Yes there was. I own billions of pre-World War II German marks. I bought them over the years at antique stores and coins shops for a total of.....oh, somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.35............. give or take a dollar.
Posted on 12/31/2001 11:14:42 PM PST by Pokey78
Eduardo Duhalde, a Peronist senator, is expected to be elected Argentina's latest interim president on Tuesday, to become the country's fifth head of state in only two weeks.
Mr Duhalde was favoured to be named the post by a session of Congress due to begin on Tuesday afternoon.
Congress on Monday agreed to postpone presidential elections due in March after the resignation on Sunday night of two leading politicians, including interim president Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, had plunged the country deeper into political and economic crisis.
Mr Rodríguez Saá said he did not have the full backing of his own Peronist party to remain in the job.
Immediately afterwards, Ramon Puerta, the Peronist head of the senate and next in line for the job, also quit, citing ill health. Mr Puerta had already served as the country's interim president for 48 hours last week.
The leader of Argentina's lower House, Eduardo Camano, was then named as interim president. He will hold the office until the Congress meets on Tuesday to elect a new president who will serve until the next scheduled elections, now due in 2003.
The Peronist party, which took over after the resignation 10 days ago of Fernando de la Rúa, has been torn apart by internal bickering over who should run the country.
"This attitude does not give me any other choice but to resign," Mr Rodríguez Saá said on a nationally-televised address from his home province of San Luis.
In a pointed attack on José Manuel de la Sota, the governor of Cordoba province, Mr Rodríguez Saá said the presidential hopeful had put his own ambitions ahead of the good of the country.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr Rodríguez Saá had held meetings with Peronist provincial governors in an effort to pick a new cabinet that would enjoy wider support.
One week ago, Mr Rodríguez Saá defaulted on the country’s $155bn in public debt and announced the creation of a "third currency" – the argentino – that was to have been launched in two weeks and circulated alongside the peso and the US dollar.
That plan now appears to be dead, with rival Peronist leaders in open disagreement over which policies to adopt to deal with the deepening economic crisis.
On Saturday, Mr Rodríguez Saá had spoken to President George W. Bush, who reiterated the US commitment to provide technical assistance through the International Monetary Fund.
But the previous day David Exposito, president of the state-owned Banco de la Nacion and one of the main proponents of Mr Rodríguez Saá's economic plan, had resigned after comments he made on the new currency sparked an outcry.
Mr Exposito had said the government could print up to $15bn of the new currency without triggering inflation. The estimate - far higher than those of private sector economists - fuelled fears the government was set to begin financing public spending by printing money.
The latest events came as an estimated 15,000 people, mainly from middle class neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires, took to the streets in a mass protest against some appointments in the new government, sparking the resignation of the entire cabinet.
The protests were triggered by a supreme court decision to uphold bank controls, which have limited people to withdrawing $1,000 a month from their accounts.
Some 12 policemen were injured as the protests turned violent. Nationwide rioting and looting had also toppled the government of Mr De la Rúa little over a week ago, and thirty-two people have been killed and more than a thousand injured in two weeks of violence.
Under a controversial decision by the Peronist-dominated congress, Argentina is due to hold fresh elections on March 3 to choose a president to serve out the remaining two years of Mr De la Rúa's term.
However, that decision has been challenged in the courts as unconstitutional and rival Peronist leaders are divided over whether to proceed with that plan.
So, they can print 15 billion dollars worth of money, and it won't cause inflation? Where's the backing behind the currency? Oops, maybe I'm too old-fashioned. Wasn't there a similar situation in Germany after WWI when the people were using baskets of million-mark notes to fuel their cookstoves? Hitler followed.
juan?
jorge?
jose?
emilio?
tuco?
Yes there was. I own billions of pre-World War II German marks. I bought them over the years at antique stores and coins shops for a total of.....oh, somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.35............. give or take a dollar.
Semper Fi
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