Tag Archives: Argentina

Please Export This To America

Posted on by

On Saturday, The Geller Report reported that for the first time in 123 years, Argentina does not have a budget deficit! They actually have a surplus.

The article reports:

Under Milei’s leadership, Argentina turned a $7.94B trade deficit in 2023 into a record-smashing $18-19B surplus in 2024, surpassing the previous high of $16.89B in 2009.

The article quotes Reuters:

Jan 17 (Reuters) – Argentina brought in its first budget surplus in more than a decade in 2024, data published on Friday showed, marking a win for libertarian President Javier Milei and his sweeping austerity push in his first full year in office.
The nation’s budget surplus came in at 1.76 trillion pesos, or 0.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the full year, the economy ministry said. Meanwhile the primary fiscal balance, which excludes debt payments, was up to a 10.41 trillion peso surplus, or 1.8% of the GDP.

So it is possible. Keep in mind that the media did everything it could to keep Milei from being elected. He is popular with the people but not with the media or the previous government establishment. He has done in Argentina exactly what needs to be done in America.

What Happens When You Enforce The Law

Posted on by

On December 27th, PJ Media posted an article about crimes against women in Argentina. After closing Argentina’s women’s ministry last year, the country has seen a 10% reduction in the murder rate of women.

The article reports:

2024 saw a 10% increase in un-murdered women even though the defunct ministry had an Undersecretariat of Special Programmes against Gender-based Violence, if you can imagine such a thing. The since-fired Undersecretariat must be incredibly disappointed to learn that her job had been phony-baloney all along.

What did happen after Milei closed the Ministry was that he also adopted a tough-on-crime posture. According to a translation of Milei’s announcement, “The decrease is attributed to a zero-tolerance policy on violent offenders, not bureaucratic spending or activist-driven initiatives.” By some stroke of luck, cracking down on crime resulted in less crime. Lefties worldwide are scratching their heads at the news. 

Various reports refer to a “Ministry of Women,” but that’s not technically correct. 

Argentina used to have a National Institute for Women — a department so vital to the functioning of government, democracy, and women that it was only founded in 2017. Two years later, it received a major upgrade to the Ministry of Women, Genders, and Diversity.

The article concludes:

So how does a nation get a National Institute for Women Plus Inevitable Expensive Upgrades, anyway?

It goes something like this — and I think you’ll find the process familiar:

    • Ambitious Politician: We’ve got to do something to save women from murderers!
    • Normal Skeptic: That could be worthwhile. Depends on what you have in mind.
    • AP: I’m going to establish a National Institute for Women.
    • NS: What will the institute do?
    • AP: It will spend a crap-ton of money on bureaucrats and functionaries in a fancy building!
    • NS: How will they, you know, actually protect women from murderers?
    • AP: WHY DO YOU WANT WOMEN TO DIE?
    • Congress: Here’s eleventy billion dollars.

Milei understands that the way to stop killers is with local law enforcement, not an expensive, feel-good, do-nothing national bureaucracy. 

There’s a lesson here for this country, too. We have a Department of Education that spends eleventy billion dollars each year to micromanage the decline of what used to be the finest public education system in the world. You can’t reform these ministries, departments, or bureaus.

You’ve got to take a chainsaw to them.

I hope the DOGE people are learning from this!

What Happens When You Elect Good Government

Posted on by

On Christmas Eve, The Epoch Times posted an article about Argentinian President Javier Milei’s first year in office. He definitely has moved Argentina in the right direction.

The article reports:

On his first anniversary as president of Argentina, Javier Milei announced the initial results of his relentless campaign to cut government spending, eliminate regulations, and pare back the country’s administrative state.

“Today, with pride and hope, I can tell you that we have passed the test of fire,” Milei told Argentinians last week. “We are leaving the desert, the recession is over, and the country has finally begun to grow.”

When Milei took office in November 2023, Argentina, once one of the world’s 10 richest countries, was in a dysfunctional state. Having defaulted on its sovereign debt three times since 2001, it was on track to do it again.

Its annual inflation rate was approaching 200 percent, its poverty rate was above 40 percent, its growth rate was negative 1.6 percent, its fiscal deficit was 15 percent of GDP, and it was running a chronic trade deficit.

Argentinians wanted change and voted the self-proclaimed libertarian into office with the largest majority a presidential candidate has received since free elections were reinstated in 1983, taking 55.7 percent of the vote over his opponent, incumbent economy minister Sergio Massa, who received 44.3 percent.

