A hectic week.
In our last post in the series "Ineptitude. Banality. Imposture " We welcomed our new finance minister and her phrase: "We are not going to spend more than we have", we encouraged her to take the relevant measures in this respect and warned her that if she did not present a stabilisation programme with serious and substantive measures, that is, if her words were mere smoke and "sarasa" (her predecessor dixit) to buy time, the imposture would accelerate that time.
We said: "The bad news is that the imposture will be very noticeable and it will be noticed very quickly. If it doesn't, the little confidence generated by the oxygenation of a new minister will vanish in a jiffy and we will be back to the financial runs that we Argentines know by heart".
Said and (more than) done.
Last Friday the "blue dollar" (the only one that exists: green with Franklin's face) closed at $338, compared to $239 on the last day of the predecessor of the already famous dixit. In other words: a third of the value of what an Argentinean pays today for the "blue dollar" (almost $100) was built up in the three weeks that our new minister has been in office.
On the other hand, the Contado con Liquidación (CCL), which is used to take money out of the country legally, costs $ 321, more than double the official dollar.
To put out the fire with gasoline, the ruling party has no better idea than to continue trying to divide Argentines. A denying and distracting cliché that no longer works and that annoys us to no end.
The governor of Buenos Aires says that the people of Buenos Aires "would not understand" those who govern them (when most of them live together every day and understand each other very well), and the president blames the producers for not liquidating foreign currency (after having had it in for tourists) "when the country needs it".
Apart from the fact that the numbers indicate that liquidations are at historical values for the time of year, we remind our president that we live in a Republic that has a Constitution that enshrines private property, and that Argentines, from all economic social classes, value very much having control over our things, since we have worked our hearts out to obtain them.
On the other hand, what is he proposing? That the producer, the brick maker, the grocer, the manufacturer of anything in Argentina today sells his entire stock to keep pesos that are worth less and less every day and that, returning to the specific case of the producer, when he has to buy with those pesos (attention: at a dollar exchange rate for which he receives only $91) fertilisers and tractor covers/ etc etc etc etc that are quoted in "real" dollars, will he not have enough to buy anything? (because as these inputs do not exist today at the "official" dollar of $137, you must pay for them at $338) (and that is if you can get them).
A totally unhinged economy. And all Argentines, we protect ourselves as best we can, from this crazy economy. Did the president find out that there is a shortage of building materials? As there is a shortage of so many other things for which there is no replacement price today? (And these shortages, on top of that, affect the changas and the informal employment with which many compatriots survive).
These producers, these manufacturers, these traders, have a responsibility to look after their assets, their businesses and the jobs they create.
Does the president or the finance minister know what it is like to look at the ceiling in the early hours of the morning to be able to pay salaries, one or many, when things are going badly? To know how to manage the difficulty while planning for the future? So that this future, when it is today, is the happy result of a past in which it was well planned?
No. Argentine party politics does not know this, otherwise we would not be where we are.
We Argentines know that it is not "the country that needs foreign currency" but the elephantine, inefficient and wasteful State that a consecutive series of government officials of different political signs have fed and fattened to the point of exhaustion, and that far from levelling the playing field for all, it complicates us in its tangle, all of us citizens, every day.
❗ Argentina has not created employment for 12 years, let alone quality employment. Because quality employment requires investment and an efficient State, with balanced accounts, clear rules of the game, legal certainty and stability. A country that welcomes, that welcomes those who have capital of any size and want to work, invest, create enterprises and companies: small, medium, large and huge. Exactly the opposite of what Argentina has been offering and doing for a long time.
"There are no good winds for those who do not know where they are going".
Argentina has a new historic opportunity ahead of it to position itself, in a few terms, among the most powerful countries in the world. The world has plenty of money and a lack of business opportunities for which Argentina has everything. Natural and human resources. Energy. Mining. Bioeconomy. Knowledge Economy. Tourism.
📍 Yes. Argentina has everything ... except good governments. That when they are not government, they are not good opposition either. And because of this, instead of taking advantage of opportunities, it is on its way to having one of the highest inflation in its history. With a floor of 6% monthly.
We do not want our inflation to turn into hyperinflation, so we ask the president and the vice-president to stop being the protagonists of a bad soap opera with tedious chapters that no one is interested in anymore. Let them come to an agreement, stop speculating on the next election and govern.
🙌 Argentines want State Policies that transcend any government in office. That are maintained (we reiterate: whoever governs), and that generate growth and development.
The alternation of power, under these conditions, for us Ciudadanos and the Argentina we love, will be a blessing.
Official and opposition parties must work together in Congress, the natural and transparent arena in which to debate and legislate in order to generate the credibility and predictability that our country requires.
"If you do not do so, may God and your country demand it of you".
⚓⏱⛵ Citizens: let's set sail, let's set the sails, let's set the course.
Let's move towards the Argentina we long for!
#YoIWantAPlanforMyCountry 🎯
#PlanCountryArgentina
#RenewingPartyPolitics
#Incompetence#Banalytical#Impulsiveness#Imposture
#NoGoodWindsforWhoDoesNotKnowWhereToGo
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