forest444
forest444's JournalArgentine Justice Minister holds secret meeting with leading Dirty War apologist.
Argentine Justice Minister Germán Garavano held a meeting with the country's most prominent Dirty War apologist and proponent of amnesty for the over 500 convicted human rights abusers, Cecilia Pando. The meeting, which was held on April 25, was meant to remain secret; it was, however, confirmed by the country's leading progressive news daily, Página/12.
"It was going to stay secret!" exclaimed Pando. "Our intention was not to comment, nor to let news of this get out. I don't know how they got the information, really!"
Pando then referred to the discussion as "humanitarian" in nature, explaining that "our concern is over irregularities regarding the trials of military officers."
Sources familiar with the talk confirmed, however, that Pando is looking forward to working with the Macri administration on the possibility of achieving freedom for those recently convicted of crimes against humanity during the last military dictatorship, and, as a first step, obtaining house arrest for some repressers.
Pando, 48, is the head of Memoria Completa, a group which advocates for the acquittal of the over 1,600 defendants charged with Dirty War-era crimes against humanity since their immunity was revoked by President Néstor Kirchner in 2003; the group's motto is "fascism is liberty." Known for her bombastic rhetoric and her death threats against Kirchner-era government officials, Pando became a vocal supporter of Macri's 2015 campaign after he referred to human rights as "a scam."
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.diarioregistrado.com/politica/pando-se-reunio-con-el-ministro-de-justicia-por-la-liberacion-de-represores_a573328f97dc32a080ab86f6b&prev=search
Jolly's folly: Lawmakers still beholden to funders (by Lawrence Lessig).
Rep. David Jolly, a Republican from Indian Shores, FL, has generated enormous enthusiasm for his Stop Act — a proposal to ban members of Congress from personally asking people for money. 60 Minutes did a special segment about the idea. That followed an incredibly powerful piece by comedian John Oliver describing with perfect clarity just how absurd the system has become.
From my own survey of research, we know that members of Congress can spend anywhere between 30 and 70% of their time raising money. Even at the low end of that estimate, this should astonish anyone. Critics are wrong to call this a "do-nothing Congress." To the contrary, it does an incredible amount — of fundraising.
It is simple corruption — not of the members of Congress through bribery, but of the system itself. It is a corruption of the representative democracy promised to us by the Framers.
Jolly's reform purports to attack this problem; "staying the course," Jolly insists, "is no longer an option." He's right. Congress has a real problem, and fundamental reform is desperately needed.
But Jolly's proposal is the most cynical example of fraudulent reform that I have ever seen. No doubt, the Stop Act would make Jolly's job — and the job of other members of Congress — better. By law, none of them would have to spend their time engaged in the misery of direct fundraising. By law, they would all effectively collude to leave the fundraising to their staffs.
Yet this would change none of the causes of the corruption of Congress. For the piper would still be paid by the very same people. Members of Congress would still be dependent on the very same special interests to fund their campaigns. Indeed, Jolly's staffers have spread the word across Capitol Hill that the power of the big funders wouldn't really change with his so-called "reform." All that would change is that congressmen wouldn't have to do the dirty work.
Once again, we have a politician pretending to fix the system when in fact, he's just working hard to make his life easier. So long as corporations, special interests, lobbyists, unions and the wealthy pay the piper, the piper will play their tune. The only way to change that is for Congress to give back to us, the voters, the means to fund congressional campaigns.
That's why Republicans like Richard Painter, former ethics czar to George W. Bush, have proposed a $200 tax rebate to every voter to fund campaigns, so that members would be dependent on voters, and not special interests. That would be real change, unlike the folly that Jolly is pressing.
What Florida needs — what America needs — are politicians with the courage to fight for real change, not gimmicks that would actually change nothing.
At: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-david-jolly-reform-fundraising-050716-20160506-story.html
Offshore democracy, or Argentina through the looking glass.
Since the election of Mauricio Macri in November 2015, Argentina has found itself at the sharp end of an assault by Latin America’s New Right. Macri, the co-owner of at least a dozen front companies in tax havens, also follows the example of other heads of state implicated alongside him in the Panama Papers by using the judiciary to persecute opposition and block free speech.
