From HDTD’s agent in the Argentine comes the following Facebook group: “Creo q el TREN BALA es un curro más grande que el MONORRIEL de Springfield!”
Translation: “I believe that the Tren Bala is a bigger rip-off than the Springfield monorail!”
Yes, that Springfield. The Simpsons are, I think, a bigger cultural phenomenon in Argentina and Mexico than they are at home. I have no idea what that means, but it has gotta mean something. Right?
It really is an odd project for a country in as much trouble as Argentina. Private groups estimate that CPI inflation has just hit 23%. Farmers are on strike over export taxes again. And strangest of all (since the currency is officially floating) Argentines are running out and trading in their pesos for dollars. The situation got so bad last week that the banks had a mini-crisis when a volcanic explosion delayed flights carrying planeloads of Benjamins from Chile.
It looks like average Argentines are looking at the inflation rate and figuring that the 3.2-to-one exchange rate can't last, even with the dollar's meltdown against the euro. The central bank --- which hasn't really been independent since 2002 --- has burned through a billion dollars propping up the peso this month. Now, that shouldn't be a big deal for a country with US$50 billion in reserves and skyrocketing export prices ... but a country with $50 billion in reserves and skyrocketing export prices should be facing the question of what to do about upward pressure on the currency, not figuring out how and when to devalue. Which isn’t to say that a fall in the peso isn’t what Argentina needs, given spiralling inflation ... it is to say that it’s pretty sad for the country to be in this situation so soon after Kirchner’s debt repudiation gave it so much breathing space.
An Argentine editorial cartoon with a slightly different take below the fold.
“The bullet train project isn’t likely to happen, is it?”
“Well, that’s why we’re going to start calling it the ballad train instead of the bullet train.”
“Ballad train?”
“It’s just the same old song.”
(It works better in Spanish, where the word for “ballad” is the same as the word for “bulleted.”)
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