MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
CFK indicted for illicit association and fraudulent administration until last day in office
Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner was charged in a corruption case Tuesday for illicit association and fraudulent administration with regards to the alleged granting of public construction contracts to specific companies. Fernandez' assets, estimated at more than 10 billion pesos (US$ 643 million) were frozen as a result of the judge's order. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesOh joy Oh happiness.... what a nice christmas present for her .
Dec 28th, 2016 - 07:18 am - Link - Report abuse +6Showing total incapacity to show tangible results after governing Argentina for one whole year, the Macri administration attempts to keep deflecting attention towards the acts of the previous government.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 07:41 am - Link - Report abuse -8Which can work only for so long.
Meanwhile, Milagro Sala remains Argentina's political prisoner in defiance of legality and requests from international human rights organizations.
What a step back for the country.
Snr Enrique,
Dec 28th, 2016 - 08:25 am - Link - Report abuse +4A step forward for rule of law in Argentina!
She can't intimidate Judges and Prosecutors anymore, or kill them, either.
No more immunity for her.
You seem to be characterising criminals as Political Prisoners.
Evita K will be ratted out by the others trying to save their own skins - they know full well that Evita K will disown them or throw them under the bus, too.
Over half a billion US $ she amassed for herself - how much of the $22b did Baez “redistribute” to wealthy K kronies?
Guilty or not there is no denying she has done very well out of politics. Pity the same can't be said for millions of Argentines while she was in power.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 08:45 am - Link - Report abuse +7Unfortunately, Kamerad/Komrade Rique apparently will be losing funding soon. Let's see if he shows up here to defend his clay footed Goddess. I wait with anticipation... ;)
Dec 28th, 2016 - 08:56 am - Link - Report abuse +4They finally got the Botox bitch, maximo look out son you are next
Dec 28th, 2016 - 09:27 am - Link - Report abuse +3It was inevitable that she would claim it was all a scheme against her. Isn't it the job of law enforcers to scheme to catch criminals? It was only a matter of time before they got her, the thieving was too overt and widespread. Though let us not forget it was all started by Nestor and CFK picked up the baton when he died.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 12:45 pm - Link - Report abuse +4EM
We have covered in other threads the economy under Macri. Why not comment on the story for this thread? CFK has been indicted for crimes that were often talked about here. Why is it you are completely unaware of the corruption? Do you think it is because the news you receive from Argentina has been filtered?
@Englander
Dec 28th, 2016 - 01:14 pm - Link - Report abuse -4What do you mean, “done very well out of politics”?
I had assumed that $643 million was accrued while she and her husband were in power. What has she been doing since leaving office to accrue revenue?
Rg struggles with recognition of the full range of the global political landscape.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 02:57 pm - Link - Report abuse -6First Macaroni is called a conservative - which is preposterous.
Then the article brandishes center right when by any reasonable standard Macaroni is smack in the main thrust of liberalism.
With regard to Cretina, where are the overseas assets stashed, honey?
Hate to break it to you chronic, but Macri in Latin America, European, Chinese, Japanese, Australia, Canadian, etc, politics is center, if not slightly center-right. So all the worldwide articles are generally accurate.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 03:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes, he may be a socialist in your USA. But then again, the rest of the world sees the NorthAmoan United Statesian political ideological spectrum in the same way you North Americans see Saudi Arabia, Iran, or the Mullahs and the Arab world in general. The latter stuck somewhere in the 13th century, the former somewhere in the early 18th century.
The rest of the world is moving inexorably on, you are welcome to still deny climate change, thing Creationism is science fact, have witchtrials, harrass gays, ban interracial marriages, and be Israel's apologist not because of helping Jewish people, but in order to bring about the so-called rapture at a faster clip. I think safely describes the main US zeitgeist.
