2024-07-21 18:34:43
Luis Caputo
The peso, a strong currency
“The pesos issued are for purchases in the MULC (Single and Free Exchange Market). The objective was always to dry up the market of pesos. I have said this since the first interview, but well, some are still not convinced. Reality will prove that soon people will have to sell dollars to pay taxes and the peso will be the strong currency!” That was what the Minister of Economy of the Nation, Luis Caputo, posted on his account on the “X” network.
Cristina Kirchner
“More lost than a Turk in the fog”
In the same way, the former Vice President of the Nation, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, responded to the head of the Treasury, Luis Caputo. “What did you say, Mr. Minister? Wasn’t it that taxes were theft from the State, the peso was excrement and the dollar was the currency that was going to be given to Argentines…?” The former national leader also accompanied her comment with the title in which Caputo referred to the use of the US currency to pay taxes. And immediately, she launched another phrase that raised the tone of the controversy. “More lost than a Turk in the fog,” she wrote in reference to the lack of clarity of the economic plan adopted by the national Government.
Javier Miley
“She doesn’t understand economics”
President Javier Milei’s response to the former head of state was not long in coming. “(Cristina Fernández) does not understand what she says. If there is one thing that is clear, it is that she does not know about economics and the economists who surround her are quite bad. The disaster they caused to Argentina is more than evident, so in that sense,” he indicated during the interview that the president gave to the streaming channel Neura. “It is beyond the economists that Kirchnerism, which, clearly, are very bad. I said it the other day at the Stock Exchange, on the anniversary of the Stock Exchange I said: the vast majority of economists in Argentina are idiots, they are stupid. And one of the things that became clear to me this week is that not only are they stupid, but some should give back their degree, they should have their degree taken away because they no longer even pass the first lesson in economics,” he continued.
Alberto Fernandez
“I have never heard anything so absurd”
President Javier Milei’s criticism of the director of the IMF, the Chilean Rodrigo Valdés, and his alleged complicity with the former Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and with Kirchnerism, did not go unnoticed by former President Alberto Fernández. The former president used his account on “X” to respond to this question and also to the statements that Milei has made regarding the group of Latin American leaders. “It is evident that he does not want to see that the IMF considers his government program inconsistent. That is the problem. It is not an ideological reason. I must remember that the IMF was brought to Argentina by his partner, the former president (Mauricio) Macri,” replied Fernández. The head of the Justicialist Party uploaded to his account a fragment of the report that Alejandro Fantino made to the libertarian economist. And he attached the following message: “Hearing this shakes me. The libertarian president says that the São Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group appointed the head of the IMF mission to Argentina. I have never heard anything so absurd.”
From Pablo
“A symptom of the times”
In the midst of this political discussion, the renowned economist and professor Juan Carlos de Pablo appeared and put the emphasis on the words uttered by the President against the official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “The IMF always spoke privately with two officials from each of the member countries and nothing more. Now it has become customary for everyone to speak in public, and that is outrageous. Now it turns out that they have a good heart, that they care about the poor. I don’t like it at all, but it is a symptom of the times,” De Pablo questioned in dialogue with CNN Radio. As if this were not enough, the consultant has pointed out that we must not lose focus on the fact that Argentina needs the disbursements of that organization to survive. “The big discussion with the Fund is whether they are going to put in fresh money or if we are talking about the same numbers as in the 2022 agreement. It seems to me that there is no fresh money,” he said. In this regard, De Pablo called for prudence from the Government when it comes to getting into debt. “The only thing we need is to go into debt for US$20 billion to get out of the currency controls. I don’t understand the rush to get out of the currency controls or the wonders that would bring,” he said.
Martin Guzman
Not all that glitters is gold
The shipment of gold to the Bank of Basel (BIS) was another axis of political and economic controversy. The Minister of Economy Luis Caputo admitted that the Government sent gold abroad as part of a strategy to manage international reserves “more efficiently.” That operation was criticized by the former Minister of Economy of the presidential administration of Alberto Fernández, Martín Guzmán. “Is this why (President) Javier Milei, Luis Caputo and (President of the Central Bank) Santiago Bausili are taking the gold from the Central Bank out of the country?” he wrote on his “X” account. And, at the same time, he questioned the presidential decision to use Repo to pay debts next year no matter what, according to Milei. “Clarification: a repo is like pawning your grandmother’s jewelry. You give the gold in exchange for dollars. Then you have to return the dollars to get the gold back. If you don’t have the dollars, the pawn shop (in this case, an international bank) keeps the gold,” Guzmán added.
Fausto Spotorno
“It seems that the ground is being prepared to break free from the trap”
Economist Fausto Spotorno left the Council of Economic Advisers of President Javier Milei and downplayed the situation. He also evaluated a possible lifting of the restrictions after the measures aimed at narrowing the exchange rate gap, assuring that the Government “would seem to be preparing the ground for that, but there is still no clarity on that path.” The analyst had questioned the announcement of the beginning of the second stage of the economic stabilization plan and that was one of the reasons why his continued closeness to the libertarian was hurt. It was a “quite peaceful” departure and without “any problems,” said the economist in dialogue with the program Esta Mañana on Radio Rivadavia. In this regard, he explained that the departure was agreed upon because “I was already half in doubt and in the end I suppose there must have been a request, but in the last conversation it was already defined because neither I wanted to be there, nor was the Government so eager for me to be there.”