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Friday, July 25, 2008

Video worth watching: Argentina’s Economic Collapse

More videos of what happened here in 2001.



We’ll have to wait 7 years until someone is allowed to make a video of what’s going on here NOW (which in many ways is more sinister than what happened in 2001) but it’s still a good reminder.

The videos are a bit “lefty” for my taste, but the images are worth more than 1000 words and pretty much everything said is truth, even if a bit biased into making it look like some communist revolt, which isn’t truth.

Enjoy, and try to draw parallelisms of what may or may not happen in your own country one day.












FerFAL

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ferfal,

Watched all of the videos except the last five, which are no longer available from U-Tube for some reason.

Man... you're policians were really a bunch of theives. They totally wrecked your country. A similar thing is going on here, our corrupt central banking system is wrecking America as they bail out all of their financial banking buddies at taxpayer expense. And the politicians are complicit. They've created the problem, now they want us taxpayers to bail them out. There really is no solution... we're toast economically for the next couple of generations... way too much debt here to ever be paid off without hyper-inflation or selling our Country off to Soverign Wealth Funds.. similar to what Argentina did.

These videos paint a real poor picture of what we have to look forward to here. Thank you for the insights.

Mike P.
Carmichael, CA

Anonymous said...

Mike- I think they are still available. Try refreshing the page. I found in general that often if I leave the page open for too long, and then go back to it, the YouTube videos don't work & say "unavailable." However refreshing the pages works. I tried one of the later videos here just now to test it, and it worked.

BTW I agree with you completely. We're headed for a deeper depression than has ever been known. Coupled with a fascist dictatorship. And a Biblical Tribulation Era. It's time to hold onto your hat, & hold onto Jesus.

Mike said...

This is a great documentary that everyone should see. It clearly shows the genocide carried out in Argentina by the banking cartell, the multinational corporations and corrupt government officials. This could happen to any western nation in the coming recession, don't let the government step on you, ever! Use violence if you have to in order to preserve your rights and liberties as people of independent states. Never let the government get away with taking away those rights.

Anonymous said...

Your blog is spreading around the internet. I've seen two links to it in the past few days.

Wow! Keep up the excellent work and taing the time to inform all of us.

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Anonymous said...

If you get a chance, you should read "The Shock Docterine" by Naomi Klein. She does meticiulous research into Los Chicago Boys, i.e., the University of Chicago School of Economics and Milton Friedman, their highly esteemed leader. He's the big proponent of free market reforms, the likes of which are detailed in the documentary you post. He was a consultant to Pinochet's reforms and later abuse of the citizenry. These policies are continued with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, who insist on loaning money only after "market reforms" such as privatizing public assets for pennies on the dollar, eliminating price controls, and allowing massive layoffs. When the people take to the streets -- a they should -- they are mowed down by militaries bought and paid for by the loans given by IMF/World Bank and spent with foreign military suppliers.

I see very little in the news about what's happening in Argentina now. The BBC and US news reports very little about what's going on there, so I was surprised (and enlightened) to read your blog.

Good luck and take care of yourself and your family!

Anonymous said...

Hi FerFal,

I'm posting this here, although it should go under the "gold and jewellry" discussion. I just wasn't sure if you can see the posts on the older topics and reply to them...

I'm just looking to buy some gold on my savings (given that the price of gold is skyrocketing anyway). You suggested buying a bag of golden rings formerly, but also said that a necklace is easier to be split up if needed. I shopped around a little and compared the prices of jewellry to the global gold price. I found that the price of golden jewellry can cost even 5-6 times more, than the price of its gold content. Obviously it depends on the specific product. Simple rings, like wedding rings are cheaper, as are the jewellry made from bigger chunks of gold like bracelets. Necklaces seem to be quite expensive, however - taking only the gold content into account. Buying these toys and selling them later at the price of scrap gold is not the greatest idea. I also looked at buying scrap gold on the first place: I cheched out a refining/casting company to see how much they ask for jewellry gold. It is available in even 9 carat wires, which I think would be the most appropriate for this purpose (them come in any profile you want; you can have them in a thin enough diameter to make it possible to be rolled up, and later cut off the promptly required amount with simple pliers). 9 ct gold is the purity used most commonly here in New Zealand for manufacturing jewellry, so it would be just the thing I'm after. On the phone they quoted a quite reasonable price for the gold wire (less than a 20 percent cost for refinement). However when I went to buy some, it turned out that it is GST exclusive (Goods and Services Tax, or VAT in Britain; I don't know what it's called in Argentina; you know the shit...) Adding the GST on top of it makes it a much less nice offer: it comes to about a 36 percent of extra cost altogether - we have a 12.5% GST rate.

A guy at the refinery company suggested buying internationally recognised gold coins instead (I just told him I'm after some form of investment); the coins are pure gold and they are not GST taxable; also everybody knows what they are. This takes us back to the original problem you already talked about: good quality coins are hard to sell (?) at their actual value after the SHTF (well; even in peaceful times...), and you can't chop them up as you like.

