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Guest Post: This Is What Textbook Capital Controls Look Like
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,
Selling snake oil and issuing unbacked paper currency are not so different. They're both wildly successful ploys for the guys pulling the strings. And they're both complete scams that depend solely on the confidence of a willing, ignorant public.
But once the confidence begins to erode, the fraud unravels very, very quickly, and the perpetrators resort to desperate measures in order to keep the party going.
In the case of fiat currency, governments in terminal decline resort to a very limited, highly predictable playbook in which they try to control... everything... imposing capital controls, exchange controls, wage controls, price controls, trade controls, border controls, and sometimes even people controls.
These tactics have been used since the ancient Sumerians. This time is not different.
Today, Argentina presents the most clear-cut example. Here the 'mafiocracy' unites organized crime, big business, and politicians to plunder wealth from Argentine citizens. Just since 2010, President Cristina Fernandez has--
* Nationalized private pensions, plundering the retirement savings of her people.
* Increased tax rates across the board-- income, VAT, import duties, etc. as well as imposed a new wealth tax.
* Inflated Argentina's money supply, printing currency with wanton abandon; M2 money supply has increased 215% in the past three years.
* Driven the value and purchasing power of the currency down by 50%. Street-level inflation is now 30%+ per year.
* Made a mockery of official statistics, comically understating the level of Argentine inflation and unemployment. She even began punishing economists for publishing private estimates of inflation that didn't jive with the government figures.
* Taken over control of one industry after another, most notably the nationalization of Spanish oil firm YPF's Argentine assets.
* Imposed export controls of agriculture products from beef to grains, forcing growers to sell at artificially lower domestic prices.
* Imposed capital controls, reducing her citizens' capability to dump their poorly performing currency and hold gold, dollars, euros, or anything else.
* Imposed a two month 'price freeze' on items in the supermarket, and encouraged retail consumers to rat out any grocer that doesn't abide by the government order.
* Imposed controls over the media, most recently ordered an advertising ban in Argentine newspapers (weakening their financial position).
Cristina's policies here are leading to shortages in everything from food to fuel to electricity. Hardly a month goes by without major strikes and disruptions to public services. The purchasing power of their currency is diminishing rapidly. And most people are completely trapped.
Of course, there were a handful of people who saw the writing on the wall. They learned the important lesson never to trust their government. They moved their savings to stable foreign banks. They purchased property abroad. They bought gold and silver, and stored it overseas. They were prepared when the plundering began.
The developed West is rapidly heading down this path. Europe is beginning to impose capital controls, and the IMF has sanctioned them. The US is rapidly printing its currency into oblivion, and confidence is eroding quickly. Russia just purchased an historic amount of gold, choosing real assets over more US dollar reserves.
It would be foolish to think the same things can't happen in the West. And even if it never happens, would you be any worse off for taking some of these basic steps?
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but the Pope is pooped
and unlike the Central Banks, he knows when to quit pretending
He's giving up Pope for Lent.
he was going to give up meat, but that has less impact when you can't chew
Lemmy for Pope.
Pope Lemmy I:
http://tinyurl.com/anp43yp
http://tinyurl.com/aofkx2k
I'd become a Catholic!
Pladizow,
there's hope, my friend. Obama's got this!
...
Nevermind. What's that hotline's number?
USSArgentina
The Ace Of "Hades"
(pronunciation is important here)
Selling Snake Oil... EUREKA! Simon ~ You're finally living up to your potential in life...
~~~
I'm wondering though ~ Would you more recommend the Uruguayan 'snake oil'?... Or the snake oil from Gstaad?
I need MOAR bitcoin.
Excellent. + 2,347 (why 2,347?.........why not.)
Thanks for lighten us up Pladizow !
I just got depressed about that black simon operation going
on here, after his dubious coming out he gets even more moronic...
Very funny. I sent this to my friends ????
Including Altar Boy?
I've felt for a few years now that the best way to understand the USA's future is to look at Argentina's recent past.
as CD points out, it is now a federal offense to compare the US to any other people, country, economic, military or historical moment. If you do, they can search your hard drive without a warrant.
Holy Fuck.... F_S is screwed :)
The Kleptos are in a big hole
And soon will be taking control
Your money, your life
Your sexy young wife
That's just how The Kleptocrats role
The kleptos have come to pass
They already have your ass
Hide the kids and the wife
Keep a gun and a knife
That's a lesson for any young lass
I new a man called Simon Black
Who was undoubtedly hooked on crack
In each article he told
us to export our gold
but once gone it would never come back...........
