executives.
The investigation arises from reports that the previous fiscal year the company suffered losses of more than USD100 million and did not produce any aircraft.”
I wonder where the hundred mill went..
http://www.janes.com/article/59232/argentine-government-opens-criminal-investigation-into-fadea?
@11 “ It's $12 billion of which not a single dollar will enter the country,”
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 03:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0Reeky, if the money is to pay mostly foreign creditors part of what they are owed, why does that money need to first go to Argentina? So that someone can count it at La Rosadita?
Actually, Reeky, you're lying again -- this time about not a single dollar will go to Argentina. Why? Because several millions of those dollars are scheduled to pay the several thousand Argentine residents who are bondholders who have been royally cheated by the Argentine government.
CFK left a country with low debt levels, low unemployment and a growing middle class. Macri's plan is to increase unemployment to push wages down, because that's what the backwards Argentina's wealthy class wants. He has already relaxed rules restricting speculative capital movements. HSBC and its 4,000 secret account holders can now sleep well knowing they won't be ever bothered. It's not pleasant to be aware of what lies ahead for many Argentines. But then again, most commenters here only held contempt for the country and don't give a rat's ass about this--indeed, many will thoroughly enjoy it.
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 06:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0'low debt levels, low unemployment and a growing middle class.' my left bollock....
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 07:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0Your country now has a chance... a remote chance but a chance nontheless... to be what it may have been without Peron and all that followed...
When you fire the statisticians and put in propagandists you can say whatever you want.
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 01:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0CFK destroyed Argentina stole BILLIONS U$ and very soon she'll get exactly what she deserves.
Enrique is a disgusting Marxists living on the backs of the Canadian taxpayers.
He should be deported.
@17 “ CFK left a country with low debt levels”
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 01:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0A: Pretending that you don't owe debts and refusing to pay does not relieve you of the obligations, but instead leads to sanctions, tends to increase your borrowing costs to 2 or 3 times the rates that civilised nations are paying, and keeps investment out of the country.
“ ... low unemployment...”
A: Putting tens of thousands of choripaneros into ñoqui positions and otherwise unproductive “cultural advisor” government payroll pseudo-jobs is not quite the same thing that the civilised nations think of as useful “employment.”
You forgot to mention the CFK track record for lying about poverty levels in Argentina, which under her reign increased to about 28 percent of the population. And the nearly 40 percent CFK-induced annual inflation that helped to create that high level of poverty. Poverty being something in Argentina that CFK treated with total dishonesty.
“...only held contempt for the country....”
A: It's always amusing to read the comments of Peronists who seem to hold contempt for the country by refusing to live there. Which is probably a good thing for Argentina.
Enrique,
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 02:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What a paradox!
As a champion of the People, you hold contempt for a government that was elected by a MAJORITY of Argentine PEOPLE.
YOU are the anachronism here, PEOPLE voted for change because it is for the better.
#21 Troy
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 04:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0No paradox, Troy.
I do not only hold contempt for the Macri government--I thoroughly disapprove of its policies and actions.
And that, (newsflash) is not anachronism: t's a right of of every citizen in democratic societies. Only dictatorships do not admit dissent.
In any event, Argentina's capitulation has far-reaching consequences, not only for the country itself. That is well spelled out by researchers Joseph Stiglitz and Martin Guzman in a New York Times column published April 1:
”The resolution (to pay the vultures) was excellent news for a small group of well-connected investors, and terrible news for the rest of the world, especially countries that face their own debt crisis in the future.”
Take a minute--you may learn a thing or two:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/opinion/how-hedge-funds-held-argentina-for-ransom.html?_r=0
Enrique,
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 06:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“It's $12 billion of which not a single dollar will enter the country”
It appears you fail to understand the transaction. The money did enter the country. What it failed significantly to do was to leave it again to repay the creditors. This is it leaving now.
@22 Enrique,
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 06:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Dissent is fine, but don't represent yourself as speaking for the collective Argentine people. You do not.
Democratically, and collectively, the PEOPLE voted for Macri and what he stands for. More accurately, they rejected CFK, her ideology, her policies, and her style of confrontational governance.
You are an anachronism, out of time and out of place.
Argentina would not have trouble with hedge funds if they had not issued bonds for $100b that they refused to honour.
@22 “Only dictatorships do not admit dissent.”
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 06:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That explains what happened to Nisman.
-----
”The resolution (to pay the vultures) was excellent news for a small group of well-connected investors,...”
Stiglitz misrepresents (lies) like an Argentine. He failed to note that the “small group” includes over 50,000 creditors, including thousands of Argentines cheated by their government.