Sorry chronic, but Trollboy is right on this one. Normal conservatives just look like liberals to you because you are somewhere to the right of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 05:56 pm - Link - Report abuse +4Bushpilot
Dec 28th, 2016 - 06:05 pm - Link - Report abuse +1The way I read it, what Englander meant by
“done very well out of politics”
is she did well from being involved in politics. Not referring to the period “out of politics”
According to the declarations made by CFK to the Argentine anticorruption agency, between the time that Néstor took office in 2003 and the declaration for 2011, the Kirchner family net worth went from 7 million pesos to 82 million pesos (about US$19.5 million at the time). The declared holdings included 12 apartments, 6 houses, 6 real estate properties, 4 businesses, one pickup truck, stocks and bonds, cash, and other valuables.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 07:48 pm - Link - Report abuse +5And that is just what was declared.
No Monkey, I'm to the right of Atilla the Hun but that fact doesn't make Macaroni any less of a liberal.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 08:01 pm - Link - Report abuse -7Chronic is deflecting.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 09:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The US politics are a whole different animal - Chronic, Atilla, and Trump are irrelevant to this story.
In the context of South America and Argentina, Macri's ideology is right wing and his policies differ from the K's by being more conservative than what went before.
He is conservative, and he is more business friendly, rejecting the populist socialist model.
His policies need time to work, making slow incremental progress, first slowing down and then arresting the downward slide.
Interesting how a few bland comments on the Dec. 26 story about Argentina's failing economy and departing economy minister Prat-Gay quickly made room to a cheerleading chorus celebrating Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner being indicted.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 09:45 pm - Link - Report abuse -5Which is exactly what the Macri administration sought by pushing judge Ercolini to the indiction.
Come on MP readers! Look again at the headline in question: “Macri reshuffles economic team after the promised second half recovery never arrived.” Does it sound bad? Yes it does, and that is because it is bad.
However, in their enthusiasm, most astute MP commentators missed the fact that Macri and his team desperately need a different sort of headlines, after the firing of Prat-Gay exhibited the first significant crack in the governing team and more importantly the inability to get results after Cambiemos' first-year at the helm.
The other elephant in the room is that CFK has, according to several polls, about a third of voting intentions as a Senate candidate in the August 2017 election in which half of the two Legislative bodies is up for grabs with the other two thirds being roughly divided between Macrists and Massists.
I do understand that English-only speakers in this thread can only access a narrow scope of information that may lead to uni-dimensional conclusions. However, some in this thread willingly interpret the news through a lens that inevitably distorts their views, making them mere cheerleaders of Macri's politics. Which is disappointing. You may have differing views and that's OK--but at least, bring some arguments to the table.
@EM
Dec 28th, 2016 - 10:01 pm - Link - Report abuse +2You are still avoiding talking about CFK's criminal activity. And I get my information from a number of sources including Spanish speakers who actually live in Argentina. And I formed my opinion of the criminal Kirchners from witnessing their criminal activity in Argentina first-hand. You can't dismiss my opinion because it is based on facts rather than your fantasy.
Mr Massot
Dec 28th, 2016 - 10:04 pm - Link - Report abuse +2It is you who
brings no arguments.
Evita K and Kicilloff continued on a course of destructive policies, robbing pension funds, depleting the Reserve, stiffing creditors, and driving industry and investment from the country.
Inflation and crumbling infrastructure.
There is evidence of corruption and deliberate siphoning of funds from Public Works and infrastructure projects. Criminal acts.
That is why she is being indicted.
Macri has brought in other policies in an attempt to help the economy - he is not afraid to try different strategies when some don't work.
You speak of information that we English speakers can't access, yet you offer nothing compelling or logical.
Is your information secret ?
Keep on believing - that's your privilege.
You are not capable of making a convincing case, however.
Reekie has been reading Página12. That is why he knows so much.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 10:48 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Los demás.... seguimos las noticias.
Macaroni's policy is radical enough to totally alienate the perronists while at the same time it is infinitely too weak in actual free market stimulus to provide any meaningful impact to the economy.
Dec 28th, 2016 - 11:00 pm - Link - Report abuse -1After all latam is the dung heap of the socialist experiment.