I once knew a Limerick King
Who could rhyme just about anything
I tried hard to model
His impudent twaddle
But somehow my last lines always turned into crap.
I once tried to rhyme using 'orange'
But... But... But then I stopped & decided to do rap lyrics instead...
The gold price is starting to slack
reading ZH while continuing to stack
about some dude named droner
and bankers taking over
at least I'm not simon black
The wife they can have
she's been very bad
and the money's as worthless as poo is !!!
But.....but.....but that could NEVER happen in the good old USA.
Right?
/sarc
CD
Already happening.Try wiring any ammount overseas from a bank now.
What took two hours to arrive,now takes two days.
Nice new Treasury reporting form the banks have to fill out.
Seems the Govt. is also prepping.
Picture of Joseph Smith as a snake oil salesman?
Do I sense anti-mormon sentiment?
You beat me to it!
It would be kind of cool if WB7 would include some old Mormon clippings like this.
His Mitt Romney stuff is awesome. I don't like the garment/underwear pics though.
Your pic is awesome, BTW.
Nah, it's just that I wouldn't vote for anyone named "Willard".
Nothing more than the duplicated/ plagiarized religion of ancient 'Zoroastrianism `ism?-- when it comes to money, finance, elitism and hypocracy! http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
Looks like Alexander Hamilton to me........
They envy you for your harems.
It's all based on faith (aka not willing to accept facts) because "In God We Trust."
Fiat is never good. As the old saying goes, "It ain't worth a Continental."
They call it Fiat because it depreciates like a rusty Italian car.
Welcome to Duloc such a perfect town here we have some rules, let us lay them down;
Don't make waves, stay in line, and we'll get along fine, Duloc is a perfect place.
Keep your feet off the grass, shine your shoes, wipe your........face;
Duloc is, Duloc is, Duloc is a perfect place!
Well Duloc does look better than Idiocracy, I mean at least it was clean. Of course getting a "Hot Latte" any time you want seemed good at first, but being force fed Brawndo isn't much of a life.
On the other hand having the WWF Champion as president would be preferable to Obama.
Jesse Ventura for Pres!
Our current politicians are so ignorant, they can only make the same mistakes that have already been made. If you are not buying this dip in gold, you are nuts.
One month of QE shows up: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BASE How about the next 12?
THEY aren't ignorant! THEY know exactly what they are doing. THEY know that the PEOPLE are the stupid and will underestimate their cunning.
Maybe. But in the age of the internet, the biggest moron in America can become a currency collapse expert in an hour or two.
Its time to start the hangings in my opinion.
These fuckers need sorting out, and it will be left to us good folk to do so.
God damn fucking swines. And while I'm on, fuck you pope, and fuck you bernanke. I hope its me who pulls the chair away as you fucking swing you dwarf bastard.
I understand that it will happen the same way as in history with different background music. Distractions all around. Pope. Japan with China, Russia with Japan, North Korea on demand tests, Syria, Africa invasion, Iran playing chessgame. What else do we need. I feel hopeless, even those who can understand the root cases fall into apathy of not wanting to know more.
Argentina's course was set by Juan Peron in the 1950s. Among other things, he made voting mandatory. People who make no contribution, only take, are required to vote. Needless to say, they are careless in their voting. They sell their votes, and give them to politicians who pander to them. Since Peron there have been his widow Isabel Peron, a military government, and a succession of populist governments who have given it all away. They have had financial crises about every three years, severe ones about every twelve. Time is ripe for a severe one.
And now -- Eric Holder speaks of making voting mandatory in the United States. The disenfranchised will attempt to make themselves rich by stealing from the rich. It does not work that way. Wealth is the ability to make money, not the money itself. Even after they rob all the productive members of society blind, the plunderers will remain idiots. See Zimbabwe for a model.
There must remain some sane country in the world where people understand these fundamentals. New Zealand? Finland?
Not a place you seek, rather a time, probably after we are all dead.
I fear, before we were born.
nope, can't think of a single place. Iceland is about the best of the bunch.
I'm thinking you get 100 people together and take over an island in the Bahamas.
The Bahamas? Fine, if you're rich. Have you seen the price of broccoli down there?
I'm planning on invading and occupying Baja California, and forming a benign dictatorship where all shall love me and despair.
How about getting a few hundred thousand together and take back fucking America?
Just an idea...
First there is frustration, then anger, then apathy.
Like walking around the Denver Airort knowing they are pretty much telling you when it happens you're going to be dead, but the president, congress, and the .1% will all be living well with the crab people beneath Colorado.
Could you just imagine being trapped under Denver Airport with a mass of insufferable egos all wanting to be supreme leader?
