This is the best summary I could come up with:
BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Argentina formally announced Friday that it won’t join the BRICS bloc of developing economies, the latest in a dramatic shift in foreign and economic policy by Argentina’s new far-right populist President Javier Milei.
Milei’s predecessor, former center-left president Alberto Fernandez, endorsed joining the alliance as an opportunity to reach new markets.
But economic turmoil left many in Argentina eager for change, ushering chainsaw-wielding political outsider Milei into the presidency.
In foreign policy, he has proclaimed full alignment with the “free nations of the West,” especially the United States and Israel.
Throughout the campaign for the presidency, Milei also disparaged countries ruled “by communism” and announced that he would not maintain diplomatic relations with them despite growing Chinese investment in South America.
However, in the letter addressed to his counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva in neighboring Brazil and the rest of the leaders of full BRICS members — Xi Jinping of China, Narenda Mondi of India, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Matamela Ramaphosa of South Africa — Milei proposed to “intensify bilateral ties” and increase “trade and investment flows.”
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Guess the ghost dog wants the country to starve. I hope he doesn’t get what he wants.
I don’t think he literally wants the country to starve. He doesn’t strike me like an evil fuck.
He is an incompetent ignorant, though.
Literally first paragraph from his bio in wiki:
Javier Gerardo Milei[note 1] (born 22 October 1970) is an Argentine politician and economist serving as the president of Argentina since December 2023. Milei has taught university courses in macroeconomics, economic growth, microeconomics, and mathematics for economists. He has written numerous books on economics and politics, and also hosted radio programs on the subject.
As we can see he’s basically accomplished veteran of all levels of economics. And regardless of capitalist economics being more or less worthless scam, there are countries run by it and not having nosedive into fascism and slavery in a week. Therefore we can assume that either he faked his entire career and nobody noticed that or he is doing what he’s doing completely on purpose.
Is he a good economist, though?
I mean, I can write books and host radio shows about quantum mechanics if I want. And I’m no physicist.
But regardless, if he’s a climate denier, that’s all I need to know.
Is he a good economist, though?
Considering his academic career, he has to be at least well regarded by academia circles. It does not of course preclude he is outright incompetent hack, but it stronly point out that he’s established figure in mainstream economics.
Of course he wouldn’t be first and not the last of “great economists” that run a country into the ground, but just as in case of people like balcerowicz or chicago boys, it’s not because incompetence but because dogmatically following utter nonsense and being the pawn to imperialism (to be fair at this point the question of competence stops being relevant).
I fully agree that Milei is at best dangerous to Argentina, but the country’s economy has been kinda fucked up for a while. Inflation has been mad and growth has been generally negative for at least a decade
Yes, but neoliberal shock therapy is not gonna make it better. If you look at history of neoliberalism, it made everything worse every single time.
But what is going to make it better?
The problem is that the election was between Captain Anachrocapitalism and a continuation of Peronist policies which included a lot of government intervention.
He was won because he ran against everything the government represented.
Good riddance. Can’t take a country keen on dollarization into an organization who’s primary goal is dedollarization.
Why doesn’t south America agree on a single currency like the Euro?
The Peso. The Sol. The Amero.
Because the governments would no longer be able to fake the exchange rate, and their socialist policies would’ve been reveald as a scams they are, without the keys to the money printer.
Also, who would be in charge of the monetary union? A bunch of countries that couldn’t even managed their own monetary systems?
Going with an existing foreign currency as a base is probably better until the situation stabilizes a bit.
Argentina and Brazil have apparently been looking at it https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/brazil-argentina-begin-preparations-common-currency-ft-2023-01-22/
I assume that the rest of Mercosur would be invited over time if it’s successful
Some countries would need to stabilise their economies before this would be viable, Argentina in particular with the huge inflation and debt problems would be too much of a liability.
It’s the euro even a good idea? Convenient for tourism and trade sure, but according to MMT it hamstrings a countries ability to invest in it’s economy and makes government loans fraught.
Uh? Who said EU countries can’t contract loans or invest in its economy?
I didn’t say they can’t, I said it was fraught. A better phrasing is “can cause issues a non-euro country does not have.” This quote explains what I mean:
So, in the eurozone a national (federal) government cannot run out of money as long as:
- tax revenues are high enough to bring the Treasury account back to zero or
- bond revenues are high enough to bring the Treasury account back to zero or
- tax and bond revenues together are high enough to bring the Treasury account back to zero.
This means that a eurozone national government does not run out of money until it has exhausted its tax revenues and bond revenues
The United States, Great Britain, Japan, and every other fiat currency country don’t have this problem. They are incapable of running out of money. They are capable of making so much money it is completely debased like Weighmar Germany or Zimbabwe. However, those cases are rare and extreme. As long as they ensure the supply of goods people want to buy us sufficient they can spend as much as they want. This enables them to pay off their debts on a whim (if they want to collapse the safest store for money that investors use to outweigh risks).
Sources:
The Deficit Myth I’d give you page numbers but I listened to the audiobook https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2022/number/2/article/modern-monetary-theory-the-right-compass-for-decision-making.html
🇦🇷: I consent
🇨🇳: I consent
: I don’tIsn’t there someone you forgot to ask?
Maybe in the next round we can get Algeria or Morocco instead. Either way, Argentina was the weakest link and I’m glad they left on their own.
