• Muad'Dibber@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Nah he’s safe. He promised to let the US Fed control Argentina’s monetary policy. He wanted to change the currency to bitcoin, but he’ll settle for USD.

      • plinky [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        us already controls half the world monetary policy, so that wouldn’t change anything. Argentina especially, considering previous default court shenanigans and imf loan of something like 50 bln

    • markr [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      but as it is already, peripheral countries have almost zero ability to set monetary policies. Basically only the US, the EU, Japan and China can do that. The rest of the world is effectively managed by the central banks of the bigs, and even then it is really the US Fed that is in control. He’s just ceding what little control the argentine central bank had.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      The reason this kind of thinking is popular among the masses is often because the local currency is worthless and subject to hyperinflation. So people see a stable currency in the US dollar, and the central bank of their country constantly failing to curb runaway inflation, and think oh lets just use the USD. Without considering any of the macroeconomic consequences of essentially having no domestic economic policy or economic sovereignty.

      In Zimbabwe it’s basically all South African Rands and US dollars for instance.

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Dude is going to commit suicide by stabbing himself multiple times in the heart. There’s no way he lives out his term by pulling stunts like this.

    They’ll find a nice boring buttoned-up CIA sponsored conservative to replace him.

      • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Naked Capitalism laid out why Milei’s dollarization plan is likely to fail:

        What’s more, Argentina, on its own, is not in a position to undertake dollarization since for two simple reasons. As Alejandro Werner, former director of the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told America Quarterly, “Argentina does not have the dollars to dollarize, and it does not have access to the financial market to obtain dollars.”…

        But will Washington be prepared to pour significant funds into [Argentinian dollarization]; according to estimates from the Spanish financial daily Expansión, the initial outlay alone could cost as much as $100 billion, for a project that is likely to take years to complete, and what’s more with a government that still owes the IMF $44 billion as well as billions to China. And that is a lot of money to the Biden Administration, especially with Congress blanching at providing more funds for the Zelensky government in Ukraine.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Nah. Poppy Bush was a CIA creature. Obama was a CIA creature. Milei is some freakish hybrid of Birchers and Randroids. He doesn’t understand how any of the machines of government keep his constituencies in a position to support him.

        Gutting the Argentinian bank might be superficially awesome for the US (assuming you squint and convince yourself cheap Argentinian exports are what Americans really hunger for). But its going to completely fuck over the domestic bourgeois. You’re going to have fascist riots under Milei inside two years, tops.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Its not just fascists, as American officials in Bolivia and Ecuador discovered.

            But there is a real struggle between the core ideas of economic reform and social revolution, wherein folks who are comfortable but nervous despair at their future while folks who are desperate and ambitious seek to navigate an inevitable change on the horizon.

        • CrimsonSage@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          I was under the impression it’s good for domestic billionaires because but protects their assets from devaluation.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Its good for domestic billionaires, because it creates an export-oriented market that rewards denuding the local economy in exchange for an internationally recognized foreign currency.

            But its awful for local business owners, landlords, and political families, who are still stuck servicing the enormous foreign debts on pain of losing their domestic assets to foreign creditors. Also awful for anyone with a large stash of Argentinian Pesos, or debts denominated in Pesos, because this will only accelerate devaluation of the old currency. In the short term, Milei’s proposals are going to ramp up inflation, as people try to get their hands on dollars before the state stops recognizing pesos having any value at all.

            • CrimsonSage@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              Well considering Argentina is basically a shell company for large plantation owners post deindustrialization sounds like ir will work out for “The People who Matter™”.

  • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Isn’t he functionally having the US replace the central bank? That might be what other commenters are missing when they are talking about coups. If he gets overthrown, surely it would be by Argentinian nationalists of some kind for basically trying to proactively make Argentina a colonial holding of the US.

    • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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      1 year ago

      You’re the second to say this. Why do you think so?
      If you mean he gets couped by his internal minister, I can see it, but if you think it’ll be some kinda CIA thing I kinda doubt it.

  • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Huh. So BRICS threatens US dollar hegemony. So stuff this like secures the US dollar directly, making a vassal whose economy is permanently reliant on USD. I think this sort of thing is going to happen a lot going forward. I expect to see the press announce how “successful” this system is, and how “great Argentina’s economy is doing” in order to manufacture consent for more coups that do this same economic policy.

    I don’t know if this is actually a coup, or a rigged election, but this is exactly what the US wants to combat BRICS, so the idea that this is spontaneous and organic kind of comes across as absurd. It could be, I don’t know what things are like on the ground in Argentina, but the US is kind of known for couping South American governments to install puppet dictatorships. Wouldn’t surprise me if this guy declares martial law in order to enact these policies and suspends elections permanently.

    • Wheaties [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Depends on how it plays out, but I wouldn’t expect too much buzz in the english speaking media either way. If Argentina’s economy levels out or grows (seems unlikely, but worth considering), you might get a few articles here or there touting it as a poster child. If it tanks, then it will largely be ignored. Maybe a few outlets give it the “Look at this ca-RAY-zee guy they elected” treatment.

    • Kaplya@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      The problem with Argentina is its huge amount of dollar debt. So long as the US doesn’t write off the debt (not gonna happen) or nobody steps in to repay their debt (China could do it but doesn’t look like it’s happening either), Argentina is already dollarized regardless of whether they’re switching to the dollar or not.

      If I were Joe Biden I would flood Argentina and India with dollars and that would destroy any chance of dedollarization in those regions because nobody would be able to resist them. For all we know, that could already be happening. BRICS hasn’t been able to come up and build up an alternate financial structure to counter the dollar hegemony, which means for most developing countries, dollar is still king.

  • Torenico [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Unsurprising, considering the ancaps believe the Central Bank is literally communism. Why? Fuck if I know, the Central Bank controls currency so that must be authoritarian and communistic.

    • There are English subtitled interviews of Milei where he tried to rationalise his desire to dollarise the Argentinian economy. He tries to use economic jargon but mostly makes insane moralistic arguments (“central banks are thieves”). He is clearly doing this to benefit his masters whoever they may be and knows what he is doing.

      Ironically the YouTube comments called him a clear headed visionary. Not sure if stupid or op.