And this was the model of the market reform, the Latinamerican leader of the modern economy, as directed by the International Monetary Fund and all the G7 industrial countries.

Thanks Katalina for bringing this to our consideration. Lately I have been a little reluctant to update my threads on "Still alive in Argentina" because I didn't want to show so much economic and moral misery.

Everything that happens here is unheard of, unbeleivable, absurd and surrealistic. Ill people are dying because they can't withdraw their savings and are elder or unemployed. Medieval bartering invades the big cities. Legions of "cartoneros" (looking for paper and carton in the trash bins) changed the face of our streets, and unemployment statistics forget about those who have dropped from the calculations because they abandoned the job of looking for a job.

In the meantime, rich bankers and financists discuss how they can get another loan from the IMF, while their funds are safe in Switzerland and U.S. accounts. The main bank run was not that of the common people, it was the banker's and politicians run, which emptied the country.

Some arrangement with the IMF is coming, because Mr. Paul O'Neill has visited two poor schools near Buenos Aires and "felt" the poverty, so the scene is mounted for a new agreement from the generosity of the creditors.

IMF, please stay away ! You have been granting loans after loans to your friends at the government, and those funds have been stolen in front of your noses, dollar after dollar, for almost 40 years ! We could have rebuilt this country only with our hands and the funds that you have paid in commissions to the foreign and local lobbysts.

Would you beleive that Argentina has paid dozens of millions of dollars as FINES for having received development loans from the IDB which have never been USED and have been returned ? Isn't it absolutely ridiculous ? No, if you consider the commissions !

Modern liberal globalized theory simply does not work, not even for the large capitals. Let the capitals take the power, and you'll soon have another war, to not mention the children who don't eat and don't get education. Let the capitals grow uncontrolled, and you will find that your share stocks are false, and you have been robbed. Let them associate with thieves, and they will ruin entire nations.

As to the question of "will this happen in the U.S.?", I would say no, because in the U.S. the people would have reacted immediately against one tenth of the abuses that Argentina has suffered. We were weak, stupid and faint-hearted. Until today.

How'd you say? Rant off ? Ok, rant off. :)

Un abrazo - Andrés (Looking for a hammer - tomorrow I have to go banking)