Argentine news outlets affiliated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ) have downplayed the President’s involvement in the offshore accounts scandal. With the approval of their international partners, the dailies La Nación and Clarín kept Macri’s dirty secrets under wraps until after the presidential elections. What’s more, he was given a month’s warning about the publication: plenty of time to come up with PR and legal strategies to divert attention away from the shocking revelations.
The role of the mass media in the political establishment and in favor of the well-heeled is nothing new. However, there are different levels of obscenity, and the Argentine case is perhaps one of the most flagrant of recent times. When, under the leadership of the German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung, news outlets from several countries were invited to join the investigation, the only Argentine representatives were Macri stalwarts. No independent voice was allowed. La Nación itself appears in the Panama Papers, as the owner of offshore holdings.
Macri, meanwhile, declared himself “surprised” at discovering he was the director of offshore companies, along with his father and brother. At the same time, information has emerged suggesting that offshore companies in the name of Macri’s former finance minister in the City of Buenos Aires could have been used to transfer millions from the public coffers to the electoral campaign of his party, the PRO.
Media protection for the president and many of his ministers is just the tip of a very large and decades-old iceberg. The Clarín Group is, in proportional terms, one of the most dominant media conglomerates in the world, owning cable TV platforms, internet service providers, radio stations, television channels and print media. Alongside La Nación, the Clarín Group is a major shareholder in the nation's largest newsprint maker Papel Prensa - acquired from its original owners under alleged duress under the last dictatorship. As in Brazil with O Globo and O Estado de São Paulo, this has allowed them an almost 40-year hold on printed and audio-visual public discourse.
The Kirchnerist government attempted to break up this monopoly through its Media Law, approved by a wide margin in both chambers of Congress in 2009 and, after a prolonged legal battle with the Clarín Group, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2013. But on his first day in office, Macri hurriedly repealed the law by emergency decree. As a result of this bit of mutual back-scratching, the Clarín Group not only no longer has to divest itself of holdings, but is now in the process of signing contracts to access the only piece of the puzzle that was missing – the mobile phone market.
The few media outfits opposed to Macri find themselves in dire straits. Journalists who have raised critical voices have been sacked. So it’s no surprise that armed attacks on opposition buildings and bomb threats against human rights organisations have gone almost unnoticed. Demonstrations against the government have been ignored or underestimated, as have massive layoffs which, according to union sources, have now accounted for some 200,000 workers since Macri took office.
The media’s protection of Macri’s administration works in conjunction with sectors of the judiciary who, under the banner of denouncing “corruption”, are effectively seeking to go after, weaken and, if possible, imprison members of the opposition. Judge Claudio Bonadío – an outspoken supporter of Macri, formerly linked to the notoriously corrupt government of Carlos Menem, accused of burying cases related to the traffic of contaminated blood and the terrorist attack on the Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) in 1994 – called former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to testify in court over a case stemming from $4 billion in Central Bank losses caused by Macri's own devaluation.
The judiciary’s pursuit of Mrs. Kirchner should be viewed within a broader pattern of judicial anomalies, most notably the arrest of indigenous activist Milagro Sala in the northern province of Jujuy, where even her defense lawyer has been threatened with legal action. These judges, serving the interests of politicians and the media, appear to share a common goal: to see the opposition leaders behind bars.
This new political agenda marks the transfer of power and control of the economy to large corporations linked to members of Macri’s government. While the Macri campaign demonized Mrs. Kirchner's inclusive citizenship policies and dismissed them as pork-barrel politics or worse, relatives and friends of Macri officials are being hired as government officials or being awarded contracts; speculators are coddled (notably the vulture funds, who received a 1,180% payout); and regulations against tax evasion and money laundering go unenforced.
Plutocracy, after all, may well simply be the former name for this new offshore democracy.
