Argentina

[cottonpicken]

Has anyone been there?what is the culture like or your impression as a whole?Klause did you say you where from there?

Once you get past the smoke screen of problems and look at the numbers it may be the place to be in the future. They need to hit bottom and get new leadership first but it sure sounds like an interesting place.

[sumdumguy]

It would be great to join a travel club.

[Hopalong]

Recommend a trip there to some who are so critical of our own governments and governing system.
Beautiful farmland, climate and lots of resources but has gone from one of the world's wealthier nations a century ago to where it is now, suffering from fiscal mismanagement.
Be interesting to hear views on why the people allowed it.

[vvalk]

Basically a barter economy now. Inflation is so bad

[cottonpicken]

Its out there on the timeline but if they get anyone pro business they have alot of underlying things going on.The oppurtunity is in their current bond market.

[Klause]

Yes cp I was born in Argentina and am a citizen still. Have family that farms and some that lives in Buenos Aires.


I remember this barter economy when I was a kid... it's insane. Adding zeros to currency bills with a pen and they were legal tender.



Mom at the time worked for Daimler Benz' s heavy truck / industrial division in HR. Made 700 million pesos a month (she has the pay stubs yet to show). By the next month that wasn't enough to pay for groceries.

My parents didn't keep a penny in the bank. Dad bought bullion. Mom invested in a winery anything real.

Any time the socialists gain power the country plunges into disaster... socialists down there make our NDP look like conservatives.


Very rich culture and heritage... In good times a very industrious people... but a different slower way of life than we have in NA.


Agriculture( grains coffee palm and wine) oil gas and lots of industry around Buenos Aires is what the Country runs on.

We are planning a trip down there one of these years...

[charliep]

Vacationed there in March 2013. Buenos Aires, Mendosa, Corbova, Salta, Iguazu
Falls plus smaller towns in the north. Truly a beautiful country rich in heritage. If you like wine, you will love the country. Other than the differences in exchange rate between the official one and the street one, you don't notice things as a tourist. You talk to the people and they are very vocal about what they think of their government.

You do get a glimpse of their history. I was really impacted by the museums about the dirty war in Argentina between I think about 1976 and 1983. You have to understand a lot of history to understand the current situation of a country.

[liberty]

Up until the early post-World War Two years, Argentina had a standard of living not far off that of North America. It was widely recognized as an agricultural powerhouse. The Peron years quickly destroyed all that with an all-out effort to impose a socialist economy with rampant inflation. Very similar to what recently happened in Zimbabwe.

[cottonpicken]

Kirtshner,sp?,is a disater,she couldnt run a popcorn stand along with her 20 something year old finance minister.

Inflation close to 40ish,massively underreported,currency around 8,black market 13ish,bond yields 13, current account in the minus because of petrol imports,former default to the bond holders in court(maybe that got settled),another 40 ish devaluation coming,but....

New massive carbon discovery,balance that trade problem,debt/gdp38%,very little of central government tax revenue to service once the dust settles and they can access global capital markets,so you end up with major compression in the bond market,even countries like greece are at 7%.

-this analysis was not done by me,but it made sense.

What i do think is we are seeing is a reverse bond vigilantes who basically are going out and buying high yield,hopefully catching a currency move to the upside.The yen carry trade could fuel a whole lot of things,and maybe thats the big plan,but i'm just shooting in the dark with all this.

[cottonpicken]

Klause,pretty spooky how much your parents and i think alike,lol,so sorry you guys went through weimar and argentina.

[Happytrails]

We toured Argentina for 2 weeks this past January. Like others have said the country used to be among the world's wealthy and now is not. I came to the conclusion that this is due to the power of the Catholic Church, large land holdings in the hand of a few, and socialist politics. It is a bad mix.

While we were there the finance minister declared that "export agriculture is a poor fit for Argentina because it leaves too many people behind." What can you do with that kind of thinking? At the same time the government came out with an program to assist impoverished 18 to 24 year olds. Say what??

Oh, and voting is allowed at age 16 and is mandatory at 18. Rural areas show many decades of neglect. Roads and electricity are scarce and mostly supplied by the landowners. Otherwise in the pampas there is 3 feet of black soil, 40 inches of rain, and a 250 frost free days. Big production potential. However a third of the 40 million population lives in Buenos Aires and they are the major political power.

[ado089]

When I get rich farming I want to buy a stag hunt farm in Patagonia and a vineyard near mendoza.