Yup, I'd rather be dead.
But in deflationary Europe shortgages were /are apparent also ..........
Whats the difference ?
Wage deflation is another form of inflation is it not ?
It just affects different people.
Also Ireland imposed a small tax on private pensions capital (not their yield)
* Increased tax rates across the board-- income, VAT, import duties.
The BTUs are not available to scale up.
Therefore we are going back to a nation state system of control.
Outie ya'll, keep it up.
Cristina reminds me of Nixon's Wage and Price Freeze of 1971. What a great "conservative" he turned out to be. I was in school then and working for a janitor service at night. We went around stripping and waxing the floors of local supermarkets in the late hours (stores closed at night back then, children). The stockboys spent the entire month raising the sticker prices on every can and box in the store before the price freeze hit the next month. What a joke. It worked as well as Cristina's will.
http://www.econreview.com/events/wageprice1971b.htm
What was really terrible was that a majority of the population thought wage and price controls were a great idea to stop inflation. They had no idea what was causing prices to surge month after month. Musta been those greedy grocery guys.
What about selling plots of land in the middle of bumfuck chile at "gringo"prices??? How does that rank in comparison to snake oil?????
There is almost no place on earth safe to store your savings.
Too many people recommend investing out of the country. But there is danger here. It is common with “fiat currency” regimes to impose a “tax” when its peasants bring their money back into the country. The tax can range up to 70%. The US is doing it now; but it is not called a tax. If you transfer anything over $5,000, either in cash or thru banks, you run the risk of having it confiscated as drug money.
(I put “fiat currency” in quotation marks because we are not really dealing with such. A fiat currency is simply printed and then thrown out the door; not randomly, of course; but to politically connected. This is not how the dollar is issued into circulation. Instead, before anyone can receive newly issued dollars he/it must give in exchange US Treasury securities with a face amount equal to dollars wanted; just as 150 years ago paper dollars came into circulation in exchange for gold.
(Since Treasury securities are the means by which a generation of tax CONSUMES lay taxes on following generations of tax PAYERS, dollars in circulation now represent the necessity to financially cannibalize our children and grandchildren to the end of time.)
How about using safety deposit boxes?
Not likely.
When inflation goes out of control, kleptocrats station soldiers beside the door leading into your safety deposit boxes. When you come to visit, these soldiers accompany you and inspect the contents of your box. You’ll be lucky to receive a paper receipt for your cash, gold, trust deeds or jewelry.
Or, how about a cabin in the country, stashed with food, guns, gold and DVDs.
Sorry, but the government has been stuffing drug addicts and homeless in rural areas for at least 25 years. That's when I started hearing stories from my customers about unauthorized visits every time they went to the grocery store; one lost upwards of a half million dollars.
And then, you'll have to deal with hordes of hungry men and death squads; one looking for food (and whatever they can do to your wife and kids); the other searching for names on a list of those who asked too many wrong questions, or named too many crimes, over the last 20 years.
You may be able to hold off the hungry for two, maybe three, days... but when you close your eyes in exhaustion... well, you won't have to worry about those death squads. As for your family... too bad you didn't want better for them.
It may appear there is no way to protect your assets. But there is; and it was routinely used by English colonists on a daily basis from Jamestown to Yorktown; but Americans and Englishmen have no knowledge of it today.
Too many people, I am afraid, will have to learn a major lesson of history the hard way: ‘Failure to correct error only delays redress, and multiplies penalties.’
From your blog "As soon as one starving man learns of the booty locked up in a survivalist’s home, every starving man within fifteen miles will know about it; and, the minute our survivalist leaves his house for an errand or falls asleep, is the minute he will be eliminated from the gene pool, plundered to the bone, or both – if not sooner."
--------------
What in the hell makes you think that survivalists are solitary people? There are entire (rather well armed/trained) communities of survivalists now. All economies are really local. Your "one starving man" will be simply be disappeared if he has nothing of real value to offer in exchange. Even a corpse is of value to the soil and future crops.
down arrow for forcing us to read your bloated yet meaningless blog entry. be concise.
Remember Counterparty Risk,... when this depth charge goes off, deployed by Bernenke,Obama and all his minions there will be alot of bodies floating to the surface.
WE OFFICALLY ARE THE COUNTERPARTY...
"She even began punishing economists for publishing private estimates of inflation that didn't jive with the government figures."
It's jibe, okay, fucking JIBE!!!!!!
as opposed to telling the economists, "don't give me that jive."
I speak jive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXSLcYQHqFQ
I haven't seen any discussion about Congress renewing the FEDs' 100 year contract as the sole controller of the nations' currency.
