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Monday, December 27, 2010

Down Argentine Way

Some of the latest emails ask about where to get started reading this blog and how things were before it all went down. Also, tips and clues to look after as indicators of a possible economic collapse.
Greg sent me this link a few days ago, (Thanks Greg!) and it explains some of these things better than my limited English skills allow me to. It also draws parallels between Argentina and USA

FerfFAL

Down Argentine Way
Ron Holland
LewRockwell.com
December 22, 2010

There are many ominous parallels between Argentina and the U.S. and the question often asked is can America avoid the economic consequences that Argentina suffered from a fascist government combined with government debt and currency collapse? I believe the answer is likely NO!
“There are a lot of ways to ruin an economy. Argentina has experimented with most of them. It has devalued its currency, and revalued it. It has pegged it, and then knocked down the peg. It has regulated, controlled, inspected, taxed and confiscated. Following the 2001 crisis, earnings fell by 30% – with half the nation slipping below the official poverty line. What is remarkable is that the Argentine economy has survived at all.” ~ Bill Bonner
Down Argentine Way was the 1940 film that made a star of Betty Grable, who played an attractive young woman on vacation who fell in love with a wealthy racehorse owner. The storyline actually reflected a common occurrence during the 25 years prior to the film debut.
In the early 20th century, “as rich as an Argentine” was a common expression, often used in connection with poor British aristocrats attempting to marry off their daughters to wealthy Argentinians. Argentina was indeed a wealthy nation; for example, we all know about Harrods Department Store in London. Few realize that during this period of Argentine prosperity, Harrods also ran a store in Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires is still a beautiful and interesting city. If you visit, you’ll learn that despite all the doom and gloom we hear concerning Washington debt and the dwindling dollar, there is life after debt repudiation and currency collapse. The same thing has been proven in Russia, Germany and other nations numerous times. It has even happened twice in the United States.
“May you live in interesting times” ~ A Chinese Curse
Since 2008, we’ve certainly lived in interesting times both in politics and in the markets. The US has tried standard Keynesian economic solutions with exploding deficits and trillions in government debt to solve the problems of mania, bubble and bust in real estate and the economy. (read the rest)




5 comments:

K said...

Knowing the warning signs won't be enough. One also should be cogniscent of the likelyhood that the warning signs will not occur uniformily. The pace, frequency, order, intensity, etc. could be very different from what has happened in the past.

Anna said...

I don't materially disagree with the linked article...

... but WHOOO are there ever some crazy kooks in the comments section.

Get this:
"Cows are holy , and karma sucks …"

Good for a few laughs I guess.

FerFAL said...

Comments and opinons, everyone has one its up to you to see what's relevant or not. The article mentions Bs As Harrods. I remember going there as a kid, it was an experience back in the day.
The guy in the elevator told what was in each floor, you got your hair cut, milk shakes.
Little by little they started shutting down floors untils they closed completely.

FerFAL

Maldek said...

Socialism - the lower and upper class united to milk the middle class. Result is always the same - you can go back to ancient rome and you will find the same pattern.

FerFal - you may find the book "The fourth turning" of interest.

Weaseldog said...

In that article, he completely leaves out the roles played by the banks and other international corporations.

The banks that comprise the IMF are the architects of these crisis. They keep repeating the same plan over and over and come out with more wealth and power each time.

In the USA, their role and their endlessly repeated strategy is largely unknown, and instead we're directed to other scapegoats.

Because we don't recognize the source of the manipulation or the pattern, we repeat the same mistakes every other nation attempted since the East India Tea Company first started profiting from creative destruction.

The unions are certainly corrupt. But no one seemed to care much when we were in the boom in the late 90s. When people have lots of money, they can afford a little corruption or extra expenses.

The banks are looting both the USA and Argentina. when the unions are taken out, and the pensions, 401ks, IRAs, your stocks and bonds are frozen, then they'll go after the next highest wage class.

We're competing with 3rd world labor. If you make more than $35/week you're eventually gonna get scapegoated. The media will preach, and the nation will agree that you're the problem.

p.s. In Argentina, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs did legally loot the citizens 401ks. They'll do it in the USA too.