Rg is still dumb enough to believe that they can have a cake and eat it too and that prosperity for all is simply an issue of more equitable allocation.
News Flash, che: It appears that no one in rg is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to produce anything on a globally competitive basis which is the prerequisite for the creation of wealth.
Elaine:
Dec 28th, 2016 - 11:05 pm - Link - Report abuse -6Well, if you witnessed “first hand,” then perhaps you may become a witness for judge Ercolini. Be interesting to see it.
Kanye:
No arguments?
Let's see yours:
“Evita K and Kicilloff continued on a course of destructive policies, robbing pension funds, depleting the Reserve, stiffing creditors, and driving industry and investment from the country.”
Sorry, I do not know any “Evita K.”
“There is evidence of corruption and deliberate siphoning of funds from Public Works and infrastructure projects. Criminal acts.”
Kanye, Kanye. Inform yourself. All Public Works contracts were scrutinized and vetted by Legislators. This is a SLAPP lawsuit that will go nowhere.
Additionally, during the “K” government the middle class expanded, and the economy was based on domestic expansion and local consumption as opposed to beg and borrow money from abroad as Marti is so fond of.
I also know, as most Argentines are beginning to realize, that the current government keeps speaking about how a “heavy inheritance” they received, while it tells citizens that the time under the “Ks” was a fantasy. Going on holidays, buyinc cars and large-screen TVs and cellular phones, they are told, was a “fake” reality. More recently, Macri decried the use of air conditioning units at home as one of the most “destructive” policies of the Ks. Earlier on he told citizens to dress warm to save on heating costs after the infamous “tarifazo.”
All gestures that show how out of touch is this member of the wealthy class, who never experienced hard work but who tells people to work hard for less pay while he indulges in unprecedented vacation time.
Some president.
Hey, Reeeeek:
Dec 29th, 2016 - 12:56 am - Link - Report abuse +1You're still a dumbass.
If the middleclass did expand it was attributable only to the commodity boom and the investment of agribusiness interests and in spite of Cretina's disastrous policies.
You're still practicing denial.
Stop.
Reekie selectively forgets how much poverty grew under CFK. And the external debt, which also increased enormously. And the amount of “deferred maintenance” on everything from infrastructure to aircraft. Even Tango 1 is now essentially junk because of lack of maintenance. How Argentina fraudulently spent millions on useless railroad junk. How the frontiers were left without the means to interdict drug traffickers, helping the country become the number one cocaine per capita consumer in the region and now a major drug-transit country. Under CFK management, Argentina was down to a single operational C-130 to supply its bases in British Antarctica and not a single argie ship capable of going there. When the Kirchners arrived in 2003 the argie peso was at 2.9 to the dollar and when CFK left the phony official rate was at 9.6 to the dollar and the real value was closer to 15 to the dollar. The CFK years saw Argentina falling farther behind the real world in productivity. The average price of a meat empanada in 2003 was 0.70 argie pesos and in 2015 that same empanada was going for 16 pesos, while Kicillof was saying “what inflation?” Kirchnerism took Argentina from a net exporter of hydrocarbon energy to an increasingly impoverished importer, buying energy from Bolivia, Chile, and African suppliers and creating a US$7 billion energy deficit. CFK's refusal to meet contractual and legal obligations cast Argentina as a classic pariah state, a status with so much momentum that it will enjoy that perception before the world community for a very long time.
Dec 29th, 2016 - 01:43 am - Link - Report abuse +3No, Kirchnerism was not very good for Argentina in the long run.
All those things have costs and those costs and more will be paid over a period of many years, or even decades.
Man, empanadas . . . . . .
Dec 29th, 2016 - 01:55 am - Link - Report abuse -4Shut up, OK?
Hey, one year ago I gave you guys a description of who Macri was and what was the most probable path he would take--in hopes to be found wrong.
Dec 29th, 2016 - 07:14 am - Link - Report abuse -4Now that reality is worse than I ever anticipated, I am going to give you some hints that will allow you to understand what's really going on in Argentina and what's next.