That would be one vote that I would watch.
I agree.Roll the guillotines.....
I hear they're trying to work a deal with the North Koreans for a little competitive edge...
http://business.time.com/2012/02/24/how-the-u-s-could-pressure-north-korea-tomorrow-quit-the-100-bill/
the world needs millions of dorners.
He's probably the sanest man in the country (or to have just recently left the country) right now. A man fed up with the system fighting for his own freedom. I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment.
i'm not so sure that his envisioned system is something most here would want to live in either.
WASN'T DOUG CASEY LIVING DOWN THERE, EXTOLLING THE VIRTUES OF AN ARGENTINA, "THAT CAN SAY NO" TO THE U.S.?
WHERE'S OLD DOUGIE TODAY?
I was thinking the exact same thing.
I know a lot of people that have bought in Argentina..ranches...beautiful stuff....always tried to get me to go down there to buy something...not me...now they can´t sell at any price..nor can they take their money out legally...and I bet in the future their foreign owned properties will be confiscated...
Advice them to keep it. If not our generation, next is gonna need southern houses to rise healthy families meanwhile radiation reaches us as well. They keep cooling reactors with seawater up there in Fukushima Daiichi.
http://www.houseofjapan.com/local/fukushima-reactors-status-19-jan-2013
WHERE'S OLD DOUGIE TODAY?
Same place,he has at least a thousand acres, and buiding a new homes and small Expat city.
He also runs several thousands of head of cattle.
He made it known UP front, that Banking your $$$ in Uraguay, not a far trek far from his properties, was the wisest move, and not bank in Argentina.
I am sure he is still rollloing in the dough, and doing fine.
What it does is makes criminals out of law abiding people....you have to go underground or out of country to survive....they will take everything you have...its a drowning person will try to drown you when you try to save them.....
Is Argentina still part of the G-20?
Simon Black warning us about snake oil salesmen! Well, IIIIIII'll be! What'll they come up with next?
Pay close attention tonight, for another new 5 year plan is about to be etched into socialist stone (a rarified version of cow flop) as The Dictator dictates our future. We are not headed toward becoming another Argentina, any more than becoming a carbon copy of 1960's Russia. They both serve the purpose of a Marxist.
Justice would be putting Cristina Fernandez in a waist-deep pit and doing the equivalent of stoning her to death with worthless argentine pesos.
What bothers me most is and has always been WESTERN’S HYPOCRISY.
Europe and the USA have being fucking “developing” and “third world” countries for decades. Moreover, for centuries.
Then we all (including US businessman, citizens, people all around the world) have to get into such an article about Argentina (the same would be for other countries as well, for the matter). Western’s oligarchy fucking brain washing machine. Either conscious or unconscious, the guy who wrote this is working for them.
Just to make some remarks (and leaving wars, bombing, drones and occupations aside):
* Nationalized private pensions, plundering the retirement savings of her people .
If they haven’t done it, most of argentinean pensions would have fleed. Been Stolen as they were BEFORE nationalization. Just to quote one of many articles:
Broken Promises: Pensions All Over America Are Being Savagely Cut Or Are Vanishing Completelyhttp://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/broken-promises-pensions-all-over-america-are-being-savagely-cut-or-are-vanishing-completely
* Increased tax rates across the board-- income, VAT, import duties, etc. as well as imposed a new wealth tax.
As the European Union and the US are not fair competitors neither are others, Argentina can’t do elsewhere otherwise well be soon broken.
Imports from overseas are treated differently depending on whether the goods come from countries within the EU or from elsewhere. (…) Imports from outside the EU are treated differently:
US: BARRIERS, my friends. BARRIERS. We’ve been fighting for fair rules for ages! AND IT WAS THE WESTERN, the “Developed World” TO SET UP A SYSTEM TO FUCK THE REST OF THE WORLD. Let’s see:
Argentina hits back at US and will complain in WTO trade barriers on meats and lemonsThe Argentine Foreign Ministry on Tuesday hit back at the United States amid various trade barrier complaints and allegations of illegality saying that it would report the country for violating the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) rules for stopping imports of Argentine meat and citrus fruits to the US.
http://en.mercopress.com/2012/08/21/argentina-hits-back-at-us-and-will-complain-in-wto-trade-barriers-on-meats-and-lemons
* Inflated Argentina's money supply, printing currency with wanton abandon; M2 money supply has increased 215% in the past three years.
FORBES: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2012/06/18/is-inflation-lurking-i...
