Argentina's new money.Licence to print e-cash?

mattd mattd at useoz.com
Thu Dec 27 03:27:35 PST 2001


Mr Rodriguez Saa, 54, governor of the central Argentinian province of San 
Luis, became Argentina's third president in four days. He said he will not 
devalue the peso or dollarise the economy but will introduce a new currency 
to operate alongside the peso, which has been pegged at one to the dollar 
for the past decade.
The new coinage is aimed at injecting liquidity to get money into the hands 
of ordinary Argentinians. Essentially, it is a licence to print extra money.
Mr Rodriguez Saa said: "This is not a rejection of foreign debt but rather 
the first move by a rational government to deal with the foreign debt 
correctly." Asked how he expects international banks and financial 
institutions to respond to anticipated deep losses, Mr Rodriguez Saa said: 
"International markets will react well because we will negotiate with them."
Speaking in a packed Congress, where he was named president after a 15-hour 
session, Mr Rodriguez Saa said that the people would have priority over 
crippling debt payments, adding: "Let's take the bull by the horns."
He said Argentina, which has been in recession for nearly three years, 
would not permanently shun its obligations. Mr Rodriguez Saa replaced Ramon 
Puerta, who was acting president while congressional leaders sought a 
replacement for Fernando de la Rua.
Mr de la Rua, who said two months ago that there would be "no devaluation, 
no default," resigned last Thursday after street protests against his 
austerity measures.
Mr Rodriguez Saa suggested that Mr de la Rua's policies had punished 
ordinary Argentinians. "They gave priority to the payment of the foreign 
debt over the payment of the debt to its own people," he said, to shouts of 
"Argentina! Argentina!"
Economists have expected a default declaration for months. Argentina, which 
represents 25pc of all emerging market debt, has an unemployment rate of 
18.3pc, with 40pc of the 36m population at or near the poverty line.
Its debt represents 46pc of the nation's $285 billion gross domestic 
product and the nation's benchmark Brady bond, the FRB, is trading at 24pc 
of its face value. Argentina has already received two International 
Monetary Fund bail-outs and some observers have dubbed the economy "the 
slowest train wreck in history".
All Argentine exchange markets have been closed since Friday and are not 
expected to open before tomorrow.
The e-cash,BUM Tsunami is forming its global mexican wave.Collapse of 
governments Imminent.May beshits himself.





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