I already told you that the Argentine wealthy are an extremely backward bunch with a profound hatred and mistrust of workers, the poor and the minorities. These people hate social progress and would plot to overthrow any government that would even so lightly smell of sympathy for the people. Even modern capitalism is too progressive for those people, who love to keep people in an incipient capitalism with a strong semi-feudal component.
The army was the instrument of choice to achieve that goal as it was in the rest of Latin America, until the brutality of the coups of the 1970s rendered the method less palatable.
Now, Latin America oligarchies resort to new methods to keep their privileges and quash social progress. Their tools are the legislative powers as in Brazil's parliamentary coup, the judiciary and the dominant media.
Soft coups have happened already in Honduras and Paraguay. In Argentina it started on the same day Macri took office, as illegal presidential decrees and other anti-democratic practices have become the norm.
Unfortunately for those arrogant minorities, Argentines have grown used to a different state of things--particularly during the 12 years of Kirchners' rule. No absolute power has succeeded in ruling for long in Argentina, and Macri's excesses guarantee his inevitable failure. With this in mind, you'll be able to better understand what's coming next.
Let's hope things fall apart, eh, Kamerad/Komrade Rique. After all the far right and far left need to be eliminated. As a well known American once stated, “By any means necessary.”
Dec 29th, 2016 - 08:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0Reekie “.....Unfortunately for those arrogant minorities, Argentines have grown used to a different state of things--...”
Dec 29th, 2016 - 11:15 am - Link - Report abuse +3Of course they have. It's called “failure.” Economic failure.
We note in the regional media today “Bolsas de la región anotan su mejor año desde la crisis global” - a reflection that 2016 had regional stock markets at their best since the current economic crisis. The exception of course is Argentina, whose economy continues in a death spiral since its self-destructive institutions object to the corrective measures needed for economic health.
If reekie were true to his prescriptions, he would have gone to Cuba.
The elites want to hold down the destitute economically so that they can't become mass consumers whereby the elites could become even richer?
Dec 29th, 2016 - 11:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0Is that correct, Reeeeeeeeeeeeekie?
You obviously didn't attend college on a debate scholarship - did you?
Reeeeeeeeeeekie, sometimes you display such incredible ignorance that you suck all the joy out of the act of publically abusing you.
@chronic “[reekie] ....obviously didn't attend college on a debate scholarship....”
Dec 29th, 2016 - 12:16 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Nor on one that called for any understanding of economics.
@Chronic
Dec 29th, 2016 - 02:17 pm - Link - Report abuse +2“The elites want to hold down the destitute economically so that they can't become mass consumers whereby the elites could become even richer?”
Mr. Enrique, I have to agree with Chronic on this one.
What you say does not make sense. The “elites” want a healthy economy with a large well paid consumer base.
It is your K model of loading up companies and public institutions with unproductive 'workers' until they sink, that does not work.
And the Nisman case has now been re-opened.
Dec 29th, 2016 - 07:16 pm - Link - Report abuse +3CFK is going to be busy.
When it rains it pours. ;-)
Enrique,
Dec 29th, 2016 - 07:44 pm - Link - Report abuse +4You keep insisting on denying the Peronist. “golpes” of 1989 and 2001.
You insist on defending of politics taken to the extreme by the Kirchnerite movement, a mixture of socialism, comunism and facism that tried to achieve the philosopher's stone but actually achieved a big pile of fertilizer.
You insist on claiming that the Argentine middle class expanded during 2007-2015 but you don't offer any evidence of that happening.
You insist on crying out about “diversion” tactics to hide the fact that Macri's government has no clue yet you still fail to provide an alternative course of action, unless of course your suggested course of action is another Peronist coup and a bigger dose of Kichi-nomics.
You just insist on being blind to the fact that your guys could have transformed the country but instead of saving they abused the people's credit card.
Need some relevant numbers here. Not just some blabber about Cristina's chances to be a senator. Who cares? I couldn't care less.
How about any ideas? How about you state what this government should do?
I dare you.