In general, inflation is the result of a currency devaluation, which results from an excess in supply. Since the crisis of 2008, the money supply in America has ballooned. The Fed’s balance sheet has grown from 800 billion to nearly three trillion in a few short years. This degree of stimulus is enough to trigger extremely high inflation, except for the fact that consumer borrowing remains tepid. However, when the consumers’ appetite for spending resumes, this glut of excess capital in the system could cause a real spike in prices if the Fed fails to tighten properly. Additionally, higher inflation is a drag on economic growth, which is exactly what we don’t need right now.
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/mikepatton/files/2012/09/M2-and-GDP2.png
EUROZONE:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/02/europes-central-bank-and-euro-crisis
BUT, and I have been waiting for this, the ECB has decided to PRINT (that is create money) of 530 billion euros to lend to the banks at an extra cheap rate. Thank you very much. They didn't even need it!!! Except for a few small banks maybe, no EU bank had a liquidity problem. They would be happy to take the cheap money, but this 530 billion euros was totally unnecessary.
530 billion plus 489 billion equals 1019 billion euros. In one year the ECB has printed 15 per cent of the European money supply!
* Driven the value and purchasing power of the currency down by 50%. Street-level inflation is now 30%+ per year.
Street-level inflation isn’t 30%+ per year. False. I’m able to prove it with my purchasing tickets (I buy lots of merchandise a month to run one of my business). I could find milk at 0.75 cents x lit. (in US dollars at the official exchange rate TODAY) four months ago. Last week I bought 900 packs of milk at U$S 0,60 (TODAY’s official exchange rate). I could go on for pages and pages.
Also, CORPORATIONS are trying to fuck us up by artificially pushing prices up (don’t have to explain this to you: they do the same all over the World for financial and POLITICAL reasons).
From THE COMMODITIES CRISIS AND THE GLOBAL TRADE IN AGRICULTURE: PROBLEMS AND PROPOSALS
http://twnside.org.sg/title2/par/td25.doc
(a) The WTO’s Agriculture Agreement, which at the moment is imbalanced in favour of the developed countries, which are able to maintain high protection (mainly as they are able to pay for high subsidies) whilst exerting pressure on developing countries to liberalize (especially since they lack the funds to subsidize).
I could go on for ages on the subject.
* Made a mockery of official statistics, comically understating the level of Argentine inflation and unemployment. She even began punishing economists for publishing private estimates of inflation that didn't jive with the government figures.
“Official Statistics”, “Private Statistics”, “Official indexes”, “Private indexes” they are, everywhere, POLITICAL TOOLS. Remember LIBOR? What about S&P and all other agencies which qualify risk management? What about SPREADS?
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/252919.html (S&P prosecuted in Italy for manipulating index…)
S&P and Fitch accused of market manipulation in Italyhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9672943/SandP-and-Fitch-accused-of-market-manipulation-in-Italy.html
Standard and Poor’s Credit Rating Agency Charged With Fraud in Sub-Prime Mortgage Ratingshttp://www.globalresearch.ca/sp-charged-with-fraud-in-mortgage-ratings/5322037
FERC backs record market manipulation fine on Barclayshttp://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/30/us-ferc-barclays-idUSBRE90S14O...
Plenty of material for those who want to be properly informed on the net and everywhere else.
* Taken over control of one industry after another, most notably the nationalization of Spanish oil firm YPF's Argentine assets.
With Cristina Kirchner’s expropriation, YPF ownership is: 26% (Argentina’s Federal Government); 25% (Argentina’s eight oil-producing provinces); 24.5% (local Eskenazi Financial Group closely linked to Kirchner’s entourage), 6.0% (Lazard Bank); 5.0% (Eton Park: Goldman Sachs, Minsich, Rosemberg); 2.0% (Werthein Group) and 6.5% (Repsol).
It’s the federalization of our oil industry, not the full nationalization, as you can see. And GS has his share which I wouldn’t agree in a thousand years.
* Imposed export controls of agriculture products from beef to grains, forcing growers to sell at artificially lower domestic prices.
Government intervention in food and fiber commodity markets began long ago. The classic case of farm subsidy through trade barriers is the English Corn Laws, which for centuries regulated the import and export of grain in Great Britain and Ireland. They were repealed in 1846. Modern agricultural subsidy programs in the United States began with the New Deal and the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933. With trade barriers already in place for agricultural commodities and everything else, this law gave the government the power to set minimum prices and included government stock acquisition, land idling, and schemes to cut supplies by destroying livestock. Land idling and livestock destruction were sometimes mandatory and sometimes induced by compensation (Benedict 1953).
