Well, she didn’t actually say that, but she might as well have. Her position is that the investors who loaned her regime money are now “terrorists” for wanting to be repaid, noting, in a speech at the United Nations, that “terrorists are also those who destabilize a country’s economy through speculation.” Of course, Argentina wouldn’t even have needed those investors if the government had simply stuck to spending only what it collected in tax revenues. Instead, over the past decade, Argentina has been on a spending spree. Kirchener, when she made these remarks, was perhaps anticipating Monday’s legal development in which Argentina was declared in contempt of court for refusing to pay its debts. Now, as Christopher Westley has shown, the Argentinian state should just default on its debt, since the taxpayers have been abused enough at this point, and should not continue to be on the hook to pay for the state’s profligacy. And Argentina is indeed in the process of defaulting. But Kirchner wants to default and still be legally not in default, so that the next spending spree can get started all the sooner.
For more:
- Understanding Argentina’s Coming Default by Nicolás Cachanosky
- Confiscatory Deflation: The Case of Argentina by Joseph T. Salerno
- Myths and Lessons of the Argentine “Currency Crisis” by Joseph T. Salerno
- Argentina’s Politicians Should Read Mises by Iván Carrino
- Argentina’s Paper-Money Mire by Grant M. Nülle
