The Kirchner government has pursued irresponsible economic policiessince Argentina's 2001-2005 sovereign debt default and restructuring, as illustrated in Argentina's steadily decliningscores in the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom. Congress should holdhearings on the threat to both the U.S. economy and the worldfinancial system if more sovereign debtors were to followArgentina's example and repudiate their debts.
By John J. Metzler
This didn t have to happen. But blame toxic politics, the living legacy of the populist Peronist era, and the tipping point of the COVID-19 pandemic, and you discover what is unravelling Argentina s socioeconomic fabric. Sadly we see a resource-rich and formerly middle class country morphing into a tragic parody of bad governance and socialist stagnation.
Argentina is a land where many of the political-isms of the 20th century have been tried, tinkered with and usually failed. There s always been the theatrical touch in politics as much as in soccer, but somehow because of the country s vast resources, hardworking farmers, and last minute political sobriety, Argentina would always muddle through. The coronavirus pandemic changed this paradigm.
But blame toxic politics, the living legacy of the populist Peronist era, and the tipping point of the Corona pandemic, and you discover what is unravelling Argentina’s socio/economic fabric.
26 February 2021
In the 50th anniversary year of the 1971 Communications Agreement between the Falkland Islands and Argentina, Penguin News spoke to a number of Falkland Islanders about their memories of that time (see Penguin News this week) among them former Radio Islands Broadcasting Station Manager Patrick Watts MBE in an exclusive article for Penguin News wrote of his thoughts and recollections.
(Image: An F27 on the temporary Argentine airstrip).
WHEN in late 1970 the Falkland Islands Company (FIC) announced that they would be withdrawing the small freighter/passenger (50) carrying vessel RMS Darwin, which plied monthly between the Islands and Uruguay, it was anticipated by a vast majority of the population that the British Government would automatically, and as a commitment to the Colony, provide a similar type ship to continue the service.