09/17/2020 - 17:34
Clarín.com
Opinion
In the absence of a plan, good slogans are.
At least that seems to be the idea of the President.
"
The dollars are to produce, not to save," he
said
,
defending the tightening of the exchange rate, the same economic instrument that he strongly condemned in the electoral campaign.
The four million or so Argentines who had a surplus to access the US $ 200 allowed in August
think differently
.
A few of the most important leaders of the ruling party too: according to their latest sworn statements, almost all of Alberto Fernández's ministers, from Santiago Cafiero to Juan Cabandié, including Martín Guzmán himself and including figures such as Marcó del Pont and Máximo Kirchner, they
have part of their savings in dollars
, as recorded in a note from
La Nación
.
Some of them, a lot of dollars.
Not surprising: any Argentine native or by choice has known, for half a century, that the most practical way of caring for silver is to put it green.
It is not that we are bad, perverse or anti-patriotic:
nobody wants to lose or give away their own
, basically because it costs a lot to get it.
It is a fact, not a financial theory or an ideological position.
The dollars saved by the executive staff show as nothing, due to their brutal contrast
between what is said and what is done
, that the new stock is another patch in a government more inclined to patch than to seek substantive solutions.
It only advances in a methodical and forceful way in the matters that concern Cristina, which range from the removal of judges "annoying" for their investigations into corruption, to occupying the largest possible number of key positions in the administration with a view to the elections of medium term, but also those of 2023.
The
slogan
, until now the
highest expression of Albertism
, may have its origin in the academic imprint of various officials.
It is expressed, for example, when Minister Guzmán says: "We do not see the blue dollar as a reference for prices."
However, they do see the hardware store around here, the clothing salesman from the other block and not to mention the one with a factory.
The jump of the blue, one of the ten variants of the dollar that we knew how to achieve, was sung, as was the next jump in inflation, which registered a slightly friendly 2.7% in August, with many artificially braked prices filling the pot with pressure .
That, everyone knows,
ends in devaluation in the long run or in the short
.
And before a devaluation, the best thing is to have made a joint in dollars.
Closed circle.
An MBA from Harvard is unnecessary (it is enough to have lived a few decades in these lands) to conclude that the fundamental problem of our economy, which has many and serious problems,
is political
.
Confidence in our currency is low, but it becomes null when certain signs of the government's ability to get out of the hole are not seen.
Its limited achievements have been a slow settlement with private creditors and a debatable handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is true that the inheritance was complicated (recession, fiscal deficit and high inflation in almost the entire last decade, plus the quarantine), but at this point the repeated refusal to face
the broad demand for an economic plan
only increases mistrust about the existence of some kind of clarity in the direction to take, on an issue that with half the population below the poverty line does not admit further delays.
"My impression is that
the President is groggy
, as was De La Rúa or myself when he governed," was Eduardo Duhalde's impious diagnosis this Monday, beyond the fact that it is not the former president's best moment as an analyst of reality after his skidding on a possible blow.
It is a stark vision that finds support in the
sum of setbacks
that the Government accumulated in recent weeks: land seizures, the Buenos Aires protest, the death of Astudillo Castro, a contagion curve that does not drop, the questioned judicial reform, the fight with the "affluent" Buenos Aires for co-participation, the exile of some companies and a series of unfortunate statements, such as questioning the merit of merit as a tool for social mobility.
In the middle, that the K militancy has transformed the ad eternum postponement of the return of classes into one of its crusades seems like a
minor anecdote
.
Here we are.
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