TF
Dec 29th, 2016 - 07:58 pm - Link - Report abuse +3Cleaning house is the first step.
@Kanye “Cleaning house is the first step.”
Dec 29th, 2016 - 08:18 pm - Link - Report abuse +4I would liken it to cleaning the stables.
And the Augean Stables, at that...
Dec 29th, 2016 - 10:01 pm - Link - Report abuse +4A truly Herculean task.
Dec 30th, 2016 - 12:13 am - Link - Report abuse +4And the hits just keep on coming...
Dec 30th, 2016 - 01:57 am - Link - Report abuse +4http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-argentina-fernandez-idUKKBN14I1LX
@chronic
Dec 30th, 2016 - 06:50 am - Link - Report abuse -6“The elites want to hold down the destitute economically so that they can't become mass consumers whereby the elites could become even richer?”
@Kanye
“The 'elites' want a healthy economy with a large well paid consumer base.”
You are correctly citing one of the basic tenets of successful Capitalist societies. Problem is, the Argentine upper classes do not have a Capitalist mindset. They are backward pre-capitalist, constantly attempting to roll back the clock of history.
That is why the measures of the Macri administration during its first year have been so deeply recessive. Macri and his handlers do not want a “healthy economy with a large well paid consumer base.” Instead, they want to reduce wages in Argentina, reduce job protection, establish more “flexible” working conditions--in a nuthshell, they want submissive workers toiling for peanuts.
That is why you find officials or people close to power saying time and again that better living conditions that existed for many workers and middle-class citizens under the Kirchners' was just a party that could not last.
“You made believe a middle employee that with his middle-level wages he could buy cellular phones, plasma TVs, motorbikes and travel abroad--that was an illusion--that wasn't normal,” said Javier Gonzales Fraga, Cambiemos economist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsqHBJZDPc0
More recently, Macri criticized the use of air conditioning units during CFK, saying it was “among the most disruptive elements of this explosive and sinister cocktail the former government invented and that needs to be corrected with education.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsqHBJZDPc0
Does anything else need to be said?
Enrique
Dec 30th, 2016 - 03:09 pm - Link - Report abuse +4It is all very well having an opinion. But you keep criticising the Macri government but you have yet to reply to me and others as to how Macri is supposed to get Argentina on its feet again.
It will take decades for anyone, let alone Macri to sort the problem. I was in Argentina in the latter part of the 60's and it was apparent then that Argentina was going nowhere all the nodding donkeys were spewing out oil through lack of maintenence, which is a fact even today.
@ reekie “.....Argentine upper classes do not have a Capitalist mindset. They are backward pre-capitalist, constantly attempting to roll back the clock of history....”
Dec 30th, 2016 - 03:27 pm - Link - Report abuse +4Typical peroncho resentment and false representation. Peronism has always relied upon the agro sector to subsidise its programmes and other failures. The antagonism of peronismo towards growers is one of the several factors that keep Argentina from realising its potential.
Agro pays the bills in Argentina right now. The growers here make enormous investments in materials needed for efficient production, including vehicles and machinery assembled in Argentina and the agro-chemical industry here. Agro in Argentina is so successful that the Peronists disproportionately taxed agro production to pay for their dubious adventures in less productive sectors. Export of soy production is still taxed at a punishing 30 percent, which contributes to the reluctance of growers to significantly increase output in this area. But soy still pays the bills here.
Unlike much of historically backward “industria argentina” the agro business successfully participates in international free-market competition and invests in modernisation of its means of production. Agro exports bring in the dollars that Argentina needs to pay its considerable debts, and allow the peronistas to import expensive Audis.
Mercopiss - 2016: “Argentine agro-industrial exports up 25% this year” [Imagine where the economy, and the revenue stream, would be in Argentina if it were not for agro exports]
“Capitalism = an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. ”
What part of that do you think reekie does not understand?
Why do you suppose reekie is so opposed to a comparatively modernised, progressive, successful, productive, profitable sector of the economy ?
