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Friday, April 2, 2010

United States of Argentina‏

I enjoying your book. It's definently a different take on what and how to prepare.


You (and many of you readers) might find this interesting.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/United-States-of-Argentina-89551242.html

John

Hi John, thanks for the link.
Its creepy to see all these similarities. I'm sure I said so several times before but I can't avoid mentioning again since more and more reporters and writers notice it to, posting articles with these titles comparing the Argentina debacle to the current situation in USA.

FerFAL


United States of Argentina

Examiner Editorial
March 31, 2010


When White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel last year advised "never waste a good crisis," he likely was thinking ahead to President Obama's economic stimulus program and health care plan. After swelling the federal deficit by passing the stimulus at a cost of nearly $1 trillion, Democrats in Congress signed off on Obamacare, with a price tag, according to Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., of $2.3 trillion in its first decade alone. With federal spending exploding at such a rate, it's no wonder that Moody's Investor Service recently warned that it would downgrade the U.S. government's credit rating if it concludes "the government was unable and/or unwilling to quickly reverse the deterioration it has incurred."
Argentine President Juan Peron frittered away his nation’s prosperity by introducing redistributionist economic and regulatory policies, nationalizing utilities and pumping up the national debt — all leading to three decades of instability and stagnation. (AP Photo, 1951)
What the United States government will do in the future may be in question, but we need not look far to find past examples of countries unwilling to get their finances in order. Consider Argentina. In 1914, it was one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and its living standard exceeded that of Western Europe until the late 1950s. Then President Juan Peron squandered his nation's prosperity by introducing a host of redistributionist economic and regulatory policies, nationalizing utilities and foreign investments, and pumping up the national debt. What followed was three decades of political instability, growing dependency, and economic stagnation.

There was a brief period of privatization and booming foreign investment in what the American Enterprise Institute's Mark Falcoff called Argentina's "go go" 1990s. But that was negated by the return of political leaders espousing Peronist principles who created a downward economic spiral by breaking contracts with foreign utility companies that had invested heavily in Argentina. Today, the country has lost its international credit standing and an estimated 10 percent of the population has moved abroad to escape the stifling taxes, regulation and inefficiency. To make matters worse, President Cristina Kirchner recently attracted attention for firing the president of the country's central bank. His sin was refusing to go along with her inflationary spending policies (Argentina's inflation is 17 percent) and challenging her demand that he hand over $6.6 billion in bank reserves.

Besides sending federal spending skyrocketing, Obama has, like so many of the politicians who ruined Argentina, dramatically increased government regulation of business, nationalized major sectors of the economy, and imposed a lengthy list of tax increases. America today is no more exempt from economic reality than Argentina was in years past. Make no mistake, these actions will eventually drain the life from this nation's economic vitality, just as they did in Argentina.

11 comments:

DanT said...

As screwed up as the USA may be, we read you blog for how-to and preparedness info.

Please stay away from politics and stick to the how-to and preparedness advice - political commentary is a dog's breakfast and too common. Good advice is why we read your blog.

Anonymous said...

Eh, I wouldn't blame Obama, I'd blame his advisers, who are all ex wall street hot shots.

Its amazing people blame Presidents when they are only following the advice of their economic advisers.

I'm amazed none of them have at least been shot at, since pretty much everything is their fault and continues to be. I think ten years of a crippled economy will be very educational for the U.S and the rest of the world too.

FerFAL said...

Hi Dan, politics are probably the most important part of fixing these problems and avoiding them entirely when you look at the big picture.
If Americans vote better next time you wont be needing much of my adivce. :-)
FerFAL

Anonymous said...

Ferfal,

We don't run our country, the oligarchs with money do. We get to vote for two people who may be quite different, but are both servants of the monied class or they wouldn't have risen that far in the political world.

The best people usually do not run for office and could not get elected if they did.

Capesurvivor

DanT said...

FerFal - I'm not an American.

The USA is f**ked. The Supreme Court has recently permitted corporations to donate unlimited funds to political causes and politicians of their choice. The USA is about to become a 100% fascist state - sad. The American people are a decent and well wishing folk.

gaga said...

The Republicans are the spend spend spend party, every time the Democrats come to power the inherit a massive deficit and work on reducing it. TARP for instance was a Bush bailout.

But I'm not American, so please vote Republican.

Patrick said...

Political solutions may work in Argentina but they sure can't work in a country with as much entrenched global power as the US. Consider that the elite in Argentina is still very much a national elite while the elite in the USA use it as a host for international power.

Empires neutralize votes through economic pre-emption.

Jay21 said...

Anyone who blames a singular political party or individual for the current crisis' is foolish and not looking at reality. Argentina, and the USA (along with most other nations today) are facing blowback for well over 50 years of errors. FerFal has been a great source of information and perspective, i for one will read anything he feels like sharing. I will take it all as an exercise in the reality of SHTF. I am American and will fight to the death the survival of my country only AFTER the survival of my family. Thanks Fernando, you continue to provide a valuable service to us all.

Anonymous said...

WL:
If the USA is following the same economic policies as Argentina, we will end up with an economic collapse similar to the one in Argentina. Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Obama doing the same things the Peronistas did (heavy taxes and regulations plus freebies on borrowed money from foreign countries) and is expecting different results equals insanity - excellent article. USA of Argentina is unfortunately true.

Pete said...

Ferfal,
I remember one of your comments before saying that you normally tear up your ballot than voting on candidates that won't 'fix' the problem due to corruption. If getting involved in politics is what you suggest to avoid a national mess, is there anything you do in Argentina that you could suggest to us here in the US?

Anonymous said...

Benjamin Franklin said "we have given you a Republic, if you can keep it". It appears we cannot. A corrupt body politic, incestuous relations between politicians and business, and a public that is both ignorant and scared is not the formula for positive results. But it was a great experiment, wasn't it?