Since the early 1930s, governments of wealthier countries around the world have used a dizzying array of schemes to support and subsidize farmers.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AgriculturalSubsidyPrograms.html
AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES:
http://www.economist.com/node/21563323
Government support for agriculture in the mostly rich countries of the OECD amounted to $252 billion in 2011, or 19% of total farm receipts. Although there is a move away from support linked directly to production, it is still about half of the total
* Imposed capital controls, reducing her citizens' capability to dump their poorly performing currency and hold gold, dollars, euros, or anything else.
CAPITAL CONTROLS AND
FOREIGN EXCHANGE POLICY
Much of the recent policy debate has focused on the question under what circumstances capital controls may constitute a useful policy tool.1 This issue has become so important in this debate because of the experience in particular of emerging market economies (EMEs) with capital flows during and after the 2007-08 financial crisis. The sudden collapse of capital flows to and capital flight from many EMEs in the second half of 2008, and the subsequent surge in 2009 and 2010, put a lot of strain on domestic economies and financial markets in many EMEs.2
http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp1415.pdf
EU Implementing Border and Capital Controls to Stop People Fleeing With Their Money http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article35052.html History shows that governments use capital controls regularly.http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2007/articles/1011.htm
* Imposed a two month 'price freeze' on items in the supermarket, and encouraged retail consumers to rat out any grocer that doesn't abide by the government order.
Harm from hardcore cartel agreements
The main harm arising from hardcore cartels is that parties further down the supply chain pay more for the product than they would have paid in a non-cartelised market. The higher price would normally also result in existing customers purchasing lower volumes, and/or in customers who would have purchased the product at the non-cartelised price not purchasing at all.
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/actionsdamages/quantification_study.pdf
· Imposed controls over the media, most recently ordered an advertising ban in Argentine newspapers (weakening their financial position).
COMPLETELY FALSE. Argentina has the world’s most democratic anti-monopoly and oligopoly law of audiovisual communication services. IT IS THE CORPORATIVE MEDIA WITH THE COMPLICITY OF CORRUPT JUDGES WHO DON’T ALLOW THE FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF A CONGRESS’ LAW SANCTIONED ALMOST BY UNANIMITY.
This kind of articles insults my – as well as other readers – intelligence. It’s true what we read right here a couple of days ago: “All is well”, “The system is corrupted to the core”.
If you wanna talk about unfair, unperfect competition start from EUROPE and the US.
"What bothers me most is and has always been WESTERN’S HYPOCRISY.
Europe and the USA have being fucking “developing” and “third world” countries for decades. Moreover, for centuries."
and the Persians fucked the Greeks, the Egyptions fucked most of Africa, Rome fucked Egypt, the Mongols fucked Asia, China fucked Tibet and so on and so on.
So they shouldn't be giving us this kind of shit about Argentina. Decontextualized information and/or wrong information IS missinformation and gives no contribution for understanding reality.
TNTARG, I agree with most of what you state, there is a lot of hypocrasy in Western rethoric. Also you don't mention it but the accussations against Cristina's government on the freedom of the press side are hypocratic, given the level of manipulation exerted by Western governments over their press. It only takes to look at the reporting around the Fukushima Daiichi's nuclear accident and the way they have hidden the hideous outcome of the Chernobyl acciden where more than a million people died as a consequence of direct and indirect effects of radiation.
The problem I and others find with the Cristina's government is the shear ineptitude and lack of "smarts" of the people in charge of trying to protect the Argentinean people from the forces working against them from abroad. I find gross negligence errors daily. Most of them seem to have never heard or take into account the Paretto principles of value maximization and keep destroying it left and right without even understanding what they are doing.
One example are the retentions to the agro industry. The industry is like the hen of the golden eggs for Argentinean governements. But rather than take care of it and groom it, they seem to be bleeding it and trying to open it to see if they can find the source of gold inside. The policy of retentions, and official dollar versus real value as determined by shares of companies that sell inside and outside the country and thus establish a market value for the exchange rate, that in fact is another retention. Another huge misttake, so big that I can't believe they are making it, since the effectively "OWN" the golden egg hen (the agro), is the lack of incentives and/or mandates for re-investing their profits in their fields to technify them (now being redistributed among less productive activities, retentions to exports, pricing policies -intermediaries and official vs. market value exchange rate), this places the governement at risk of not getting enough money to redistribute to be able to perpetuate its program if there is not enough rain or some other disaster that affects the production of the fields. Furthermore, they seem to be allowing their fields (at the end they belong to the people/government as a resource) to be used to their limits and they don't use the knowledge they have in their own schools of agriculture about how to best manage the people's resources so that they keep on producing golden eggs for ever and ever. Rather than that they seem to be engaged in non-sustainable policies.