At: https://www.opendemocracy.net/democraciaabierta/observatorio-argentino/offshore-democracy-or-argentina-through-looking-glass
As the U.S. expands access to Cuba, Macri cancels Aerolíneas Argentinas route to Havana.
The Argentine flagship airline Aerolíneas Argentinas announced today that it will no longer fly to Cuba. The twice-weekly Buenos Aires-Havana route will be discontinued effective July 27, company officials said.
Officials cited a decrease in demand for flights to Havana to justify the decision. Occupancy rates in this route, inaugurated just two years ago, fell from 78% in the Summer (January and February) of 2015 to 64% this Summer. The trend, however, is not unique to the Havana route as overseas flight volume from Argentina has generally declined since President Mauricio Macri ordered a 40% devaluation last December.
CEO Isela Costantini, a Macri appointee, explained that Cuba is an "expensive destination" for Argentines, and that they now prefer other Caribbean destinations such as Cancún (Mexico) and Punta Cana (Dominican Republic). The Airbus 340 that normally covers that route, she said, would be used to increase frequencies to these two alternative destinations.
Aerolíneas Argentinas and its affiliated domestic carrier, Austral, have shed a number of domestic and foreign routes since Macri took office five months ago, and Costantini has confirmed that more will be discontinued in the coming months.
The current crisis at the flagship airline originated in the Macri administration's decision to reduce its annual subsidy from $420 million in 2015 to $260 million this year (a 38% cut), and has been exacerbated by a decline in passengers since Macri's devaluation. The situation was described by Costantini in a leaked company memo as "a complex situation that will require that all 12,000 employees make an extra effort to cut costs."
Critics, however, believe political motives lurk behind the decision to discontinue flights to Havana, which, like the flights to Punta Cana, required a stop over in Caracas, Venezuela. Macri's right-wing party, PRO, is openly hostile to the Castro and Maduro governments in Cuba and Venezuela, respectively.
They likewise point to possible conflicts of interest behind the sharp cutbacks at Aerolíneas, since Macri's Secretary of Public Policy Coordination, Gustavo Lopetegui, had served as CEO of its chief rival LAN Argentina until his appointment.
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.politicargentina.com/notas/201605/13747-aerolineas-argentinas-dejara-de-volar-a-cuba-en-julio.html&prev=search
And: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cronista.com%2Feconomiapolitica%2FEl-Gobierno-recorta-en-casi-40-los-subsidios-a-Aerolineas-Argentinas-20160504-0045.html
Argentine monthly inflation doubles to highest level since 2002: 6.9% (40.2% yearly).
Inflation in Argentina rose from 3.3% in March to 6.9% in April according to estimates released today by the economic consulting firm Elypsis for the City of Buenos Aires. Consumer prices, according to their estimate, rose 40.2% over the same time last year - the highest since the 2002 crisis.
The alternative, unofficial index is one of the few comprehensive estimates available for measuring Argentine inflation since the Macri administration decreed, just days after taking office last December, that official inflation figures not be released until September. Members of the centrist Renewal Front - which had initially supported the right-wing Macri administration - likewise revived the "Congressional CPI" estimate following Macri's statistical blackout decree; while their April index has not yet been released, their estimates as of March show a similar trend.
The annual rate of inflation in Argentina has risen steadily since President Mauricio Macri imposed a 40% devaluation on December 17, 2015 (a week after taking office). Inflation, a central Macri campaign theme last year, had already accelerated by 10 points as of March - from 23.5% in November 2015 to 33.5%. The 40.2% annual pace Elypsis estimated for April would make it the highest rate of annual inflation since December 2002, while the 6.9% monthly rate would make it the highest since the depth of the post-convertibility crisis in April 2002.
The jump in prices last month was mostly accounted for by the 200-300% increase in public utility rates and the 100% increase in public transport fares triggered by the Macri administration's decision to reduce public service subsidies. These hikes added around 5 points to consumer prices last month, or 70% of the total.
