Picking up where Chavez[1] left off.
Supermarkets and electronics retailers say Argentina’s government has ordered them to stop advertising in the country’s top newspapers, in a bid to weaken independent media companies as President Cristina Kirchner turns to increasingly unorthodox policies to prevent inflation from derailing an ailing economy.
The order, confirmed by retailers and newspapers but denied by government officials, comes after retail executives say price-control czar Guillermo Moreno pressured them earlier this week to agree to freeze prices for two months. Executives say Mr. Moreno then told them to pull all newspaper sales ads in hopes this would somehow curb inflation.
Related: Venezuelan devaluation sparks panic
[1] Also dead, by the way.
Mark Weisbrot assures me that all is well in Venezuela, as the people celebrate the era of prosperity and social justice brought in by the Bolivarian Revolution.
He also assures me that the brave people of Venezuela can get by just fine without food, water, electricity, and other crutches of the militaristic capitalist imperialists.
Of course it will curb inflation. If people spend less on the dead-tree propaganda,than they have more to spend on the essentials,like food,electricity,heat,etc. Oh wait.
Hey! Don’t give up, you Argie rip-off artists! Never unsderestimate the stupidity of the masses!
As proof (and inspiration) may I offer up Dildo McDinky’s and the Ontario Liberal Party’s brilliant Seven Step Road to Success Program…Ontario’s voters can’t get enough of it!
1) Lie to get elected – they’ll forgive you.
2) Point fingers at other governments for prevailing economic problems.
3) Lie to get re-elected – they’ll forgive you.
4) Drive out/shut down businesses with environmental regulations while introducing a Green Energy Act that will totally cripple the remnants of your economy.
5) Lie to get re-elected – they’ll forgive you.
6) When the ship starts listing, scamper down the hawser line with the rest of your rats and appoint a new, Thoroughly Modern Leader.
7) Lie to get re-elected…..
Well, of course. If the Romanians could go without during considerably harsher winters, sure what excuse do the Venezuelans have?
I’ll give the Argentine government this—they at least have the wits not to make their first priority repayment at taxpayer expense of funds to foreign banksters, of which most Argentinians never saw a cent. The Venezuelans, meanwhile, will be slowly starved in the presence of plenty, just as the Romanians were, to cover their leader’s bad cheques.
“Related: Venezuelan devaluation sparks panic”
Please don’t kink to sites with paywalls. That particular cancer needs to be exorcised.
expect to see more noise about the falklands as argentina goes down the tubes, same reason as the junta -a jingoistic distraction.anything to hang on to power.
I don’t understand how a government can effectively bar companies advertising in publications. What do they do, send the “fire-brigade” around a la Farenheit 451?
The ancient Greeks probably had it right in the first place when democracy didn’t include universal suffrage since it leads to financial instability and collapse.
Eligibility to vote could be easily determined on a tax return – you pay, you vote.
Isn’t it strange when governments that debase their currencies
beyond all reason are always in the forefront of “fighting inflation
caused by those who seek to profit from the temporary financial setbacks”?
Venezuela:
“But all the 46.5% devaluation does, is to provide a little bit of fiscal relief for a little while. The problem is that it still leaves a fiscal gap that is too large, which is likely to require another devaluation later in the year. Because this devaluation only covers about 60% of the expected deficit. At least another Bolivar in devaluation is needed now, which will only make a devaluation later much larger.
I see Bs. 8 by the end of the year.
“Because in the end, the problem is not that the Government devalued by 46.5%, the problem is that the gap between the official rate and the black market illegal rate, went from 318%, to 272%, making arbitrage still very attractive and making prices of goods imported at the official rate of exchange too attractive to pass up. And the black rate sets many prices today.
Because in the end a devaluation is not a policy, it is the result of bad policy”
From Miguel at http://devilsexcrement.com/2013/02/09/government-devalues-to-bs-6-3-per-us-too-little-a-little-late/
“…expect to see more noise about the falklands as argentina goes down the tubes…”
Hey, without Thatcher at the reins in Britain, and with ‘bama a shoe-in for silent neutrality or a pro-Argie stance, they may as well go for it.
I love the comment and chuckled but the laughter turned to tears because it’s effing true.