ARGENTINA: Total Financial Collapse, run on banks possible soon BBC

BBC ^

[BlackJack]

A court in Argentina has ruled that a series of emergency banking restrictions designed to protect the financial system are unconstitutional.

Last December, the government drastically limited access to savings to stop a run on bank deposits, and then earlier this year it converted all dollar savings to pesos.

In strictly legal terms, the issues are clear - in an attempt to protect the nation's banks from collapse, the government decided to fence off people's savings Banking analysts say that if the higher courts confirm the ruling, it could be enough to collapse the entire financial system.

But the government has promised to appeal.

The game of brinkmanship between the courts and the government is the way one analyst described the legal battle over the validity of the government's banking restrictions.

But in this game, he said, it is the future of the entire nation's financial sector that is at stake.

Significant loss

In strictly legal terms, the issues are clear - in an attempt to protect the nation's banks from collapse, the government decided to fence off people's savings.

And to make sure the banks had the capacity to honour those savings, the government ruled that all dollar deposits had to be converted to pesos, a conversion that cost billions in the paper value of those savings.

Finally, the government severely limited the public's ability to get at their money by appealing through the courts.

But now, a court has judged all three measures to be unconstitutional.

It is not the first time the government has lost a case like this, but this one is significant because it was brought by the ombudsman on behalf of all savers.

Impeachment

The government will appeal and, until the appeals process is complete, the status quo remains in place.

But this also seems to be more than just a legal battle. The Congress has begun impeachment proceedings against the Supreme Court over allegations of corruption, and some observers believe this latest ruling is the court's attempt to strike back.

To complicate matters even further, it also undermines the government's attempts to sign an aid package with the IMF.

The fund has repeatedly said it is unwilling to lend more money unless the future of the banking system is secure. This latest judgment just made it even shakier.

[BlackJack]

Get ready for a good ole' fashioned run on the banks. Just think if the guv wouldn't let you take your money out of your bank, AFTER converting it to Pesos, LOL, and the IMF says, hey, great idea, and if you don't do it guv, no more "help".

[Carry_Okie]

There but for the grace of "investors" go we.

[wardaddy]

Again.

[ChicagoRepublican]

Isn't Argentina already in a barter economy. I'm not sure running on the bank will do anything productive for the Jose Six Pack.

[Lucas1]

A VERY sad story...for these people. I have followed this story for some time...and you have to feel for the people. One can only pray that the Governments in these countries stop playing games and start figuring out how to run their economies. It is a tragic story for those who are losing their life savings. These are good people.

[greasepaint]

Anyone who keeps money in a South American bank should
be committed.
g.

[Southack]

Good farmland now sells for $5 per acre in Argentina. A commercial farmer could make a killing there.

So you always wanted a 1,000 acre ranch? You can buy that Argentina ranch and a brick house to go with it for less than the price of a new Jeep.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "bargain" vacation.

[ALS]

Sure enough you would and another Mugabe wannabe would shoot you fleeing into the jungle for "exploiting" the locals. Ain't socialism grand!

[Carry_Okie]

Good farmland now sells for $5 per acre in Argentina. A commercial farmer could make a killing there.

That's the plan, and you're already late. Soros is reportedly the biggest landowner in Argentina.

What a coincidence!

[Odyssey-x]

I have a close aquaintance from Argentina. She had enough money to go to college in the U.S. The government stole it from her. They stole everybody's money so the government officials could lend tons of money out from the IMF and send it to their swiss bank accounts. When they ran out of money to steal from the IMF they started stealing the money of their own citizens. There own citizens decided that the government could not be trusted and instead decided to trust the U.S government by buying dollars. Soon when people can get their money there will be nothing left to steal and the thieves will have no reason left to govern. If there was nothing to steal they probably wouldn't even show up for work.

[Odyssey-x]

The ultra-rich are almost all radical environmentalists who want to buy up all this land and make it off limits to anyone. They would love to see whole continents declared off-limits to humans.

[Joe Boucher]

Who cares, thiese dummies should have shot chavas already and end of problem. Socialist stupids.

[gaspar]

Chileans are presently buying up land in Argentina as though there is no tomorrow.

[CWRWinger]

the Jose Six Pack.

.....gets exactly what he deserves. He will reap what he has sown.

[blam]

Ted Turner is the largest private land owner in America and Coca Cola bought 12% of the total land area of Belize.

[sam_paine]

So you always wanted a 1,000 acre ranch? You can buy that Argentina ranch and a brick house to go with it for less than the price of a new Jeep.

I figured this out, too, on a trip down there a coupla years ago. But I was reminded by some friends down there to be careful about land investment, because at any time the state could fall to communists and you might just have to forfeit all private property....instability is bad for markets, any market....

[snopercod]

One can only pray that the Governments in these countries stop playing games and start figuring out how to run their economies.

Well that's the problem, isn't it. Their government is trying to run the economy, when in fact, economies run themselves.

All a government can do to "help the economy" is to enforce just laws against force and fraud. Anything else is counterproductive.

"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is man's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, and equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: 'Account overdrawn.'

--Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

[CatoRenasci]

We have a number of Argentine friends here in the US. While they were encouraged by the 1-1 dollar convertiblity a few years ago, they did not trust the government. So, while everything was going well, the insisted their respective families still in Argentina convert all of their respective families' non cash assets (save a house/apartment in BA and a country place or two) into cash, moved the cash into dollar accounts, and then made sure the dollar accounts were in US banks in the US, accessable only from the US. They tried to convince others to do the same, but most would not listen.

[Snuffington]

So you always wanted a 1,000 acre ranch? You can buy that Argentina ranch and a brick house to go with it for less than the price of a new Jeep.

Yes, but somehow it's still only slightly more appealing than buying a new ranch in Zimbabwe.

[Kozak]

So you always wanted a 1,000 acre ranch? You can buy that Argentina ranch and a brick house to go with it for less than the price of a new Jeep.

Or buying a nice piece of oceanfront property in California. Where the Coastal Commission Commisars rule...