Mrs. Kirchner and her husband and predecessor, Nestor, are fighting back, but their popularity is near an all-time low, they don't have much money in the till without the reserves, and only 21 months remain until elections in which Mr. Kirchner has been laying groundwork to run.
The Kirchners reacted fiercely when Judge María José Sarmiento on Friday barred the central bank from transferring reserves and reinstated the bank president Mrs. Kirchner had fired the day before for refusing to do so. Mr. Kirchner said that his wife was victim of a "permanent conspiracy" and said Judge Sarmiento was biased and the ruling "a shame" to the judiciary.
It is a little weird to keep reading about Peronists. The Kirchners are supposed to be Peronists, yet they are not the only ones to claim the mantle of Juan Domingo Perón, a fascist military dictator.
Part of the reason [for the erosion of presidential power and rising opposition thereto] is that Kirchners are exhausting the power of the purse, critical in the patronage-oriented Peronist political system. Total public spending grew from 29.5% of output in 2003 when Mr. Kirchner took office to around 37% in 2008, his wife's first full year in office. With a budget surplus withering away, Mrs. Kirchner tried to shore up funds in 2008 by raising the grain export tax. Nationwide protests by farmers led to a vote in the senate that torpedoed the tax increase.
Presidenta Kirchner nationalized pensions, and now is trying to use currency reserves to service national debt, so to have more funds free for her own purposes. Her line of defense is to say, in snippets of speeches and news conferences I've seen on Spanish-language news (Anglo news utterly ignore anything that is not an acute crisis in Latin America), that when the opposition were in power they did not govern well, thus they should now stop their opposition to her programs and let her govern.
Showing posts with label Kirchner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kirchner. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Argentina's pensions
La Presidenta is trying to get her hands on private pension monies to bail out her government.
Congress has yet to approve Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's move to seize $28 billion of retirement savings to fund her cash-strapped government, but already the plan has produced a thicket of problems. One troubling reaction: Argentines are cashing their peso bank accounts and lining up to buy dollars at crowded exchange houses. The peso fell 7% last month, prompting the central bank to spend at least $1 billion to defend it.
Memories of the 2001 crisis remain.
Many view Mrs. Kirchner's pension move last month as a sign of desperation that could presage other unorthodox policy decisions. Memories of the government's decision to freeze deposits during the last crisis are still fresh.
Aside from Argentinians themselves, others are troubled (that is, scared) be Cristina's reaching for the pensions.
Mrs. Kirchner's plan has stirred trouble outside Argentina as well. This week, a U.S. judge froze up to $1.6 billion held in the U.S. by the Argentine pension funds that Mrs. Kirchner is hoping to nationalize. U.S. bondholders are suing to recover money they lost when Argentina defaulted during the last crisis. Mrs. Kirchner had ordered the pension funds to repatriate overseas assets ahead of the nationalization.
Nice and subtle, eh? Repatriate it, and then it'll be nationalized.
Argentina ran out of money in 2001 and committed history's biggest sovereign-debt default. The commodity boom brought a brief recovery, but the boom is over, and left the nation saddled with debt. Faced with at least $11 billion of debt payments next year, Mrs. Kirchner wants to raid the accounts to avoid defaulting while maintaining politically sensitive welfare payments, analysts say.
Pork-barrel, earmarks, call it what you will, it's a global practice.
Argentina's privately managed pension system was set up in the mid-1990s, and the accounts were devastated in the 2001 crisis. Mrs. Kirchner says she is nationalizing the accounts to protect them from market volatility.
O, right: gimme the money, I'll protect it. Does a bridge come along with it?
Employees of private pension companies protest the government's plan to nationalize pension funds in Buenos Aires last week. President Kirchner defends her plan as a way to protect money from the global financial crisis.
Congress has yet to approve Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's move to seize $28 billion of retirement savings to fund her cash-strapped government, but already the plan has produced a thicket of problems. One troubling reaction: Argentines are cashing their peso bank accounts and lining up to buy dollars at crowded exchange houses. The peso fell 7% last month, prompting the central bank to spend at least $1 billion to defend it.
Memories of the 2001 crisis remain.
Many view Mrs. Kirchner's pension move last month as a sign of desperation that could presage other unorthodox policy decisions. Memories of the government's decision to freeze deposits during the last crisis are still fresh.
Aside from Argentinians themselves, others are troubled (that is, scared) be Cristina's reaching for the pensions.