Over the past year, Milei eliminated 10 of Argentina’s 18 government ministries, capped the salaries of top bureaucrats, and fired 34,000 public employees, cutting government spending by 30 percent.

America is heading to the place Argentina was before President Milei took office. Hopefully, President Trump will get results similar to those of President Milei.

The article notes:

Upon taking office, Milei’s administration operated as if it were in a race against time, scrambling to deliver some sign of a brighter future before voters’ patience ran out.
During his first month in office, Milei issued a “mega-decree” that included 366 regulatory reforms, according to a report by Cato political analyst Ian Vasquez and Human Freedom Index co-author Guillermina Sutter Schneider.

By the end of his first year, that had climbed to 672 regulatory reforms enacted, along with the elimination of 331 regulations and modification of 341 others.

These included actions such as eliminating import licenses and lifting rent controls. These acts ultimately led to a 35 percent reduction in the price of home appliances and a 20 percent reduction in the cost of clothing, the authors write, as well as a sharp increase in available rental apartments in Buenos Aires that brought a significant drop in rent prices.

I hope the incoming Trump administration is taking notes.

What A Difference Leadership Makes

Posted on by

This is not an article about America–this is an article about Argentina. On Saturday, The Independent Sentinel posted an article about Argentina’s President Milei.

The article includes the following Tweet:

Wow.

Please follow the link to the article. There are some rough times ahead for Argentina as the President puts things in order, but the future looks bright. The poverty rate in Argentina initially went up, but now is moving down quickly. The country’s economy will contract this year, but is expected to grow 5 percent next year. President Milei has done amazing things.

How To Get The Job Done

Posted on by

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the inflation rate in Argentina since President Javier Milei took office.

The article reports:

The National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina (INDEC) announced on Thursday that the country’s inflation rate for September was 3.5 percent.

September’s result marks the lowest inflation rate recorded in Argentina since November 2021 and is the result of President Javier Milei’s “shock therapy” economic measures that have steadily reduced inflation from 25.5 percent at the time he took office in December 2023 to September’s 3.5 percent.

Milei’s policies aim to overturn Argentina’s years-long economic crisis exacerbated under leftist governments, which dramatically worsened during the administration of Milei’s predecessor, socialist former President Alberto Fernández (2019-2023).

The article concludes:

Milei has insisted that his “zero deficit” fiscal goals for Argentina are “non-negotiable,” a pursuit he reiterated last week when he vetoed a university financing bill that the government branded as “irresponsible” and a danger to the nation’s fiscal balance. Milei reaffirmed that he would veto any bill that infringes upon fiscal balance. The veto was upheld by the Argentine Congress on Wednesday.

Milei’s policies, in addition to steadily reducing inflation over the past nine months from 25.5 percent in December 2023 to 3.5 percent in September, also allowed Argentina to experience its first Gross Domestic Product (GDP) surplus since 2008, overturning a 15 percent GDP deficit that the country faced at the time he took office in December.

America could learn a lot from what is happening in Argentina!

What A Difference An Election Made

Posted on by

On Monday, Breitbart posted the following headline:

Argentina Logs First Week with No Inflation in Food Prices in 30 Years

This is one of many positive results of the election of President Javier Milei, who began his term as President in December 2023.

The article reports:

A study published on Sunday by Econométrica, a private Argentine consulting firm, first reported the no-inflation week. In its study, Econométrica analyzed 8,000 prices in local online supermarkets and found no change when compared to the preceding week — something that has not happened in Argentina in three decades. In addition to the lack of variation in prices in one week, the study found that the prices of food and drinks only experienced an increase of 0.1 percent in the past 15 days.

…Upon taking office in December, Milei enacted a series of “shock therapy” economic policies to restore Argentina’s economy after nearly two decades of socialist rule left it in a precarious state and on the verge of a hyperinflation spiral.

Since then, monthly inflation rates in Argentina have experienced a dramatic and continued downward trend, going from 25.5 percent in December to 4.2 percent in May, the lowest rate experienced in the country in over two years. In April, Argentina recorded a surplus of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the first quarter of the year — something that the South American nation had not seen since 2008.

Milei is in the Czech Republic on the final stop of a four-day tour of Europe that began on Friday with a visit to Spain, followed by a two-day stop in Germany over the weekend that included an encounter with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Milei is slated to meet with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala on Monday morning.

