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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Argentina's progressive leftist  gov't is going to  (take), 'nationalize' 
every citizens private retirement funds so as to help 'save' the citizens 
amid this funancial crisis (this is the kind of superior thinking that  
advanced degrees get you).  They are also sending out gov't goons to 
uintimidate people who are trading for better currencies as stores of wealth. 



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NOVEMBER 7, 2008 

In Argentina, Pension Law Advances 

By MATT MOFFETT
 
»BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina's leftist government presented its controversial 
proposal to nationalize private pension funds to the lower house of Congress, 
which was expected to approve it late Thursday or early Friday.

President Cristina Kirchner said that seizing the private funds -- which have 
nearly $30 billion in assets, as well as future pension contributions 
amounting to $4 to $5 billion annually -- will protect Argentina's savers 
amid the global market turbulence. But economists say the takeover is 
intended to get the Kirchner government out of a cash squeeze in the coming 
year, during which it will face heavy debt payments as well as political 
pressure to increase spending as midterm elections approach.

Mrs. Kirchner's Peronist party boasts a strong majority in the lower house. 
In recent days, the government has negotiated more than a dozen small changes 
to the bill with congressional leaders. Analysts say the Kirchner 
administration learned a lesson from a crushing Senate defeat it suffered in 
July when it tried ramming through an increase in the soybean-export tax with 
little prior consultation.

Opposition to the pension measure was vocal, though not nearly as broad-based 
as the opposition to the soybean tax. "The government says it has its 
accounts in order, but it is launching a fiscal grab," opposition Congressman 
Fernando Iglesias said in remarks during the debate on Thursday.

If approved in the lower house, the measure would move on to the Senate, 
where the government's majority is slimmer. The association representing the 
10 private funds, which were created in 1994 under a conservative Argentine 
administration, has also threatened legal challenges to the takeover.

In the meantime, the government has been employing strong-arm tactics to 
bolster the embattled peso and stem a surge in dollar-buying by Argentine 
investors unnerved by the nationalization bid. Made wary by their country's 
history of repeated economic crises, many Argentines fear the pension 
takeover portends even greater state intervention in the economy.

Since the government announced the nationalization on Oct. 21, the central 
bank has had to spend about $1 billion in reserves to defend the peso.

This week, government tax auditors have descended on currency-exchange 
houses, which under new government requirements have begun to require more 
information on the sources of income of those seeking to obtain dollars. The 
government has said it is aiming to halt tax evasion, but exchange traders 
say the move is actually aimed at intimidating those seeking dollars and 
those selling them. In another move to stem market volatility and put a lid 
on the dollar outflow, the government issued rules earlier this week 
requiring banks to hold bonds in their portfolios for at least three days 
before selling them.

Some of the new exchange measures are being administered by Argentina's 
internal commerce secretary, Guillermo Moreno, who has become a lightning rod 
for criticism in recent years because of his efforts to damp inflation 
through price controls and threats of prosecution for price gouging or 
hoarding.

Most financial institutions in Argentina were closed for a holiday on 
Thursday.