@ML
Dec 30th, 2016 - 06:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Both Tarquin Fin and pgerman said Enrique had a point in a different thread, at least when it comes to the northern provinces. Informal labour practices give a lot of control to employers, and they would probably not be better off personally if the economy was allowed to develop.
The “informal labour practices” really means working off the books and employers typically provide better cash take-home pay-outs to workers since neither the worker nor the employer pays the rather substantial taxes involved in formal employment contracts. The worker still receives many of the social benefits (though not all) without payment of these taxes. Such arrangements are independent of the relative state of the general economy. Credible estimates published here this year suggest that about a third of the employment in this country is done “en negro” and it's spread across the work spectrum: attorneys, architects, as well as agricultural workers are in it. Tax evasion is one of the biggest sports in this country.
Dec 30th, 2016 - 09:26 pm - Link - Report abuse +3@Marti
Dec 30th, 2016 - 10:11 pm - Link - Report abuse -5“Why do you suppose reekie is so opposed to a comparatively modernised, progressive, successful, productive, profitable sector of the economy ?”
I'll be clear: There is nothing wrong with agro business.
What is wrong is to focus on commodity exports while neglecting the development of a solid domestic production economy to go with it.
And just to expand a bit, I've seen a similar game played here in Alberta, where the economy boomed when the oil barrel was $100, but tanked as soon as prices dropped--because for 45 years Conservative governments focused on exporting raw products and did not care about diversification.
One of Macri's first acts of government was to lift the export tariffs on agro products save for that on soy, which he reduced--the lifting of export tariffs on mining products was casually added too.
Then came the devaluation and the opening to imports--allegedly to fight inflation--that has caused the loss of jobs and the closure of local manufacturing. That, my friends, is the tried schemes of Argentina's upper classes that has caused the country's incredible ups and downs in the economy.
That is why those with a few years under our belt keep saying we have seen the movie before and know the end.
@golfcronie
“...you keep criticising the Macri government but you have yet to reply to me and others as to how Macri is supposed to get Argentina on its feet again.”
Macri had a unique opportunity to make me shut up forever. He inherited a country with low debt, low unemployment and a very decent consumption level.
He could have, as he promised, to leave on its feet all that was done well and improve what needed to be improved. Instead, he set to accomplish what the most backward sectors of society were thirsty for: to take revenge on the unwashed and put them in their place. The results are beginning to be visible.
@ML
Dec 30th, 2016 - 10:24 pm - Link - Report abuse +1I'm sure they were not talking about skilled workers who merely wish to evade taxes (that's a different problem), but rather people who have no rights or recourse, as well as no access to benefits, and no real choice in the matter.
Anyway, the real question here is whether the people ruling those provinces would personally be better or worse off with a healthy economy and a large well paid consumer base, instead of a lot of very poor people who they can easily buy support from. People like this: http://www.ipsnews.net/2004/04/argentina-feudal-regime-collapses-in-northeastern-province/
It sounds to me like some of the most powerful people (though not necessarily Macri's government in particular) do have an interest in keeping Argentina undeveloped.
Oh, and there is a well known risk in relying on commodity exports, or any one sector, known as Dutch disease.
I just love the way Kamerad/Komrade Rique keeps bringing up the line about air conditioners. Of course he doesn't say anything about how the government forced lower prices for electricity, making it impossible to do basic maintenance for the entire system and resulting in rolling blackouts, not to mention neighborhoods jacking into the system and getting free electricity. All this while refusing to pay for electricity from Uruguay. In my personal experience, air conditioning does indeed burden the system during summer, so I guess I can see what he is getting at. You ,on the other hand, are just being a shill for the Narcokleptocracy and engaging in obfuscation,quite professionally I might add...
Dec 30th, 2016 - 10:30 pm - Link - Report abuse +3@ reekie “Macri ... inherited a country with low debt, low unemployment and a very decent consumption level.”
