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Argentine President Javier Milei blamed politics for being unable to fulfill his campaign promise of dollarizing the country's economy, suggesting that such a move could have led to his impeachment. "It's not that it wouldn't have been unfeasible to do that in technical terms, but we did infer that in political terms, politics was going to play dirty," Milei said during an interview with Bloomberg last week. During the interview, Milei spoke of the challenges he faces as the leader of the South American country, including a "bankrupt" central bank and a "fiscal, monetary, and currency disaster of extravagant proportions."...

Argentinians go to the polls today, and one can only hope that conservative/libertarian candidate Javier Milei wins Argentina's presidency in a knockout, with enough votes to win free and clear without having to go to a runoff in November. We all know the reason why: His rabid, determined, enemies will have that much less time to plot against him. It might happen. But it's a nailbiter.

Argentinian President Javier Milei has rolled out a program of austerity measures designed to bring Argentina's economy out of the death spiral that it is in. Once the wealthiest nation in South America, Argentina suffers from a Bidenesque annual inflation rate of 180%. Despite population increases, its economy has shrunk by almost half the years since 1980. Credit for businesses and consumers is nearly impossible to come by...thanks to the triple-digit inflation. Needless to say, there is virtually no foreign investment. Local businesses are hamstrung by regulations that seem designed to prevent business creation or growth. The public sector is...

QUITO, Ecuador - Jorge Subia is nostalgic when he talks about this Andean nation's former currency, the sucre, and bridles with patriotic resentment when he recalls how it was replaced as the official legal tender by the U.S. dollar. "It's a national question of honor. The sucre was ours and now we have the dollar from the United States," said Subia, a truck driver. "The sucre was part of Ecuador, like the nation's flag or the national anthem." This week marks five years since former President Jamil Mahuad's Jan. 9, 2000, decision to phase out the sucre in favor of...

We live in a global world – a world in which all of the walls or barriers between countries have been effectively torn down. In 1945, the political walls were torn down when the United Nations was birthed as each country ceded sovereignty to a global organization. In 1980, the Monetary Deregulation Act was passed, which made it legal for Americans to invest overseas. At the same time, the Group of Seven developed countries passed similar laws beginning the integration of currencies, securities, money and investments. Now, all the nations of the world effectively invest in each others country. In...

01.12.04 | Things have been hectic, I want to write about the muzzle bill (also known as the media Bill), I want to write about the mortgage bill, a tribute to financial stupidity and I want to write about the new bond, but there has been so much going on that I have not had time to do any of it. Moreover, last weekend I wrote my list of “fixes” for the Venezuelan economy but have not had time to talk about them and I don’t want to delay staring that thread, so here is the first installment. First I...

As I can’t find any good articles on this subject, I am turning to my fellow Freepers for your thoughts and comments regarding our future economic standing in the world, as it specifically pertains to the following issues: With the reelection of President Bush, and a republican majority in the house and senate, US economic and trade policies will continue to be typified by conservative policies that facilitate laissez-faire, free-market capitalism, etc. We know this much. HOWEVER, with the maturation of the European Union, and with the prospect of N.A.F.T.A. being extended into the hemispheric Free Trade Area of the...

The Canadian dollar has been dropping in value since Trudeau and his fellow Liberals got control of the Canadian government -- 30 years. At that time it was worth $1.10 US but now it is down close to 60 cents. Sometimes it goes up a cent and the Liberals celebrate but the overall direction is down. Eventually socialist Canadian politicians will have to consider dollarization or consider a dollar worth a dime.