Don't cry for us, Argentina

Phillip Jenkins:

The United States is a superpower with a huge economy. Argentina is a political and economic joke, a global weakling legendary for endemic economic crises. Between them and us, surely, a great gulf is fixed. Yet Argentina did not always have its present meager status, nor did its poverty result from some inherent Latin American affinity for crisis and corruption. A century ago, Argentina was one of the world’s emerging powers, seemingly destined to outpace all but the greatest imperial states. Today it is … Argentina. A national decline on that scale did not just happen: it was the result of decades of struggle and systematic endeavor, led by the nation's elite. As the nation's greatest writer, Jorge Luis Borges, once remarked, only generations of statesmanship could have prevented Argentina from becoming a world power.

My daughter's boyfriend was born in Argentina and immigrated here with his parents. I jokingly call him "The Argentine Romeo" or "Lothario of the Pampas," and threaten to call ICE to have him deported. Really a nice kid -- both of his grandfathers are ministers of the gospel, and his parents are fine Christians.

But Argentina! Such a mess! They've got a bad case of "revolution envy," and every minor political dispute results in mass protests/riots. My daughter attended college in Argentina last year and when she told me about the idiotic agricultural policy of Cristina Fernandez -- "People in Buenos Aires are starving!" -- I could scarcely believe it: A tax on exports! The most absurd thing I'd ever heard of, but a classic expression of envy-as-policy, which seems to be the norm down there.

Jenkins writes:

Could it happen here? The U.S. certainly has very different political traditions from Argentina and more barriers to a populist-driven rape of the economy. On the other hand, events in some regions would make Juan Perón smile wistfully.
California runs on particularly high taxes, uncontrollable deficits, and overregulation with a vastly swollen bureaucracy while the hegemonic power of organized labor prevents any reform. Thankfully, the state has no power to devalue its currency, still less to freeze bank accounts or seize pension funds, and businesses can still relocate elsewhere. But in its social values and progressive assumptions, California is close to the Democratic mainstream, which now intends to impose its ideas on the nation as a whole. And at over 60 percent of GDP, U.S. public debt is already higher than Argentina's.

Equality in misery: We have seen the future, and it dances the tango.

More madness in Argentina

Having nearly caused a famine by raising taxes, now Argentina's President Christina Kirchner wants war:

Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands, which remain in British hands after the 1982 war between the two countries, is "inalienable," President Cristina Kirchner said Wednesday.
"The sovereign claim to the Malvinas Islands is inalienable," she said in a speech marking the 26th anniversary of Argentina's ill-fated invasion of the islands, located 480 kilometers (300 miles) off shore.
The April 2, 1982 invasion prompted then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to deploy naval forces to retake the Falklands, known as the Malvinas in Spanish.
The short, bloody conflict led to Argentina's surrender on June 14, 1982 after the death of 649 Argentines and 255 Britons. . . .
In her speech Kirchner called for Argentina to strengthen its representation in international bodies to denounce "this shameful colonial enclave in the 21st century."

Such bellicose rhetoric is transparent demagoguery, an attempt to rally a nation suffering under the effects of Kirchner's bungling policies. The British magazine Prospect opines:

Cristina Kirchner exemplifies a figure familiar in the northern hemisphere because of Hillary Clinton (and to a lesser degree Cherie Blair): the intelligent, educated wife of a leader with ambitions of her own.

No, I think Christina Kirchner exemplifies a different sort of familiar figure: The good-looking woman who, unfortunately, is crazy as a loon.

Starvation in Buenos Aires?

Just got off the phone with my 18-year-old daughter, who's attending college in Argentina and says, "People in Buenos Aires are starving." Maybe a bit overdramatic, but tax hikes provoked a farmer's protest that has led to shortages and rationing:

Protesters banged pots and blocked roads in several major cities across Argentina as the country entered a third week of demonstrations by farmers angry at new taxes imposed on agricultural exports by President Cristina Fernandez.
Shortages of basic foods, including dairy items and meat, are being reported across the country as the disruption spreads. The stand-off is threatening to cripple the country's most lucrative export trade, notably of beef, corn, soy beans and wheat.
Elected just five months ago to succeed her husband Nestor Kirchner, Mrs Fernandez went on national television to defend the tax increases and send a signal that she would not back down.
"I'm not going to submit to extortion," she said. "I understand the industry's interests, but I want them to know that I'm the President for all Argentines." The government has said it will not enter talks with the farmers while the disruption continues.
Farmers' leaders, however, have insisted that the increases of up to 45 per cent on the export taxes are intolerable. "We will continue to strike for as long as necessary," said a defiant Eduardo Buzzi, president of the Argentine Agrarian Federation.

Stick to your guns, Eduardo! Force the government to repeal those taxes. If that idiot president keeps going this way, Argentina will end up like Zimbabwe, where Mugabe's despotism has destroyed the economy. Somebody needs to send Christina Fernandez a few books by Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell.

Meanwhile, we're preparing to send a "care package" of food to our daughter, who reports that the shortage is "not so bad" at Universidad Adventista del Plata. She's 18 and doing her college sophomore year abroad in a full-immersion Spanish language program. Yeah, she's making top grades, and has promised to send me an e-mail report on the political-economic crisis caused by Fernandez's tax policy.