What do you think about all this? (I have some savings to devote some money to secure it, but paying 36% is too painful for me; I'm not a rich guy).

However, I'm also convinced that in the not too distant future the world will be facing a global economic crash. I know you said you wouldn't worry too much about peak oil, because your country has enough crude. Even then, I don't think ANYONE is able to measure the consequences of it (don't be sure your country will be the one enjoying the remainder of its oil...). I'm sure Argentina is a tough place to live in, but what you guys have been experiencing for the last couple of years is just the beginning... Even though I live in a well-off country like New Zealand, I wasn't born here: I'm from a country going through a breath-takingly similar curve to that of Argentina (first being the richest country of the region, then free trade came along, the devastation of local enonomy, diminishing mid-class, unemployment, deepening poverty, famine). Thus I know what hard times are like, and try not to underestimate the End Of The WHOLE WORLD.

So. I know the 36 percent is nothing if we consider a potential 500-600% inflation rate, but still it feels painful to cough up when everything seems so peaceful... What do you think?

Btw. I'm a big fan of you; this blog is really invaluable. I especially respect you for putting peace and freedom above the cheap work due to the misery of others (I'm referring to your post about your aunt... :)
I wish you all the best! Sorry about my verbal diarrhea... ;)

joe

FerFAL said...

Thanks everyone for the replies, I appreciate them ;)

Hey Joe, You did well in posting here, I generally don’t go back and check posts for new replies.
I posted your reply and answered to it in the blog, hope it's ok with you.

FerFAL

vdavisson said...

Ferfal,

I watched all the videos. You're right, they are very lefty and you have to filter out the propaganda. Here are my thoughts and impressions:

It seems to me that there is a large population of poor or radicalized middle class (students, etc.) who participate in protests at a moment's notice. This seems very destabilizing, to me, at least. If the government legitimizes the mob by responding to these demonstrations, that is very bad policy. People march here, but they are pretty much ignored. So marching or carrying signs on a street corner is typically pointless other than to call attention to something, and it's considered frivolous and an odd thing to do.

The injustice of not prosecuting former junta leaders and police who "disappeared" their enemies is a major problem and contributes to the overall instability and unpredictability of Argentina. An unjust court system is a huge problem, difficult to solve and antithetical to normal life and smooth operation of business. Sicily overcame this but it took years and a concerted effort.

I assume the 50% interest rates drove many small businesses into bankruptcy. With former bouts of hyperinflation, I can only guess that it was set high as a hedge against a recurrence of that. The banks want to do business but they have to protect themselves, too. They are not all bad, but they are not charities, either.

The flavor of the campaign speeches was one of always promising instant, dramatic, painless change, followed by an immediate reversal on all promises. It seemed typical of all the presidential campaigns - is it?

I don't think Menem's reforms were misguided, particularly selling off publicly owned properties, but it should have been explained that the sale would lead to cutting jobs and only those employees who were needed would be retained to keep the oil fields functioning. An oil company is not a charity or a job bank. Government owned enterprises keep far more people employed at make-work jobs (to keep votes) at the expense of taxpayers. The reforms were undoubtedly needed, but as my engineer husband says, you can't shock a system and get good results. Instead of so much displacement, the schools should have been helped with gradual cutover and training, and the banks should have provided competitive interest rates and better conditions for small businesses.

In the villages near the dumps, can't the poor grow gardens? It strikes me most that many of your countrymen (and mine!) depend heavily on the government to provide for them and tell them what to do. The old way of being self-sufficient didn't seem to be desireable or possible. Is it because of land ownership issues? Do the poor get welfare, or did they at one time? Can they vote?

I also found it interesting that the police seem to report to, or respond to the central government. In the US this does not happen (so far). Here, they report to a city government, not even a state. The states are relatively independent from federal interference and the only police force they have is for highway patrol (speeding, drunk driving, etc.). The governor of the state can call up the National Guard (part of the US Army) but it had better be an extreme emergency (disaster, civil uprising, etc.).

So our president technically has no authority over local police, and has no police force of his own. He has a provided bodyguard detail of officers called the Secret Service but they do not have much presence in cities or states except Washington DC. A federal police force is a bad idea and should be abolished. One of the reasons President Bush did not do anything in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina is that the governor had to let him get involved. Otherwise she was the supreme authority over what was done in that state.

Also, our posse comatatis law prevents the federal government from using the military for police work, although many of my fellow conservatives think the law is weak and may not survive in a real nation-wide emergency. In New Orleans, the National Guard still patrols the streets and makes arrests, three years after Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the NO police dept to stop looting and general crime. That's very troubling to me and other conservatives.

I wish you well in your future and hope you can emigrate soon, if that is what you wish to do. You have a great blog!