The public service hikes pushed inflation to 5.6% in the first week of April alone (the highest since 1991), after which it slowed to 0.5% a week. Accordingly, the report indicated that inflation in May should slow to between 2 and 3%. Even with this more moderate pace, however, inflation in 2016 will be far in excess of the "20 to 25%" goal set by Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay and will instead probably match estimates by consulting firms and labor unions for a 40 to 50% rate this year.
Inflation meanwhile continues to push the economy deeper in recession as consumers' buying power erodes. The monthly retail sales estimate published yesterday by the Argentine Medium Business Confederation (CAME) showed that real retail sales fell 6.6% in April from the same time a year ago. As has been the case since February, sales fell most for appliances and electronics (-12.3%).
CAME director Osvaldo Cornide pointed out that the decline in sales might have been steeper were it not for the Ahora 12 (Now 12) big ticket item finance program enacted in 2014 by former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as well as for the fact that many retailers are now liquidating inventory for the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Cornide noted that even so, "nothing could bring back the customers - not even window shoppers."
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicargentina.com%2Fnotas%2F201605%2F13652-la-inflacion-llego-al-69-en-abril-en-capital-federal.html
And: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.politicargentina.com/notas/201605/13631-las-ventas-cayeron-un-66-por-ciento-en-abril.html&prev=search
Utility hikes of up to 327% threaten the University of Buenos Aires budget.
The Supreme Council of the University of Buenos Aires announced that an emergency "interim" budget will be approved in the coming days because, according to university authorities, the current budget does not cover costs arising from rescinded subsidies and increased tariffs enacted by the right-wing Macri administration.
The University of Buenos Aires (UBA), with 320,000 students, is the largest in Argentina and the second largest in Latin America after the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
The current operating budget, signed by former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner last October, granted the UBA a 2016 budget of 8.7 billion pesos ($600 million) - an increase, in pesos, of 30% from 2015. The budget passed in October did not, however, contemplate the sudden increase in operating expenses stemming from President Mauricio Macri's decree rescinding subsidies for utility rates and other costs.
Like most customers, the UBA paid 327% more for electricity, 249% more for water, and 143% more for gas than it did at the same time last year; electricity charges alone will jump from 19 million pesos ($2 million) in 2015 to 84 million pesos ($6 million) this year. UBA authorities estimate that the budget for general operating expenses, which was increased only 1.5% to 660 million pesos ($45 million) this year, will run out sometime in August - nearly four months before the end of the academic year.
The Ministry of Education indicated that 200 million of a 330 million peso ($23 million) debt from the federal government to the UBA has recently been covered. The University Student Federation (FUBA) pointed out, however, that an additional 711 million pesos ($50 million) approved in the federal budget last October for the UBA's teaching hospital and other health facilities has yet to be disbursed.
The option of dipping into the payroll budget is likewise limited, since most of the budget increase for this year has been absorbed by salary hikes already agreed to in collective bargaining. This year's, meanwhile, is still in deadlock as a result of the Macri administration's decision to offer UBA staff a 15% raise until October - a mere third of the projected annual inflation by then.
CONADU, the union representing the UBA's 32,000 teaching staff and 15,000 auxiliary staff, held a strike on April 27 and 28 to protest the decision.
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.clarin.com/sociedad/UBA-afirman-presupuesto-alcanza-agosto_0_1562843942.html&prev=search
Bernie Sanders: America’s most popular senator.
He may never be president. But Bernie Sanders is America’s most popular senator.
The least popular? Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader.
They top the list of most popular and least popular senators in their home states, measured by Morning Consult, a nonpartisan media and survey technology company. It surveyed 62,288 registered voters across the nation since January.
It found potential trouble for vulnerable Republicans this fall. The party now has 54 of the Senate’s 100 seats; but 24 GOP seats are up and at least six are regarded as potential pickups for Democrats. Ten Democratic seats are in play; but only one, Nevada, is seen as a possible GOP gain. The shaky Republican incumbents all hail from states President Barack Obama won four years ago.
They include: Sens. Pat Toomey, R-PA, 46%; Rob Portman, R-OH, 44%; Ron Johnson, R-WI, 43%; and Mark Kirk, R-IL, 39%. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, had 54% approval.
