I mean, why the hell not start a war over them? All the other right-wing psychopaths are doing it. Better to get England tied up in a little one now before they decide to try to retake Hong Kong or India or something.
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Indeed. As I noted:
(But, I assume you omitted an /s relating to the rest of your comment.)
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When I visited Argentina, I was told by more than a few people that a lot of US dollars made the ferry ride over the Rio de la Plata and into Montevideo banks and property over the years. The economy has been a spectacular mess for a long time.
That said, this AynCap’s scheme to close out the Argentinian central bank has several hurdles to overcome: he has to get the agreement of at least some Peronists, since it’s a minority government; the country currently doesn’t have adequate USD reserves to make the switch as quickly as he’d like; and he’s going to have to convince the nation to accept that they’re effectively giving up their monetary sovereignty forever.
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Many of the things he said during the campaign were just bravado. He will hardly be able to make radical changes. He needs China and Brazil, for example, even though he spoke very badly about both countries and their leaders, for example. I don’t know much about Argentine society and politics. But it seems to me that he will have much more difficulty dismantling the institutions than Mr. Bolsonaro here in Brazil.
ETA
I think he will direct his energies to simpler tasks, administrative things that can be done without congressional approval. He will have to extinguish ministries, fire public servants, sign one or another controversial decree. But, as you said, to change the country, he will have to negotiate. I think the last liberal who was in power in Argentina, Mr. Macri, couldn’t do any of this and many people said he wasn’t even a true Scotsman.
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IIRC, his plan was to just allow all currencies to be used and let the market decide rather than just outright use the US dollar. He thought that the US dollar would win though.
How the hell that would work in practice is a big question mark. How do people report income collected in multiple currencies or pay taxes? Hell, how does the market display prices for anything?
Never mind that without enough new currency to swap for the old currency, you’re just asking for hyperinflation as everyone tries to sell their pesos.
It’s substantially easier to create a new currency to replace foreign currency, so it wouldn’t necessarily be forever. Plus having sovereignty over their currency is how they keep getting into inflationary spirals since it’s politically easier to print money than cut spending.
Historically, once a country move ms entirely to a foreign currency (esp. a reserve currency like the USD) it’s a one-way trip.
The Argentinian Peso has obviously been mismanaged by successive right and left Peronist governments, but eliminating the central bank entirely is an extreme and likely irreversible step.
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Well, of course she wants to dismantle the museum in memory of the victims.
Her dad is an ex-colonel that participated in the “Carapintada” protests/incitement for a coup during the first democratic government of this period - protests whose main point was “we want immunity for whatever we did during the Dirty War”. And her uncle was indicted for participation in the crimes at a clandestine detention center, but the judge stopped the trial as he was too ill.
“Enjoyed by all the Argentinian people” == “we sons and daughters of the torturers dont want to be reminded of that. Specially because we dont think they did anything wrong and would like a repeat”
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That’s exactly what my grandparents said. In 1933.
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Common sense says that we should never doubt the things that authoritarians say they can do. Usually these types of people go there and do it. But, this guy, He says he is a tough guy, pero no mucho, che!
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That’s what people said before Trump got elected, and some are saying now, in fact… 
Nobody learns no nothing from no history, indeed…
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In principle he is hampered by having too few seats in Congress and Senate.
If one feels optimistic that is a motive to think he cant do too much damage.
If one is pessimistic one can think that can end with him attempting some solution to that problem. Even failing in that, it will be a huge problem.
Of course the great hope is that the current military is not the same as 40 years ago. At least, it seems so. One hopes.
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Even when they try and fail they can do large amounts of lasting damage and undermine trust in civil institutions. Which I expect will happen here.
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ETA
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probably deserves separate thread
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