One simple example, in Buenos Aires school of Agronomy there is a Professor who is an expert on irrigation through evaporation (like in the Kibuts in Israel) and who could revolutionaze Argentina's agroindustry in the low income regions in the north and the south. But she can't get money, or doesn't know how to get it to teach those techniques to the people that could use the knowledge.
Thousands more examples of the ineptitude that I see rampant every day, it is like they know perfectly well that to win the world soccer championship they need the best players wherever they are in the world and however they are politically, but they seem to think that to win the economic war that every country plays every day, they can do that with friends and relatives and people chosen due to their loyalty rather than their ability to govern. Something very sad to see.
What I describe and not the rethoric or the political affiliation is what is causing Argentina's model to self destroy, the exact opposite of this is what is enabling the USA government to print trillions of fiat money and still have no percievable inflation.
Until next time,
Engineer
Now we're talking seriously.
You're right. However, people is working on it (remember, we come from default and have limited financial resources. Gvt is still trying to make things work and there's a strenuous, continuous fighting against the criminal western's elite that has uncountable ways to boycott everything).
Though I agree with you, take a look here:
http://www.mincyt.gob.ar/
http://www.mincyt.gob.ar/financiamiento/index.php
http://www.mincyt.gob.ar/noticias/noticias_detalles.php?id_noticia=1259
http://www.mincyt.gob.ar/noticias/noticias_detalles.php?id_noticia=1253
Also, some provinces are in it too:
AGRO-FOOD AND AGRO-INDUSTRIES - GROWING SECTORS WITH INNOVATION AND DYAMICS The Province of Neuquén through the Provincial Productive Plan, Law No. 2,669, has set the mission of reaching superior levels of economic development in the different bonds of the priority value chains for the reconversion of its productive pattern, in order to go from a mainly hydrocarbon-driven and non-renewable resources economy, to a more diversified one vertically integrated, with the predominance of a sustainable agro-industrial activity. The production of commodities, Premium products, processed food, frozen or dehydrated vegetables, fine fruit treatment, fruit for export, preparation and conservation of meat and cold-meat from traditional and non-traditional species, sparkling and fine wines, organic food, forestry and the wood industry are some of the possibilities available in Neuquén to invest in the agro-food and agro-industrial sector. http://www3.neuquen.gov.ar/copade/contenido.aspx?Id=Agroindustria (Just for the record: since pension's funds nationalization, pensions checks growth has been arount 900%. In 2003 people old enough to get into the Social Security system was 61%; today it reaches over 87%)My condolences TNTARG, stupid talk reigns here on the back of Argentina.
Another sad day on ZH after that sorry escapade of mindless pope bashing.
Lot`s of intelligent people her and great input but
the seemingly intelligent posts and voting`s by resident
trolls turn to dust if out of area issues are presented
to their small minds. Never been to Argentina, they too
take Simon`s imaginary travels for real and the more pathetic and unreal unbelievable he gets, they quip away
jollily and take everything for granted what is obviously
a fake. You have been had fellows, shame on you.
Sad thing is, it isn't bad just for us: It's bad for all because we're all getting fried by the same global thiefs.
Argentina, moreover, HAS TO BE BAD and WE HAVE TO BE ABOUT TO IMPLODE BECAUSE AS WE DEFAULTED, YOU AND SPECIALLY EUROPEANS HAVE TO LIVE IN FEAR: "Do not default... If you do it, you'll be as bad as Argentina" (although you're all defaulted because if all bonds were suddenly to be paid not Bernake's nor Draghi's printers would work fast enough).
So they can keep going taking your money, your properties, companies, land, LIBERTIES, etc. before you realize they're badly stealing from you.
Then THEY MUST try to overthrown our gvt., put us back on our knees one way or the other just to set an example: Pay quietly, stay still, DO NOT DEFAULT or you're gonna be Argentina.
Look at Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy. Italy! Italy is being destroyed, all that SMEs being closed, all that people ruined, all those suicidals, people looking for food into the garbage. My people in Italy used to be "the rich" relatives. Now they're loosing what they built along their entire lives. They have properties: banks are taking them: nobody gives loans, nobody buy houses, beautiful houses. Business doesn't work, nobody has cash, credit, shit.
They've worked on the plundering, the've been enhancing, improving it. They did it to us (and others); we managed to default because we had food, oil, first necessity stuff (we traded in goods, with alternative currencies...) and there was solidarity between some South American countries (which I see it's so hard for u to understand). Instead we're seeing what's happening in Greece, soon in Spain and I really hope not in Italy. Because Italy hasn't enough oil (almost nothing), enough food for the people. My family there can't eat Dolce & Gabbana, Armani suits (they are unable to pay the heating already).