Stiglitz and his clown-brother Kicillof also fail to observe that the solution to such holdout problems was achieved over a hundred years ago and used ever since by the competent, in the form of Collective Action Clauses. Argentina was advised to include CACs in their later-defaulted debt, and deliberately elected not to do so, thereby bringing disaster inevitably upon their heads. Argentina has only itself to blame.
Oh, and Stiglitz was a paid advisor to the Kirchners.
You see, Reekie, you have a thing or two to learn.
CFK keeping very quiet, must be giving someone a blowjob.
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 08:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#24 Troy
Apr 02nd, 2016 - 10:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Do I have to go back to Educación Democrática 101?
OK, let's do it.
1. In democracy, a majority of electors choose a government. They become “officialism.”
2. Some of those who voted other candidates, may become “opposition.”
Opposition, my dear friend, is a vital part of democracy. In Argentina it's about 49 per cent, and some are vocal. Their number may dwindle or increase depending on how the government behaves.
Oh, and thank you for reminding me that I do not ”represent (my) self as speaking for the collective Argentine people.“ Silly me!
#26 golfcronie
I am dumbfounded by your posting's wit and depth. Kinda sheds light over some CFK opponents.
#25 Marti llazo
Even under the new government, it seems difficult to find out how Nisman died. But Martillazo knows it!
”Argentina was advised to include CACs...elected not to do so, thereby bringing disaster.”
No, really. I am dumbfounded by the killing logic of your argument. While the world discusses whether the vultures of the international finance serve any purpose other than to pocket huge profit margins by preying on weakened countries, you reveal us that the whole point is lack of CAC clause, which indeed forced Paul Singer and company to sue Argentina around the world until finding helpful Judge Thomas Griesa!
Silly us!
@27 So reekie really doesn't understand that when Argentina prepared its debt offerings in the 1990s that it elected to not include CACs ? On purpose? That if it had been even minimally competent (yes, I know... No le busques tres pies al gato) that it would have inserted those CACs and thereby avoided the holdout problem? You really do not understand this? Are you really that much Argentine?
Apr 03rd, 2016 - 12:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0Do you even understand the significance of the secondary market in debt instruments? The concept of payment of debt according to contractual agreements? Hello ??
@27 Enrique
Apr 03rd, 2016 - 01:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0You seem to miss the point.
A MAJORITY of Argentine voters ( you are not one) democratically chose Macri to run their government understanding his ideology was very different from that of CFK, whom they rejected.
MORE Arg. citizens want Macri than don't.
LESS Args want CFK and her ideology.
Naturally, there is an official government Opposition. There are also dissidents.
They are not ALL Argentines, they are not MOST Argentines, they are not HALF Argentines, they are a MINORITY.
While that minority did not vote for Macri, they may not be united in supporting all of the Peronist and K policies either.
As I said before, you do not represent the Argentine people.
The best you can say is that your personal opinion echoes SOME Argentine individuals.
You have not lived in Arg since the 70's. A lot has changed since then. The COMINTERN has collapsed and their regimes have proved non-viable.
Notably, your SA ideological example, and CFK's model, Venezuela has turned out to be an unmitigated and cruel disaster. A regime at war with their own people.
I can understand that to accept the facts and admit your ideology is a failure is to admit you were misled and paid the price.
Macri may have a secret money stash!
Apr 04th, 2016 - 01:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/04/panama-papers-tax-haven-used-by-politicians-and-celebrities/
Nice picture of him TGW a number of ragheads and other alleged TAX EVADERS!
It seems that wealthy argies always move their money out of the country, remember TMBOA?
”Do as I say NOT do as I DO jumps to mind.
Macri es colonialismo. si esa palabra que a muchos les molesta, recuerden que el COLONIALISMO no es solo militar, sino también pedagógico. No por nada aun hay resistiendo 2000 personas en las islas en condiciones deplorables en donde les hacen creer que mejor no pueden estar y en donde su intransigencia solo beneficia a capitales que están muy lejos de las islas. FIC tiene su sede en??
Apr 04th, 2016 - 08:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0¿Vos sabés que en este foro queda prohibido no sólo los boludeces, sino los boludeces escritos en argentensis?
Apr 04th, 2016 - 09:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@31
Apr 04th, 2016 - 10:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0roughly translated by Google:
“Macri is colonialism. if that word that many bothers you, remember that colonialism is not only military, but also educational. No wonder there are still resisting 2,000 people on the islands in deplorable conditions where they make them believe that they can not be better and where their intransigence capital only benefits that are far from the islands. FIC is headquartered in ??”
whatever that means...
”
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