The article concludes:

Milei also confirmed that his administration would not promote a devaluation of the Argentine peso, echoing statements by Economy Minister Luis Caputo last week where he ruled out such plans. Caputo instead said he would continue implementing the current plan, which focuses on maintaining a good relationship with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and upholding a currency exchange system that allows companies to sell 20 percent of their income in U.S. dollars in the financial market and settle the remaining 80 percent at the official exchange rate.

“There are professionals who, in order to justify and wash their mistakes, make unfortunate arguments, which speak more about what they want to happen than what really has to happen,” Milei said. “There are sectors that find it convenient to have low dollar salaries and more poor and indigent people, and we believe that the situation works in a different way.”

This could happen in America with the proper election results.

The Great Reset May Have Just Been Reset

Posted on by

On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the recent elections in Europe. It seems that a lot of countries in the world are getting tired and being controlled by a global elite that believes in rules for thee but not for me. Just as Brexit was one of the indicators that President Trump might be victorious in 2016, the current elections in Europe might indicate a world-wide trend (as in Argentina and El Salvador).

The article reports:

After polls closed in all European Union countries, the center-right group in the European Parliament that currently holds the most seats gained the most, while the centrist Renew Europe group and the Greens group lost the most seats in the union’s parliament.

Right-wing parties didn’t quite make the substantial gains that were predicted.

The largest political group in the European Parliament, the center-right European People’s Party, gained 10 seats, according to the early counts released by the European Parliament as of 4:20 p.m. on June 10. The preliminary counts also identified the biggest losers as Renew Europe, losing 23 seats, and the Greens/European Free Alliance, losing 18 seats.

The number of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) not affiliated with any political group decreased by 17.

Voters also elected 55 new MEPs who were not allied to any of the political groups of the outgoing Parliament, according to early counts. They will have an opportunity to join any existing political group, form new groups, or stay unaffiliated, according to an EU spokesperson.
The EU requires that at least 23 MEPs representing one-quarter of EU nations must come together to form a political group.

The article notes:

The star of a stunning electoral night was the right-wing French National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, which dominated the French polls to such an extent that French President Emmanuel Macron immediately dissolved the national parliament and called for a new election.

Ms. Le Pen’s party is estimated to have won more than 30 percent of the vote, or about twice as much as the coalition that includes Mr. Macron’s Renaissance party, which is projected to reach less than 15 percent of support.

“We’re ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the French, ready to put an end to mass immigration,” Ms. Le Pen said.

Her party can potentially gain 12 seats in the European Parliament.

With almost all ballots counted, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy party is predicted to win about 28 percent of the vote, more than four times what it took in the last EU election in 2019 and exceeding the 26 percent it secured in the 2022 national ballot when it rose to power.

The party is allied with the right-wing ECR parliamentarian group and is expected to gain 14 seats in the European Parliament.

Its opposition center-left Democratic Party is predicted to get 24 percent of the vote, while another opposition group, the Five Star Movement, came third with nearly 10 percent, according to the parliament’s projection.

My interpretation on this is that people are moving away from the extreme control of the political left. Farmers want to farm, ranchers want to ranch, and generally people want to be left alone by their government. It will be interesting to see if the populist movement also triumphs in America. America used to lead, but in this case I would be happy to see America follow.

Did He Really Say That?

Posted on by

Every now and again a politician accidentally says the quiet part out loud. One of the things people are considering right now is what happens if President Trump is re-elected in November. Will he be able to keep his pledge of deporting illegal immigrants? What impact will the threat of deportation have on those who are currently living off the American taxpayer in America?

On Saturday, PJ Media posted an article that provides some clues as to what will happen if President Trump is elected.

The article reports:

The border crisis has gotten so bad that immigration has become one of the top issues of the presidential campaign and it is hurting Joe Biden so badly that he’s pretending to finally take the border situation by, you know, only letting a couple million illegals come into the country a year. Trump, however, says that, if elected, he’ll do everything he can to deport the illegals that came in under Biden.

But, according to Barack Obama’s former ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman, Trump may not have to do that, because if Trump is reelected, illegals living high on the taxpayer’s dime in the United States will just flee to Canada.

“Brace for a possible tsunami of illegal migrants if Trump is re-elected,” reads the headline at the Canadian “National Post.”

