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14 sats \ 4 replies \ @didiplaywell OP 16 Jun \ parent \ on: My Direct Account on the Situation in Argentina under Milei's Government Politics_And_Law
First, let me emphasize that I agree with you on the intrinsically corrupted and devilish nature of the IMF.
But, lets not fall in the "guns kill" fallacy. The gun is just there. It's up to you if you use it to blow your own foot off. And again, among the available devils, the IMF was and still is the lesser one. Of course, Milei aim's to get rid of it as soon as possible. We already did that before, so we will do it again.
Ironically, the chronic problem Argentina faced with the external debt is perfectly exemplified on how we got rid of the IMF the first time: the first time previous socialists regimes resorted to the IMF was to get easy and quick money to keep on the welfare state party to secure elections, BUT, the IMF did so under strict terms, limiting how much money the regime could emit and how much extra debt it could go into. Obviously, that was against the Kirchnerist regime plans when it came to power, so in 2005 the then president Nestor Kirchner used the record-high farming earning surplus to fully cancel the debt with the IMF, and once free from their limitations the regime resorted to the most infamous creditors to get us into all-time record-high external debt and expanded by more than x1.000 times the monetary base leading us towards 300% inter-annual inflation by the end of their regime.
Wow interesting, and who are/were these most unfamous creditors, worse than the IMF?
And then presumably they (later governments) went back to the IMF later before Milei came to power?
My understanding was that Argentinas debt to the IMF has been continuous, deep and chronic for decades and that the IMF had limited prospect of getting much of it paid back until Milei came to power and began his reforms.
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- The main known debtors are:
- The Paris Club
- NML Capital Ltd.
- EM Ltd. Elliott Associates
- Dart management
- AFTA
All of them where old creditors with rolling debts with Argentina already. What the Kirchnerist regime did over and over was to "renegotiate" the debts, which implied to pass on the debt for a later term in exchange of ever increasing interest rates.
Freshly new from the Kirchnerist regime:
- Venezuela (yes, you can imagine).
- Internal debt (what they took from people via banks, to be re-paid to the banks by ever-increasing emission, or, in the case of funds expropriated to people directly, promised but never returned). Worse than the IMF in the sense that these sources (letting aside the intermediary banks, which largely profited) were simply helpless for it was composed by average citizens, defenseless against the state.
- Who came back to the IMF:
Right fresh from his assumption to power, and with all the above creditors fed up, the newly elected socialist president Mauricio Macri used his perceived greater confidence, gained from supposedly being an opposition to the Kirchnerist regime, to go back to the IMF to ask for financing to pay the other creditors, and to keep up public spending, resulting in another wave of net increment of the external debt. After Macri's lame posing as a fake alternative, the Kirchnerist regime got back again in power right after his term.
- "the IMF had limited prospect of getting much of it paid back until Milei came to power and began his reforms" this last part is true.
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Thank you for this detailed description of events.
I do not know anything about the creditors you mention but would suggest they are unlikely to have any agenda seeking to prevent Argentina from allowing Bitcoin to be used as a MoE- whereas the IMF clearly does.
I hope Milei and Argentina can be free of all external creditors and undue pressure, and can enable Bitcoin MoE and true prosperity and sovereignty.
It will take strength and an educated population.
Keep up the great work.
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Thank you Sr, will do!
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