An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
Toward the end of the video the two people mentioned the recent election of Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil’s president.
Bolsonaro is a neoliberal, but it’s not yet clear how bad he will be.
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri is ultra-neoliberal. Consequently Argentina’s government, while already having a $260 billion foreign debt, just went another $56.3 billion in debt to the IMF, which is now completely in charge of Argentina’s economy and central bank. Argentina’s external debt is exploding.
Argentina under Macri has been plagued with general strikes. No subways, taxis, buses, or airlines are moving. All airports are shut down. Yesterday 240 flights were cancelled, stranding 40,000 passengers. Macri says he will permanently shut down Aerolineas Argentinas (the state airline) if employees don’t go back to work immediately. He says he will privatize the airline in any case.
Many firms and businesses are closing. Government austerity gets worse all the time. Truck drivers are on strike, indefinitely. Teachers are on strike. Professors at Argentina’s fifty-seven public universities have been on strike for over a month. Soup kitchens are overwhelmed with entire families.
Inflation under Macri is nearing 40%. This causes people to hoard food. As a result, some parts of Argentina are close to famine, yet Mauricio Macri borrowed 12 million euros from the Troika in order to buy five Super-Étendard fighter planes from Dassault Aviation in France.
To make things even worse, this year Argentine soy and corn yields dropped well below historical averages because of a prolonged drought. Soybean and corn products represent more than 40% of Argentina’s total exports.
In June 2018, GDP fell by 6.7% compared with the same month last year, and the Argentine peso has lost more than 40% of its value against the U.S. dollar. This makes imports more expensive for consumers. (Argentina has a large trade deficit.)
Naturally the gap between rich and poor has grown wider than ever, and Mauricio Macri is the darling of Washington DC.
A couple of months ago on this blog, I said that economically, neoliberalism has reduced Argentina to the level of Greece.
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Toward the end of the video the two people mentioned the recent election of Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil’s president.
Bolsonaro is a neoliberal, but it’s not yet clear how bad he will be.
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri is ultra-neoliberal. Consequently Argentina’s government, while already having a $260 billion foreign debt, just went another $56.3 billion in debt to the IMF, which is now completely in charge of Argentina’s economy and central bank. Argentina’s external debt is exploding.
Argentina under Macri has been plagued with general strikes. No subways, taxis, buses, or airlines are moving. All airports are shut down. Yesterday 240 flights were cancelled, stranding 40,000 passengers. Macri says he will permanently shut down Aerolineas Argentinas (the state airline) if employees don’t go back to work immediately. He says he will privatize the airline in any case.
Many firms and businesses are closing. Government austerity gets worse all the time. Truck drivers are on strike, indefinitely. Teachers are on strike. Professors at Argentina’s fifty-seven public universities have been on strike for over a month. Soup kitchens are overwhelmed with entire families.
Inflation under Macri is nearing 40%. This causes people to hoard food. As a result, some parts of Argentina are close to famine, yet Mauricio Macri borrowed 12 million euros from the Troika in order to buy five Super-Étendard fighter planes from Dassault Aviation in France.
To make things even worse, this year Argentine soy and corn yields dropped well below historical averages because of a prolonged drought. Soybean and corn products represent more than 40% of Argentina’s total exports.
In June 2018, GDP fell by 6.7% compared with the same month last year, and the Argentine peso has lost more than 40% of its value against the U.S. dollar. This makes imports more expensive for consumers. (Argentina has a large trade deficit.)
Naturally the gap between rich and poor has grown wider than ever, and Mauricio Macri is the darling of Washington DC.
A couple of months ago on this blog, I said that economically, neoliberalism has reduced Argentina to the level of Greece.
I was correct.
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