According to columnist Tasha Kheiriddin, “there are three very real dangers posed by the election of Trump 2.0 that politicians need to pay attention to, according to former U.S. ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman, who presented them to a security conference in Ottawa earlier this week.”

The first “danger” is the mass deportation of illegal immigrants from the United States.

The article concludes:

Canada is already facing a housing crisis and tightening our own rules on student visas and temporary workers,” writes Kheiriddin. “We are in no position to accommodate a mass influx of migrants, so the question hangs in the air: what would we do?”

That’s your problem Canada. The United States clearly can’t handle them either. If Canada wants to be proactive about the problem, when Donald Trump wins, they can allocate resources to help us deport illegals and secure our southern border if they don’t want to be burdened with all the illegals.

Maybe it’s time to take an honest look at some of the South American governments that are responsible for the majority of illegal aliens. Some South American countries have recently turned from chaotic countries without the rule of law into responsible democracies (El Salvador and Argentina). We can’t fight their revolutions for the remaining countries, but we can stop supporting corrupt governments and drug lords (which our open-border policy is currently doing). We also need to question why so many military-age single Chinese men are entering our country illegally. An open border is a security problem, and I am hopeful that we can close our border before we find out how much of a security problem it is.

 

Good News As The Result Of Not Caving To Political Pressure

Posted on by

On February 12th, Front Page Magazine posted an article about the rescue of two of the October 7th hostages in Gaza.

The article reports:

After months of fighting, Hamas had been forced to fall back to its stronghold in Rafah on the Egyptian border.

And the pressure on Israel not to go into Rafah intensified. Not only AOC and Bernie Sanders, but Biden warned Israel not go in because of the “humanitarian impact”.

Israel went in and brought out two hostages.

Are any of the people talking about “humanitarian impact” thinking about the fact that Hamas has been holding people hostage since October 7th. Has anyone considered the fact that at least thirty of the hostages are known to have been killed–either dying in captivity of their injuries on October 7th or killed in captivity by Hamas. Why isn’t the pressure on Hamas–if they released the hostages and surrendered, the war would be over. If Israel stops fighting, there will be more war.

The article notes:

Bringing two hostages home is a moral triumph for Israel.

After the previous hostage deal, Hamas supporters, including AOC, kept hammering home the claim that the only way to free the hostages is to cut a deal with Hamas. But cutting deals with terrorists just leads to more dead bodies and more hostages.

Finally, by leading the operation with a successful hostage rescue, Israel reversed at least some of the narrative about Rafah. The pro-Hamas crowd will double and triple down, as they always do, but after months of war, there is a moment of genuine joy.

Argentina President Javier Milei, who was recently in Israel, expressed appreciation for the rescue of the two hostages, who were Argentinian nationals, and there has been singing and dancing all over the world.

The Biden administration is betting on the wrong team. Israel is not the problem. Israel is not the one who started this. Israel is not the one committing criminal acts against civilians.

Can We Elect Argentina’s President As America’s President This Year?

Posted on by

On December 27th, Headline USA reported the following:

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Newly sworn-in Argentina President Javier Milei purged over 5,000 government bureaucrats, fulfilling a campaign pledge to reduce the size of the inflation-burdened federal government. 

According to the Spanish-language newspaper El Pais, Milei signed an executive order to halt the contracts of federal workers hired in 2023, likely targeting individuals hired by his former leftist predecessor.

The order came after the capitalist president vowed to rescue Argentina from widespread corruption, inflation and wasteful government spending. 

El Pais reported that some disabled and indispensable employees will be exempt from the layoffs. However, the Argentine government announced a comprehensive audit within the next 90 days, hinting at potential future layoffs. 

The article notes that President Milei has been compared to President Trump in that President Trump has also pledged to shrink the federal government if he is elected in 2024. It will be interesting to watch the consequences of such a drastic change.

Stating The Obvious

Posted on by

Posting this article is going to get me in trouble with some of my friends who believe that recreational drug use is no big deal, but it’s time to look at the bigger picture.

On Sunday, The Western Journal reported:

Not only did last week see the election of a libertarian fan of former President Donald Trump to the presidency of Argentina, another new South American leader much closer to the border just overturned a policy in his own country that U.S. leftists have been pushing for years.

Maybe progressives can learn something from the neighbors to the south.

On Friday, according to Agence France-Presse, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa dumped a policy of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs, declaring that it  “encourages micro-trafficking in schools and creates a whole generation of addicted children.”