At: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article74288627.html#storylink=cpy
_____________________________________________
This is the second year in a row Bernie Sanders has earned this honor.
The ten most popular senators were:
1) Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
2) Susan Collins (R-ME)
3) John Hoeven (R-ND)
4) Angus King (I-ME)
5) Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
6) Thomas Carper (D-DE)
7) Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
8) John Barrasso (R-WY)
9) Al Franken (D-MN)
10) Chris Coons (D-DE)
Argentina to seek $8 billion via new bonds as budget deficit rises by 60%.
Argentina will issue a fresh round of dollar-denominated debt notes worth an estimated $8 billion in the next few days, top officials from the Finance Ministry confirmed yesterday.
The government hopes to bring in $5 billion through the issuance of treasury notes. In addition, a further $3 billion in bonds will later be offered to larger offshore funds willing to invest in the country, while a re-financing process will address the $5 billion due on old bonds maturing this year.
The Macri administration's financial program for FY 2016, announced yesterday by Finance Secretary Luis Caputo and Deputy Minister Pedro Lacoste, estimates that Argentina will need $37 billion in order to finance the current fiscal deficit (projected at $24.2 billion), as well as an additional $12.4 billion in outstanding foreign debt payments.
While Lacoste described this year's budget deficit as “complying with our targets,” the projected 360 billion peso deficit is a 60% increase from the record 225 billion pesos registered in 2015 - one of President Mauricio Macri's central campaign themes last year. The budget deficit in dollar terms would remain virtually unchanged at $24 billion as a result of Macri's devaluation in December; but would rise as a share of GDP from 4.1% in 2015 to 4.8% this year (the highest since 1990).
Financing sources
Argentina retained over $7 billion from the $16.5 billion global bond sale last week, the remainder being used to pay off holdout bondholders. That leaves $30 billion needed to finance the deficit and debt payments due this year, which will come from a variety of sources.
According to officials an additional $3 billion from bond sales, $5 billion in re-financed bond maturities, and another $5 billion from the dollar-denominated LETES Treasury notes auction will plug the remaining gap. The ANSES social security agency and other public agencies will chip in $2.7 billion, while bilateral and multilateral loans are expected to raise a further $3 billion. Borrowing from the IMF, whose debt Argentina canceled in 2006, will be avoided in favor of World Bank loans of up to $2 billion.
The successful international bond sale last week, the largest in third world history, has given the Macri administration hope that future debt roll-overs will pay lower interest rates than the relatively high 7.25% offered in last week's issuance in order to stoke interest.
The Central Bank will continue to serve as the largest source of fiscal financing, however. It will emit 160 billion pesos ($11 billion) for this purpose, or around a third of the remainder. This means that, contrary to Macri's assertion during the 2015 campaign, the Central Bank will continue to “print” money throughout this year - although at a slower pace than the 37% growth in the monetary base registered in 2015. Analysts believe the slower pace will reduce inflation in the second half of the year, though at the cost of triggering a recession and in any case not enough to meet this year’s targets.
Foreign debt, meanwhile, is likely to play an increasing role in Argentina's finances. This is a sharp departure from the Kirchner era, at the end of which only a third of Argentina's $240 billion public debt was to foreign creditors (compared to two thirds in 2003).
At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/213415/gov%E2%80%99t-to-seek-us$8b-via-new-bonds
Austerity leads to credit crunch in Argentina.
Figures published today by the Argentine Central Bank show that the country's credit market shrank by 0.7% in first quarter of 2016 from the same time a year ago - a sharp contraction of 25% in real terms considering that inflation has risen to around 33% in the same period.
The figure is in stark contrast to 2015, when credit in Argentina expanded by 37% while prices did so by about 25%. Growth in every major type of credit slowed: business loans, which had grown by 40% in 2015, declined by 6.6% in the first quarter; mortgage loans (which never fully recovered from the 2002 crisis) grew by 15% in 2015 but declined 1% in the first quarter; and revolving credit, which helped fuel record sales of big ticket items, rose 57% in 2015 but declined 5% in the first quarter.
