Good morning, I was trying to link this story from last night yet fouled it up severely somehow. It’s probably not within OP so want to assure you I don’t wish to hijack this thread at all.
In tune to the article, I do share astonishment about what’s happening in Ecuador. Since this thread seems to have entertained similar discussion of nearby nations, I thought I might seek out shared concern for the people there.
It’s relevant but not in the way you may think.
Argentina and Ecuador are 2 very different countries and cultures, practically none of the things I wrote about Argentina in my OP are true about Ecuador.
BUT there are a couple of “interesting” links.
a) There are reasons to believe that the current disastrous situation in Ecuador was caused, or at least precipitated, by Neo-liberal reforms of the kind Milei wants to implement here, particularly Dollarization and a diminishing state role.
b) Proponents of letting the military work on internal security matters point to the situation in Ecuador as something that could happen here if we don’t ACT NOW.
Frodo you’re a nice host for a thread. What you wrote was clear and I appreciated your sharing insights about interplay among the nations.
I wanted to embed the Quino cartoon “forbidden to smoke” but it won’t let me. So the cartoon in this link. (I did not realize he had died. What a genius. A great loss for Argentina and the world.)
Thanks. If you have never heard of Quino you should check out his thousands of brilliant political and cultural cartoons (not the disjoint link above meant only for the one cartoon). Of course he also did Mafalda, a sort of cross between Calvin and Hobbes and Family Circus, which is also clever, better known, but somewhat less subversive than his astute take on humanity and politics in other works. A genius.
Yeah that comic really is brilliant and says a lot with no words.
Once we lost Quino, Maradona and David Bowie the decadence was inevitable
I have most of Quino’s books. I highly recommend Esto No Es Todo to those who love politics, cartoons or wish to learn Spanish (probably cheap at Internet used bookstores). I was often surprised his genius never really broke through to North America. I attribute this to the fact much of his writing was in Spanish (although many of his works use no language to depict complex or funny situations). Ten years ago hundreds of his best cartoons were on the web with easy search. Now they are not (easily), even on his own website, which I take to be zealous attempts to protect copyright instead of making his genius translated into multiple languages and better known.
Speaking of Quino, I just came back from the supermarket and…
“Itsascan dalanab use!” (sound of slamming door)
“and that?”
“‘It’s a scandal, an abuse’ in ‘mother coming back from the market’ dialect”
Not having luck posting some cartoons. But archive.org has many of his books available gratis.
Thoughts on this article? (Hopefully readable.)
It’s paywalled, I could only read a couple of paragraphs and didn’t see anything too weird. I just hope the trade unions are as powerful as The Economist seems to think they are.
Summary
Javier Milei has wasted no time… his economy minister, Luis Caputo, a former banker, unveiled measures to [cut public spending by 3% of GDP just 48 hours after taking office.] He devalued the peso, pledged to slash subsidies, and eliminated nine of 18 government ministries. One week later Mr Milei decreed that state-owned companies could be privatised, price controls would be eliminated, and labour laws reformed.
In the midst of Argentina’s worst economic crisis in two decades, this [flurry of activity] is intended to push the budget into surplus (before interest payments) by the end of 2024. The IMF to which Argentina owes $43bn, has noticed. On January 10th it agreed to restart pay-outs to the Argentine treasury, stating that Mr Milei’s government had “moved quickly and decisively” to “restore macroeconomic stability”.
But as well as striving for fiscal rectitude, Mr Milei is doggedly determined to destroy what he has dubbed “the caste”, a network of corrupt politicians, business cronies, media lapdogs and, most importantly, powerful unionists. On December 27th he sent a sprawling “omnibus” bill to Congress, designed to “free the productive forces of the nation from the shackles of the oppressive state”. It would allow Mr Milei to rule by decree for two years, change Argentina’s electoral system, and enforce prison terms of up to six years for those who organise protests that obstruct transport or damage property. All the better to break the caste. One month into Mr Milei’s presidency, the caste has started fighting back.
Lawyers are furious about plans for divorces to be fast-tracked through the civil registry without requiring their services; doctors hate a new requirement for them to preferentially prescribe generic medicines. Art types are protesting the closure of the national theatre institute and a national fund for the arts. Fishermen [and sugar producers] are cross [about deregulation]. Football clubs are manoeuvring to escape plans to turn them into limited companies in order to attract investment from what Mr Milei calls “Arab groups”.
But no group is more affected by Mr Milei’s shock therapy than Argentina’s trade unions, or more enraged by it. His labour reforms would kneecap them by requiring employees to opt-in to union membership, rather than having dues taken automatically… This would leave the unions out of pocket.
They are leading the pushback… Argentina’s largest union group, called a national strike for January 24th… The unions are fighting back through the courts, too. On January 3rd a court suspended the chapter on labour reform in the emergency decree…
Union opposition is not the only hurdle. To reach a primary surplus, Mr Caputo wants not just to slash public spending but also to raise annual revenues by 2% of GDP. He aims to build up the central bank’s net foreign-exchange reserves, which are $7bn in the red. He would do this by raising import and export taxes, and by using a crawling peg to the dollar which devalues the peso by 2% every month…
But Congress has not yet approved the tax rises, and revenues are cratering. Argentina is in recession. Last year GDP contracted by 2.7%, according to the World Bank…
Many analysts are beginning to fear that the 2% crawling peg is not enough, as prices rise faster than expected. Annual inflation surpassed 211% in December, higher than the rate in Venezuela. The peso is once again weakening on the country’s black market, which offers a route around currency controls. If another sharp devaluation looms, prices could rise even more.
It will also be difficult to pass much of the omnibus bill in its current form. Even with the support of centre-right parties, Mr Milei cannot muster a majority in Congress, which threatens his tax rises too. He is attempting hardball, nonetheless. Congress…
The mastermind behind much of this slash and burn, Federico Sturzenegger, a former central-bank president who advises Mr Milei, seems unbothered… Boldly, he claimed that the only way to change Argentina’s rotten economic structure is “to disarm it” and “drain it of its resources.” That will not sit well with the likes of Mr Moyano, his offspring, and the country’s caste.
They seem to be regurgitating the Milei position.
I’m a middle class programmer who never was a member of any union (mostly because programmers don’t have one, most of us think of themselves as future millionaires instead of workers) and I’m enraged about 90% of these measures.
I never much liked the union bosses, but at this point they are fighting, so I’ll fight with them and anyone else against these scorched earth “solutions”.
As I said I’m going to march on the 24th (and so’s my mom and at least one of my sisters).
Now Milei is in Davos ranting about the menace to "The West"™ of Socialism and Feminism…
I almost hate to ask but what is his problem with “Feminism” and what does he mean by it?
Apparently “radical feminism” uses the state to throttle economic growth through increased bureaucracy.
Now he’s denying global climate change and saying that to prevent it “socialists” advance “the bloody agenda of abortion”
If I go abroad in the next 4 years (very unlikely) I’m going to say I’m Uruguayan.
A quick google shows that the leaders attending Davos include EU President Ursula von der Leyen. I hope she tells Milei what she thinks of that “theory” in no uncertain terms. I would hope a male leader or two would do so as well, but it’s more fitting and awkward (for Milei) from a woman.