You can downvote me: We all know I'm right.
Now you guys went into another topic, eventhough everything is related, it's not all from the same root cause. The Financial crisis came from greedey bastards all over the world, mostly the USA and UK with the complicity of the revolving door moraless Washingtonians that go from the SEC to the Financial world and back to the SEC, like now OBAMA is proposing for it to occur once more, in never ending circles or corruption.
I can trace it in detail if anyboy is interested.
The European troubles originate from "stupidity" alone. It was known from the beginning that there was no way that a group of Countries with such different cultures, work ethics, inflation history, government structures, efficiencies of their industrial and labor systems, etc. could be integrated under a single currency. The shyponing of resources towards the Germans and Noreast Europe was obvious to anybody who cared to look with an intellectual eye. Now the only way this can remain is by destroying the cultures and social support structures of the deficit countries and make them all into a Germanic society. How are they planning to change the genes of the Spaniards, Greeks, Italians, etc. escapes me completely. But please don't take this as a value judgement between the different countries, since I love them all for what they are, but there is no way they can survive under a single currency and stay who they are.
The world economic troubles are more complex in origin, the North Korean phenomenae, Iran, the Muslim revolt and intransigencies, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of uncivilized people, the economic development of China and India (more than 2/3rds of the world population), the demographic changes in China, EU, Japan and the US all added together with the widespread use of derivatives (a form of insurance that allows banks to take unlimited risk, but call them safe bets by insuring them with another larger bank) has allowed the creation of worldwide megasized webs of risk that connect all major institutions (curiously North Korean and Iranian banks may be the safest in the world today) whose main consequence is that if one institution falls, all fail. That became only obvious to the world elite after the Lehman Brothers collapse, although the people in financial institutions knew it all along. Basically today there are bets for one side and the other one for more than 400 trillion dollars, wealth that doesn't exist. Therefore, all the paper riches that show up in peoples accounts don't really exist anywhere, but in paper. Financiers know the system is broke, but they are all attempting to create the illusion that it is still working.
Tyler in Zerohedge is using the Argentinean example of mismanagement of the Argentinean economy to illustrate what would happen if people stopped trusting the Western governmwents (UK, EU, US, Japan, etc.) economic management. Something that Argentineans have already done, probably not because of Cristina's policies but because of them AND the history of economic missmanagement that they have all lived through most of their lives. Before leaving Argentina for the US, In September 1989 I made a CD for 2 days (YES TWO days, capitalized in two days) for 380% monthly interest rate. I invite anybody good enough with mathematics to calculate the effective yearly yield... :) This crazy hyperinflationary period was created by policies similar to the ones being implemented today, I am sure taht with the best of intentions, but without real understanding of how economies actually work...
Until next time,
Engineer
My friend, it's amazing how stucked we are into barbarism. See, there's no way out EXCEPT bringing this awesome mess back into real economy.
I save by buying land, real-estate. Never bought gold and I'm wondering if all those folks here claiming they do, really get the real thing or... more painted paper (!).
I'm not so worried about Argentina because we have plenty of what is needed to survive, we've learned some lessons (people know little about Argentina and South America) and it's incredible beautiful and easy to live (I lock my house only when I have to travel).Yes, they can plant another dictator once again upon us but it isn't going to be an easy task. We'll fight.
I'm more worried about Italy, my fatherland. And about the US, which we all downhere see (your gvt) as a bunch of monkeys with nuclear weapons (remember 9/11? What would they do at the point of collapse, if it comes? What population are they going to smash? What shit are they going to give you, us, everybody?).
As some folk told me here on ZH days ago, we're all together, I think. Kisses.
P.S.: You didn't come to Argentina after 1989? Those were rough times. Should take a trip now and go further Buenos Aires.
Tyler, did you realize that you described, exactly and in excruciating detail, what is actually happening in Argentina right now. I've been here for a year and it is with sadness that I watch their attempts to delay the unavoidable!
Until next time,
Engineer
I use Bitcoin and therefore I don't give a shit about capital controls or any other finance laws for that matter.
It's quite liberating, you should try it too!
bitcoins suck. I won't accept them or buy them.
Many people wont accept many currencies, why do you think it matters what you don't accept? I can find plenty of people who do, and that's all that matters to me.
The SP500 hourly has been caught in bizzaro range - it looks like JPM, Goldman and the Fed are the only ones left trading.
http://bullandbearmash.com/chart/sp500-hourly-pushes-sideways-push/