It applies to “up to 10 grams of marijuana, 2 grams of cocaine paste, 1 gram of cocaine, 0.10 grams of heroin, and 0.04 grams of amphetamine” for personal use, according to the Washington Examiner.

The policy was instituted a decade ago by the country’s then-president, socialist Rafael Correa, according to AFP.

The article notes what happened when Oregon decriminalized drugs:

The idea was, ostensibly, to”transform addiction by minimizing penalties for drug use and investing instead in recovery,” the Post reported.

But in a result that should have surprised literally no one with any sense, things haven’t worked out quite that way. Drug use has grown, gotten worse, and gotten more deadly.

As the Post (The Washington Post) reported, “even top Democratic lawmakers who backed the law, which will likely dominate the upcoming legislative session, say they’re now open to revisiting it after the biggest increase in synthetic opioid deaths among states that have reported their numbers.”

Even the leftist publication The Atlantic has been compelled to report the results of Oregon’s experiment as a failure.

A population that has clear mental facilities will always result in a better society.

We Need Much More Of This

Posted on by

CBN News is reporting the following today:

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and their international counterparts arrested 113 alleged child predators across the US and South America from Nov. 2 – 6 in what is described by the Department of Homeland Security as phase seven of Operation Protected Childhood. (OPCVII)

Working in cooperation with Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and the Public Security and the Public Security Secretariat for Integrated Operation Cyber Laboratory, the agency’s operation simultaneously targeted the distributors and producers of child sexual abuse material throughout the Americas.

Law enforcement agencies in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Panama coordinated with Homeland Security field offices in their respective countries during the sweep.

Here in the US, Homeland Security field offices working with local law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, California, Colorado, and Florida executed a combined 13 child exploitation-related search warrants and made nine arrests for child exploitation offenses. 

Simultaneously, international law enforcement partners in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Panama also executed search warrants in their respective countries, totaling the following arrests: 

    • Brazil – 137 child exploitation related search warrants and 74 arrests
    • Argentina – 37 child exploitation related search warrants and 23 arrests
    • Paraguay – 2 child exploitation related search warrants and 2 arrests
    • Panama – 7 child exploitation related search warrants and 5 arrests

ICE officials especially praised Brazil for its efforts in the ongoing Operation Protected Childhood.

Thank God for law enforcement officers who are willing to search out and find the people exploiting innocent children. Please follow the link to read the entire article for further details.

Sometimes We Don’t Know All We Think We Know

Posted on by

Yesterday France 24 posted an article detailing a series of events that contradict everything scientists think they know about the coronavirus.

The article reports:

Argentina is trying to solve a medical mystery after 57 sailors were infected with the coronavirus after 35 days at sea, despite the entire crew testing negative before leaving port.

The Echizen Maru fishing trawler returned to port after some of its crew began exhibiting symptoms typical of COVID-19, the health ministry for the southern Tierra del Fuego province said Monday.

According to the ministry, 57 sailors, out of 61 crew members, were diagnosed with the virus after undergoing a new test.

However, all of the crew members had undergone 14 days of mandatory quarantine at a hotel in the city of Ushuaia. Prior to that, they had negative results, the ministry said in a statement.

The article notes:

The head of the infectious diseases department at Ushuaia Regional Hospital, Leandro Ballatore, said he believed this is a “case that escapes all description in publications, because an incubation period this long has not been described anywhere.”

“We cannot yet explain how the symptoms appeared,” said Ballatore.

We really don’t know a lot about how this virus is spread or exactly how it works. It is a new virus, and it is going to take us a while to sort out how it spreads and how long it takes for people to come down with it.

What A Great Idea!

Posted on by

Yesterday One America News posted an article about the use of robots to sanitize places and things to stop the spread of the virus.

The article reports:

A company from Argentina is using robots in the fight against the coronavirus. UVD Robotics has been testing a new product that can sanitize both spaces and objects with ultraviolet light.

On Friday, developers tested the robot on a bus, where it was able to clean seats, walls and floor using just UV light.

According to the World Health Organization, cleaning products with chemicals such as bleach or hydrogen peroxide traditionally are only 60 percent effective against germs. UV light reportedly eliminates bacteria 99 percent of the time.

“Ultraviolet light is a light that the sun emits naturally,” explained CEO Martin Gonzalez. “In this case, we use type ‘C,’ which is very high energy and works by destroying the DNA of bacteria, the RNA in the case of viruses, thus avoiding propagation or spread.”