The sudden credit crunch in Argentina coincides with monetarist policy adopted by the Central Bank since President Mauricio Macri took office four months ago. His Central Bank president, Federico Sturzenegger, has made curbing growth in the monetary base a policy centerpiece in keeping with Macri's campaign promise to control inflation (which had averaged 25% under his predecessor).
Their own 40% devaluation in December, however, later forced Sturzenegger to double central bank interest rates to 38% to stop a run on the peso in February. The hike in interest rates calmed the currency crisis; but has strangled the country's already tight credit market.
Access to credit was further dampened by the Macri team's decision to limit access to the Productive Investment Line for businesses and to the PROCREAR low-interest mortgage program, which had issued over 200,000 mortgages to new homeowners since it was enacted by former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2012. Fees and commissions also weighed on credit after lending regulations were dismantled as part of the new team's laissez faire approach.
The credit crunch has exacerbated a sharp recession first triggered by the December devaluation and the sudden jump in consumer prices that followed. While Macri has refused to release monthly economic data since he took office, the estimated 141,000 layoffs and 28% deterioration in consumer confidence since November indicate that real Argentine GDP may decline for the first time since 2002.
Amid an increasingly negative business outlook, the increased foreign investment the Macri administration committed itself to incentivizing has failed to materialize. Alfredo Cornide of the Chamber of Medium Enterprises (CAME) believes the country has entered a vicious circle in which higher unemployment means lower consumption, which in turn prompt companies to dismiss even more staff.
Juan Carlos Sacco of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) agrees, estimating that the combined recession with rate hikes will cause between 100,000 and 200,000 layoffs in the manufacturing sector alone. Argentine firms could be especially hard hit, Sacco pointed out, since the local affiliates or partners of foreign manufacturers can usually access credit from their parent companies.
At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/economia/2-297863-2016-04-26.html&prev=search
And: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-297874-2016-04-26.html&prev=search
Argentine President Mauricio Macri and top protégé, Néstor Grindetti, charged in Panamá Papers case.
Argentine Prosecutor Martín Niklison has filed charges against President Mauricio Macri and a top political protégé, Lanús Mayor Néstor Grindetti, over allegations of hiding offshore companies when they were both officials in the Buenos Aires municipal government. The charges are based on proof that emerged recently as part of the international Panamá Papers scandal.
Prosecutor Estela Andrades presented a separate motion to Federal Judge Sebastián Casanello that this probe be unified with the already existing investigation into President Macri's participation in the Mossack Fonseca offshore shell company scheme. Between the Panamá Papers and Open Corporate leaks, Macri's name has been found in at least nine such accounts.
Lanús Mayor Néstor Grindetti, a former municipal finance minister during Macri's tenure as mayor, was listed on Interpol records as “wanted by the judicial authorities of Brazil for prosecution” for alleged “crimes against the tax authorities and consumer relations.” Grindetti's spokesman dismissed the charges, sending journalists an excerpt of a ruling issued on April 21 that cleared him from all charges related to a case titled “Pablo Tomás Boero and others.”
The Boero ruling, however, confirmed that Grindetti had an international arrest order issued by a court in Curitiba, Brazil, and that the order was active from December 14, 2012, until March 30, 2016. Carlos Gonella, head of the PROCELAC money laundering prosecutor's office, petitioned Judge Casanello to open a probe against Grindetti for “malicious omission of data.”
According to the documents released to the ICIJ, the Mossack Fonseca law firm helped Grindetti establish a shell company known as Mercier International in July 2010. Two weeks later, he opened an account at the Switzerland-based bank Clariden Leu AG. This bank is connected to Credit Suisse, which received a commission in the sale of Tango 8 municipal bonds issued by the city that year.
Opposition Buenos Aires City legislators have called for an investigation into whether Grindetti used his offshore accounts to receive kickbacks from the issue of Tango 8 bonds, and whether they were also used to finance Macri's right-wing PRO party.
At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/213250/panam%C3%A1-papers-another-accusation-against-macri-and-grindetti
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