Mrs. Kirchner's plan has stirred trouble outside Argentina as well. This week, a U.S. judge froze up to $1.6 billion held in the U.S. by the Argentine pension funds that Mrs. Kirchner is hoping to nationalize. U.S. bondholders are suing to recover money they lost when Argentina defaulted during the last crisis. Mrs. Kirchner had ordered the pension funds to repatriate overseas assets ahead of the nationalization.
Nice and subtle, eh? Repatriate it, and then it'll be nationalized.
Argentina ran out of money in 2001 and committed history's biggest sovereign-debt default. The commodity boom brought a brief recovery, but the boom is over, and left the nation saddled with debt. Faced with at least $11 billion of debt payments next year, Mrs. Kirchner wants to raid the accounts to avoid defaulting while maintaining politically sensitive welfare payments, analysts say.
Pork-barrel, earmarks, call it what you will, it's a global practice.
Argentina's privately managed pension system was set up in the mid-1990s, and the accounts were devastated in the 2001 crisis. Mrs. Kirchner says she is nationalizing the accounts to protect them from market volatility.
O, right: gimme the money, I'll protect it. Does a bridge come along with it?
Employees of private pension companies protest the government's plan to nationalize pension funds in Buenos Aires last week. President Kirchner defends her plan as a way to protect money from the global financial crisis.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Cristina to nationalize pension fund
Kirchner strikes again.
Argentina's leftist government pressed forward with its controversial plan to nationalize private pension funds, laying out investment guidelines for the funds it wants to seize and lobbying Congress to approve the proposal.
They need money, badly, so they're acting badly.
Taking over the $30 billion in pension fund assets will ease the cash crunch faced by President Cristina Kirchner's government, but it has jolted investor confidence and triggered a dollar outflow.
What a disaster.
In advance of what is shaping up as a heated debate over the proposal in Congress, Mrs. Kirchner once again made her case for public pensions on Monday. "The public [sector] was considered a bad word ... and the state synonymous with inefficiency," she said. "The good of the private sector and the bad in the public sector were highlighted. We have to give the public sector its due."
Huh?
Argentina's leftist government pressed forward with its controversial plan to nationalize private pension funds, laying out investment guidelines for the funds it wants to seize and lobbying Congress to approve the proposal.
They need money, badly, so they're acting badly.
Taking over the $30 billion in pension fund assets will ease the cash crunch faced by President Cristina Kirchner's government, but it has jolted investor confidence and triggered a dollar outflow.
What a disaster.
In advance of what is shaping up as a heated debate over the proposal in Congress, Mrs. Kirchner once again made her case for public pensions on Monday. "The public [sector] was considered a bad word ... and the state synonymous with inefficiency," she said. "The good of the private sector and the bad in the public sector were highlighted. We have to give the public sector its due."
Huh?
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Cristina loses another
Her chief of Cabinet (perhaps chief of staff) has resigned. Madrid's El Pais states that he was one of the politicians closest to La Presidenta and her husband, ex-president Néstor Kirchner.
La crisis del agro sigue pasándole factura a la presidenta Cristina Fernández. El Gobierno argentino ha anunciado este miércoles la dimisión del jefe de Gabinete, Alberto Fernández, uno de los políticos más cercanos a la presidenta y su esposo, el ex mandatario Néstor Kirchner.
She has a new jefe, Sergio Massa, who, reports Argentina's La Nacion, asserts La Presidenta has told him to increase dialogue with governors and legislators.
Another story in La Nacion has it that Cristina avoided speaking of the resignation in her first public appearance after said resignation.
En su primera aparición pública tras la renuncia del jefe de Gabinete, Alberto Fernández, y la decisión de reemplazarlo por el intendente de Tigre, Sergio Massa, la presidenta Cristina Kirchner evitó referirse al tema y, en cambio, destacó al equipo de trabajo del flamante secretario de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimentos, Carlos Cheppi.
La crisis del agro sigue pasándole factura a la presidenta Cristina Fernández. El Gobierno argentino ha anunciado este miércoles la dimisión del jefe de Gabinete, Alberto Fernández, uno de los políticos más cercanos a la presidenta y su esposo, el ex mandatario Néstor Kirchner.
She has a new jefe, Sergio Massa, who, reports Argentina's La Nacion, asserts La Presidenta has told him to increase dialogue with governors and legislators.Another story in La Nacion has it that Cristina avoided speaking of the resignation in her first public appearance after said resignation.
