Argentine Economy

[Dickhead]

The "precios cuidados" for beer went up this week: Biekert to 12,00 a liter and Quilmes Bajo Cero to 12,60. I did not notice if liters of "Uvita" wine, which is also price fixed, went up as well.

[Tres3]

More on the Argentina bond debacle.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/deutsc...202150205.html

Tres3.

[Wild Walleye]

Who knows what kind of a basket of goods they are using. Plus, they are probably using the imaginary 9 to 1 Cristina exchange rate, which nobody living here is dumb enough to pay. I'm finding it quite cheap but then again, I am sure 600 peso privados are not in the basket of goods they are comparing.

Whoever put that together was just tabulating numbers without understanding the realities of the locations. They would have been better off doing a deep dive on the top 20 per region and putting them into real context. By trying to rank every backwater in the world, they relegated the study to a quantitative scorecard.

At AR$12.50:US$1, Bs As is still relatively cheap, despite inflation. The ballpark cost of privado poon (in US$) has increased at about 5.9% per annum, over the past eight years.

[Gandolf50]

Who knows what kind of a basket of goods they are using. Plus, they are probably using the imaginary 9 to 1 Cristina exchange rate, which nobody living here is dumb enough to pay. I'm finding it quite cheap but then again, I am sure 600 peso privados are not in the basket of goods they are comparing.

Neither 600p privados nor 300U$D chicas!!!!

[Dickhead]

Who knows what kind of a basket of goods they are using. Plus, they are probably using the imaginary 9 to 1 Cristina exchange rate, which nobody living here is dumb enough to pay. I'm finding it quite cheap but then again, I am sure 600 peso privados are not in the basket of goods they are comparing.

[El Perro]

Buenos Aires is the most expensive city for expats in South America? Brazil must really be in a serious recession.

http://blogs.wsj.com/expat/2015/06/1...ty-for-expats/

Hard to believe and I don't.

[Big Boss Man]

Buenos Aires is the most expensive city for expats in South America? Brazil must really be in a serious recession.

http://blogs.wsj.com/expat/2015/06/1...ty-for-expats/

[DavieW]

...the govt believes that the voting majority is stupid and can be manipulated by repeatedly making the same untrue, simplistic statements (usually point the finger of blame at some (foreign) boogie man).

You can tell that this is no surprise to them and that they don't view the problem as changed by the fact that the Malvinas are not on the front page of the "La Nacion. "

And ironically, the Malvinas, so often used as the ever faithful distraction technique, is another of the repeated untruths!

[Wild Walleye]

As I said before, it appears as if CFK and her cohorts do not care anymore, if they ever did.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/were-s...192649385.html

Tres3.

They (Kristina y amigos) can say whatever they want, but they have known, since the beginning, that any settlement with Singer would set the price for all the other bondholders who didn't take the prior deal. It doesn't matter if they are in the Singer deal or outside of it. Any deal with any holdouts sets the price and establishes a precedent, giving the other holdouts even firmer ground upon which to stand.

If you max out three credit cards, pay off the first one, then the second one, do you really think the third one is going to let you off the hook? For Kicillof to claim that this is the judge pulling "funny stuff," is an indication of how dumb he thinks the people of Argentina are. In fact, the whole of my experience in Argentina (since '07) is that the govt believes that the voting majority is stupid and can be manipulated by repeatedly making the same untrue, simplistic statements (usually point the finger of blame at some (foreign) boogie man).

You can tell that this is no surprise to them and that they don't view the problem as changed by the fact that the Malvinas are not on the front page of the "La Nacion. "

Argentina can't make a deal with any holdouts, unless it includes all hold outs or at least sets a price, which when extrapolated out to all the holdouts, it can afford. Since it can't afford to do that, it won't. Ergo, they aren't even at the negotiating table and won't be, until they can afford to deal with the problem. Better, yet, I would see them kicking the can down the road to the next president so that he can deal with the devaluation and the holdout bondholders. Too bad they can't pay them in pesos...

[Tres3]

I'd say the country was fucked long before Kristina arrived, she's just carried on the long tradition of presidents pilfering the coffers. And is she really worse than Menem?

Is she really worse than Juan Peron, and all who have come after him?

Tres3.

[SteveC]

It could be argued that 30+ years of democratically elected governments have really fucked up the country even worse. With the queen ***** at the top of the list.

I'd say the country was fucked long before Kristina arrived, she's just carried on the long tradition of presidents pilfering the coffers. And is she really worse than Menem?

[Dickhead]

However, and perhaps importantly, Argentina can default on $5.4 billion with equal ease as it can default on $1.7 billion. That is the great thing about bankruptcy. I once had a college professor who had the largest personal bankruptcy in the history of the state at that point.

He said, "Whoever defaults on the most unsecured debt, wins." Government bonds are secured by the "full faith and credit" of the issuing government and Argentina's credibility is zero and has been for a long time. It cannot go below zero, so why not take a really big bath? It worked for AIG and now AIG is suing the US government for bailing them out. I don't pretend to understand this, nor do I condone it, but it could very well be a case of rational self-interest, both for Argentina and for AIG and similar cocksuckers.

[Tres3]

More on the debt that Argentina will not or cannot pay.

http://www.businessinsider.com/argen...holders-2015-6

Tres3.

[Tres3]

As I said before, it appears as if CFK and her cohorts do not care anymore, if they ever did.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/were-s...192649385.html

Tres3.

[Spirit Rider]

It could be argued that until Alfonsin Argentina had never had a democratically elected government, being ruled by dictatorships and with various parties excluded when there were elections. That legacy really fucked up the country.

It could be argued that 30+ years of democratically elected governments have really fucked up the country even worse. With the queen ***** at the top of the list.