He added the robot can also be used to protect health care workers, who are being exposed to bacteria in hospital rooms.

What a great idea! You don’t have to clean up chemicals, you don’t have to worry about inhaling fumes, and almost all of the germs are killed.

Who Does This Man Represent?

Posted on by

America is a Representative Republic. Americans vote for people to go to Washington, D.C., to represent them. Lately it seems as if we might not be doing a really good job of that. Generally speaking, I am not sure who most of the people in Washington represent. However, a recent speech by President Obama really makes me wonder.

Paul Mirengoff posted an article at Power Line today about President Obama’s speech in Argentina to a Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative meeting.  During the speech, President Obama explained the choice between communism and capitalism.

The article reports:

Obama instructed his young listeners that the question isn’t this system vs. that system, but rather “what works.” In Cuba, he claimed (falsely), communism is working great when it comes to health care. On the other hand, he acknowledged, the country looks like it’s stuck in the 1950s.

The lesson, said Obama, is that markets tend to generate wealth. Thus, they meet his “does it work” test, though they must be heavily regulated. Such is the wisdom imparted by this (once-thought-by many-to-be) towering intellect.

Scandalously, the only argument Obama was willing to make in favor of freedom is its tendency to generate wealth. If communism produced just as much, apparently it would be just as good or better, given the more even distribution of the wealth it purports to produce.

To argue in favor of freedom as a good in itself would, in Obama’s thinking, mean succumbing to ideology. He is much too cool for that.

I infer that during the heyday of the Soviet Union, Obama might well have been a communist. Then it was thought, based on successful propaganda of the kind some now accept when it comes to health care in Cuba, that communism was working fine.

I also infer that Obama may well be a fan of the current Chinese regime. Until recently, many thought it was working quite well.

Below is the video of the speech, as posted on YouTube:

The article at Power Line points out:

Obama’s entire speech is below. His remarks regarding capitalism vs. communism begin at around the 41:00 minute mark.

The difference between communism and capitalism is important to America. We need a President who understands that.

America’s Special Relationship With The British Is In Danger

Posted on by
British flag of the Falkland Islands

British flag of the Falkland Islands (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ed Morrissey posted an article at Hot Air today about the recent vote by the residents of the Falkland Islands to make a statement as to what country they belonged to–Britain or Argentina. When asked if they wanted to remain an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom, 1,511 residents voted “yes.” Three voted “no.”

The article at Hot Air points out:

That result sends a strong message to the UN and other nations attempting to force the UK into bilateral negotiations with Argentina over the fate of the islands, which are almost 300 miles from Argentina’s coast — but which sit near potentially significant oil and gas fields.

Today’s U. K. Telegraph posted the Obama Administration’s reaction to the vote:

“The residents have clearly expressed their preference for a continued relationship with the United Kingdom.”

“That said, we obviously recognize that there are competing claims. Our formal position has not changed. We recognize the de facto UK administration of the islands, but we take no position on sovereignty claims.”

 Needless to say, the British are not too thrilled with this statement.

The article in the U. K. Telegraph concludes:

Today’s statement, made on behalf of Secretary of State John Kerry, is an insult to Great Britain and the brave inhabitants of the Falkland Islands. It is also remarkably petty and mean-spirited. It is a sad day indeed when the only superpower, the leader of the free world, cannot bring itself to back the basic right of self-determination for a peaceful group of Islanders in the South Atlantic for fear of offending a sinking Latin American regime that doesn’t even like America. Officials in the State Department should hold their heads in shame as they promote a policy that is causing a great deal of offence across the Atlantic, and which is a betrayal of the Special Relationship. Mr. Kerry and his team should remember that more than 250 British servicemen gave their lives for the freedom of the Falkland Islanders in 1982, a sacrifice which the United States, of all nations in the world, should be honouring today.

The Obama Administration is more interested in being friends with the enemies of America than with our friends.

Enhanced by Zemanta

This Story Has Been Around For A While–I Don’t Know If It Is True

Posted on by

World Net Daily has been reporting on this story for about two years. I have no doubt that the policy they have been reporting on is something that the Obama Administration would like to do, I am just not sure that they will try it.