En su primera aparición pública tras la renuncia del jefe de Gabinete, Alberto Fernández, y la decisión de reemplazarlo por el intendente de Tigre, Sergio Massa, la presidenta Cristina Kirchner evitó referirse al tema y, en cambio, destacó al equipo de trabajo del flamante secretario de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimentos, Carlos Cheppi.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Cristina: no
La Presidenta gave in, and cancelled the failed bill: Argentina Drops Farm-Export Tax reads the headline of the story. A picture of Cristina Fernandez and her vice president appears in the WSJ slide show. It speaks for itself, really.
Argentina's President Kirchner spoke with Mr. Cobos, far left, on June 17.
Argentina's President Kirchner spoke with Mr. Cobos, far left, on June 17.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Argentine Tax Plan Lands a Tough Ally
Ongoing saga in Argentina. Last week a story told of Nestor, former president, organizing a rally in support of Cristina, La Presidenta, his wife. This is the other side: not nice, but physically intimidating.
When pro-government activist Luis D'Elia crossed paths with one of Argentina's rural antigovernment protesters at a demonstration in March, they spent only a few seconds discussing agrarian policy. Then, while the farm backer was glancing away, the stout, jowly Mr. D'Elia socked him with a right to the head. Mr. D'Elia is the leader of one of the country's most prominent organizations of piqueteros, or picketers, groups of unemployed barrio residents who are available to join rallies on short notice. The piqueteros have served as Mrs. Kirchner's shock troops in a four-month fight over the government's move to impose a politically unpopular soybean-export tax.
Shock troops, or physical goons, one supposes.
The Kirchner government maintains cash stipends to low-income families, and many piqueteros are beneficiaries. Some piqueteros have also benefited from government programs such as financial support for low-income housing.
Allies.
Last month, Mr. D'Elia suggested people get ready to defend the Kirchner government by exercising their constitutional right to take up arms. In an intemperate radio interview, Mr. D'Elia growled, "I hate whites...I hate the Argentine high classes, which have done so much harm, which have killed so many people, in the name of one flag, which is the flag of their own gain."
As if Nestor and Cristina aren't white?
How do I define demagoguery? Thus: Mrs. Kirchner has said that the farmers have been blocking roads and taking to the streets, just as the piqueteros do, but haven't faced the same disdain because they aren't poor.
When pro-government activist Luis D'Elia crossed paths with one of Argentina's rural antigovernment protesters at a demonstration in March, they spent only a few seconds discussing agrarian policy. Then, while the farm backer was glancing away, the stout, jowly Mr. D'Elia socked him with a right to the head. Mr. D'Elia is the leader of one of the country's most prominent organizations of piqueteros, or picketers, groups of unemployed barrio residents who are available to join rallies on short notice. The piqueteros have served as Mrs. Kirchner's shock troops in a four-month fight over the government's move to impose a politically unpopular soybean-export tax.
Shock troops, or physical goons, one supposes.
The Kirchner government maintains cash stipends to low-income families, and many piqueteros are beneficiaries. Some piqueteros have also benefited from government programs such as financial support for low-income housing.
Allies.
Last month, Mr. D'Elia suggested people get ready to defend the Kirchner government by exercising their constitutional right to take up arms. In an intemperate radio interview, Mr. D'Elia growled, "I hate whites...I hate the Argentine high classes, which have done so much harm, which have killed so many people, in the name of one flag, which is the flag of their own gain."
As if Nestor and Cristina aren't white?
How do I define demagoguery? Thus: Mrs. Kirchner has said that the farmers have been blocking roads and taking to the streets, just as the piqueteros do, but haven't faced the same disdain because they aren't poor.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Cristina, Nestor, or maybe Evita
Two for the price of one ain't such a bargain.
When Cristina Kirchner was elected in October to succeed her husband as president of Argentina, he guaranteed he would let his wife stand on her own two feet. "I would do very badly by interfering," Nestor Kirchner said. But Mr. Kirchner couldn't help but interfere when Mrs. Kirchner faced her first domestic political challenge, helping to turn a dispute with farmers into a full-blown political disaster.
When Cristina Kirchner was elected in October to succeed her husband as president of Argentina, he guaranteed he would let his wife stand on her own two feet. "I would do very badly by interfering," Nestor Kirchner said. But Mr. Kirchner couldn't help but interfere when Mrs. Kirchner faced her first domestic political challenge, helping to turn a dispute with farmers into a full-blown political disaster.
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