Dec 31st, 2016 - 12:36 pm - Link - Report abuse +4Macri inherited a country with enormous liabilities, recession, a “workforce” bloated by Kirchnerismo with a manga of nonproductive workers added in the waning KK months for the appearance of lower unemployment, national industries like Aerolineas (bleeding money with camporista control/heavily subsidised), decaying infrastructure, and a national debt that grew enormously during the CFK reign.CFK took the country from net energy exporter to huge liabilities in energy imports. Poverty under CFK reached a third of the population. So reekie is only pretending in the most false and dishonest of ways that CFK left anything but a mess.
@reekie “[Canadian] ....Conservative governments focused on exporting raw products and did not care about diversification.”
In Canada the government does not run nor plan the productive sectors of the economy, Comrade. Planning and production of goods and services is almost entirely in the hands of private companies that respond to market opportunities. Canada has a much healthier economy than Argentina.
@ reekie “What is wrong is to focus on commodity exports while neglecting the development of a solid domestic production economy to go with it.”
What is actually wrong is a restrictive trade policy to perpetually coddle buggy-whip domestic industry with funding taken from the truly productive sectors for the principal purpose of appearing to have a domestic industry but really one that only serves to keep people off the streets, technologically backward, non-competitive in free-trade markets, where domestic consumers pay for lower quality in Argentina for as much as twice the costs of goods produced by countries that allow their industries to produce high-quality and low-cost goods. Industria Argentina is saved only by the likes of Nestlé, Volkswagen, Toyota, GM, etc whose foreign management demand quality.
@DT
Dec 31st, 2016 - 07:35 pm - Link - Report abuse -3Your measured postings pointing to avenues of further research on topics are a whiff of fresh air in this forum.
I do congratulate you for finding a 2004 IPS article that provides a brief account of the state of many Argentine provinces, where as I said before, pre-capitalist conditions still remain.
You also correctly rebuffed ML, whose defence of economic foreign dependency relying on antiquated export of raw products is at the root of Argentina's difficulties.
With that, I wish you--and also everybody else in this forum--a Happy New Year. It's been fun to be here.
ML
Dec 31st, 2016 - 07:39 pm - Link - Report abuse +3Well said!
However, Canada does have a very controversial Milk Marketing Board and Egg Marketing Board, and other regulation of agricultural products.
This was in response to a need to support Canadian agriculture as it adjusted to a post war market by setting prices and production limits.
For as long as I can remember it has constantly been in the news, interfering, overly restrictive and counter productive, and an unnecessary bureaucracy.
It has adversely affected the industry, and is due to be drastically revised or abandoned.
“...But, while supply management has reduced chronic milk surpluses and provided stable, higher returns to farmers, it has come at a significant cost in terms of the industry’s economic performance. Dairy industries in Canada’s competitor countries have seen significant milk market growth; Canada has seen no growth in overall milk volumes—despite large increases in both population and income demand”
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/press/speech_oped/12-10-09/why_does_milk_cost_so_much_it_s_complicated.aspx
Sorry Enrique, these policies do not work, in Canada or Argentina.
Mr. Marti
Dec 31st, 2016 - 07:47 pm - Link - Report abuse +3“ndustria Argentina is saved only by the likes of Nestlé, Volkswagen, Toyota, GM, etc whose foreign management demand quality”
Let's not forget the foreign investment that made these successful industries possible.
@TT
Jan 01st, 2017 - 01:20 am - Link - Report abuse +1Dairy farming these days is only profitable with fewer, larger farms, meaning fewer farmers. A small example of a bigger problem, where increasing mechanisation means less need for workers, in particular in first world countries.
But happy new year everyone! ¡Feliz año nuevo! I have seen over 20 firework displays. ;-)
DT
Jan 01st, 2017 - 03:06 am - Link - Report abuse +2Corporate farming and economies of scale are a whole different matter.
That was true of the US even in the 1930's.
The issue here, is making all K Argi-Agri, agriculture less profitable by high taxation, export restrictions, and bureaucracy.
Best for the New Year.
Except for the Trolls like Enrique.
I am not willing to forgive self-interested Argentines that do their own people a disservice and perpetuate an immoral fraud to exploit them.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!