Here is the story:

Two years ago, as WND reported, the Obama administration was proceeding with a novel way to finance trillion-dollar budget deficits by forcing IRA and 401(k) holders to buy Treasury bonds by mandating the placement of government-structured annuities in their retirement accounts.

Remarkably, those financial professionals specializing in private retirement savings and the U.S. citizens investing in private retirement plans now face the possibility the Obama administration and its allies on the political left will impose rules and regulations that effectively abolish the private retirement savings and investment markets.

This would definitely redistribute wealth–it would take it away from everyone.

The article further reports:

With the issuance of the White House 256-page Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2013, the Obama administration endorsed “Automatic IRAs,” a plan introduced into Congress in 2010 by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass, and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., in which private companies would be automatically enrolled into government-mandated IRAs, forcing those businesses to contribute on behalf of their employees a “default amount” equal to 3 percent of an employees pay, unless an employee specifically opts out of the plan.

The FY 2013 Budget proposal notes that currently 78 million working Americans, roughly half of the work force, lack employer-based retirement plans.

Argentina has already taken over private retirement plans. This plan has not been successful in solving Argentina’s problems:

Writing in the London Telegraph in October 2008, business and economics editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard warned that G7 nations, including the United States, may begin following the path of Argentina in forcing privately managed pension funds to be invested in government-issued debt.

In 2008, Argentine sovereign debt was trading at 29 cents on the dollar, reflecting the devalued state of the Argentine peso, with the result that private pensioners holding government debt in their retirement accounts could not be assured those bonds would have any meaningful value at maturity

What the government is planning here is called stealing. Privately managed pension funds are not government property.  Meanwhile, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is moving to require the government to create government-mandated worker retirement accounts as an entitlement program, with the possibility that a portion of all private retirement funds could be forced into U.S. Treasury debt. I am not against encouraging companies to set up some sort of retirement savings programs for their employees, but these programs need to be private programs designed in a way that does not put undue burdens on private companies. At the rate Congress makes decisions, Social Security will not be there for today’s workers, and even a Christmas-Club type savings plan (remember Christmas Clubs ?) would be a step in the right direction. However, a government takeover is never a good idea.

Enhanced by Zemanta

The Secret Service Were Not The Only People Caught With Their Pants Down In Columbia

Posted on by

Yesterday Investor’s Business Daily reported on a major event at the Colombian summit that seems to have been overlooked in the reporting.

The article reports:

Never was a response to a global outrage more mealy-mouthed than the one from the U.S. after Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, standing under a portrait of Evita Peron, announced a brazen grab for YPF, the Argentine oil company that’s 57% owned by Spain’s Repsol.

Markets fell, world leaders denounced the violation of contracts and economically battered Spain rallied European Union support.

But the U.S.? “We are following developments on this issue. We are not currently aware of any WTO complaints related to this issue,” the State Department said.

The article points out that Argentina is in financial trouble because of overspending. If Argentina defaults or Spain defaults, the IMF will be called in to do a bailout. That will directly impact the pockets of American taxpayers.

The article reminds us:

Meanwhile, U.S. investors own about 5% of Repsol. Its takeover hurts U.S. investors and our tax base. This should concern the indebted U.S., which if it did what other countries do, would defend its investors.

The U.S. buys 29,000 barrels a day from Argentina, a third of its output, and will need to find a new supplier as that collapses. Worse still, Argentina will lose investment in its vast shale reserves, the world’s third-largest at 22%. As that goes, prices will rise.

Worst of all, the expropriated assets may now go to China, significantly raising its influence in the region.

It sounds as if our State Department was not paying attention to the events around them.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Posted on by

This is a graph from the Cato Institute posted by John Hinderaker at Power Line yesterday.

The article includes the following comments:

The following numbers come from the Economic Freedom of the World, which looks at all facets of economic policy, including regulation, trade policy, monetary policy, fiscal policy, rule of law, and property rights.

* Chile’s score jumped from 5.6 in 1980 to 8.0 in 2008, and the country now ranks as the world’s 4th-freest economy (ahead of the United States!).

* Argentina’s ranking has improved a bit, rising from 4.4 to 6.0 between 1980 and 2008, but that still only puts them in 94th-place in the world rankings.

* Venezuela, by contrast, is embarrassingly bad. The nation’s score has dropped from 6.3 to 4.4, and its ranking has plunged from 22nd-place in 1980 to 121st-place in 2006.

We have a choice in 2012. Which way do we want to go?

 

Enhanced by Zemanta