Argentina Nine Years After 2001

Argentina nine years after 2001; is it WTSHTF or TEOTWAWKI for Argentineans?

A friend on a web site I frequent recently posted the following as part of a longer post:

The problem with Argentina is that their government has had a complete financial (and political) breakdown, including government bond default, about a decade ago and they still have not gotten their act together.

I was trying to augment his report with a link to FerFAL's site (regular readers here have seen that link here several times. FerFAL's site is worth a look several times a month or whenever you find yourself thinking "it" couldn't happen here.) when I stumbled across this link to a report by FerFAL himself. (There's a link at the bottom so you can read the whole thing.)

Here's a report on Argentina Nine Years After 2001:

(a few short quotes, FerFAL writes:)
This week has been interesting and as I now sit here to write and put things together, it hits me how surreal it all is. You get used to all this, its parts of your daily routine to see this things, avoid roadblocks, avoid the conflict and places where protests and looting are taking place. It does wear you out though, imagine wanting to go home after a hard day’s work only to find this in your train station, closed until further notice.

Looting and Rioting
This happened in Constitucion train station yesterday after the service was canceled because of another group of protesters blocking the railroad, and therefore forcing the service to be canceled. I used to take this train to work and this happened more often than you’d think. Man, I don’t miss that train.
(video link)

Squatters
We’ve also been experiencing a squatters boom. All over the country squatters are taking over land for themselves, hurrying in building brick and mortar structures to consolidate their position. The news only reported the most notorious ones that took place in the capital district, but this situation is wide spread and much worse in the suburbs and country.

How does it look when they take over land and start dividing the land among them? It looks like this.
(video link)

No, not pretty at all. Imagine waking up one day and seeing this in the public park in front of your house. Those orange brick buildings that can be seen in the background, some 3 levels high, they build those in a matter of HOURS. In no time you have a favela or shanty town built in your neighborhood. The price of your nice house plumbs and the neighborhood itself become no man’s land a few days later.

What happens when neighbors are fed up with squatters and take matters into their own hands because the liberal government simply wont stop them from squatting in public and private property? It looks like this:
(another video link)

Blackouts
This last week has been pretty hot as well. The smog and general tropical humidity aren’t helping either.

Blackouts have become widespread all over Buenos Aires.
...

Empty ATMs and Sudden Bank Holiday
Because of inflation we are experiencing a particular problem as well. There’s just not enough cash to go around. The government doesn’t want to print much needed 500 peso bills because they said it would be admitting an inflation “That doesn’t exist!!” . Add to the rampant inflation the fact that people don’t trust banks much and prefer to use cash instead, this only makes matters worse.
...

What would you do if they don’t accept plastic any more because of blackouts or some other reason? What would you do if ATMs run empty and banks close? These things happen, its just that people prefer not to think about these things.

[As a regular reader here you should know that Cash is King in any emergency!]

Crime
In terms of crime, my wife told me about a new crime she heard while in the beauty salon that I just couldn’t believe.
...
Because hair extensions have become popular, there’s a prime price for nice long human hair! These scum bags are cutting off women’s hair, specially if its nice and already arranged in an easy to cut pony tail. A long pony tail sells for 300 pesos.

You can read the whole thing and view the videos HERE

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Put It On Plastic? Gambling with Survival

How close are we to a catastrophic economic event?
In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra: "Predicting is difficult; particularly about the future." Just because you believe the end is near doesn't mean you should stock up on green bananas. Better to stock up on the foods that you normally eat with long term storage potential and rotate your stock. Most canned goods nowadays have the "best if sold by" date printed right on the can. . It's not unusual for canned goods to have expiration dates of more than a year out and, if stored in a cool dry place, they can be safely consumed even after many years.

Also, honey is a nutritious food source and (sealed) honey stores virtually forever.In addition to its antiseptic and antibacterial properties locally produced honey tends to immunize against local allergies.

As an added bonus most micro-organisms do not grow in honey making it an impromptu topical antibacterial agent as long as water is kept away from the wound which makes it a good ointment for rashes and burns. Honey can also be used to help soothe sore throats.

Is there anything we individuals can do to prevent the coming crisis?
Look, you're in the same position as a passenger on the bow of the Titanic on that fateful night just before it struck the iceberg. You are not a member of the crew and therefore are not qualified to see the iceberg. The helmsman will not heed your advice and the officer of the watch won't wake the captain with your warning. You'd best begin thinking about an alternative mode of transportation.

You've probably noticed there aren't enough lifeboats so depending on the authorities for salvation will be problematical. A wooden stateroom door doesn't provide the comforts of a lifeboat, but it floats.

Have you selected your door? The water's cold so you'll need something to tie yourself to the door with. Got rope?

Getting away from the seafaring analogies, when things go to hell in a hand basket there'll be a shortage of hand baskets. Having your own hand basket will mean you not only don't have to stand in line to get one, but you'll be helping the team effort by not being in that line and thus putting that much less strain on the over stretched and stressed hand basket providers.

Whether you shelter in place (most likely for most people) or make a run for it you'll need water, food and medicine which brings us to the next question: How ya' gunn'a get all this stuff?

Getting back to the hand basket analogy; given a crisis developing over a period of days there'll most likely be a rush to buy food and camping supplies. We've seen it all before; the weather bureau forecasts a blizzard or hurricane and the nightly news shows video of empty store shelves and people lined up at cash registers with carts full of bottled water, food, tools and supplies. You don't want to be in that line unless you're just topping off.

Why not? Since nobody knows when the tipping point will arrive why not wait till the last minute and then max out the credit cards and sit safe and secure in your chosen hideaway as the world unravels around you smug in the knowledge that the credit card bills will never come?

What makes you so sure the stores will be accepting credit cards or even open for business? Hurricanes and blizzards are local events for which merchants are happy to put survival supplies on plastic because the merchants know that when the storm is over the credit card company will still be around to pay them. But what if they aren't? Or what if the merchants fear they may not be?

Perception is reality at least insofar as we react to it and a radioactive hole in midtown Manhattan or even just a dirty bomb in the Bronx would likely cause the banks who sponsor credit card companies and the merchants who get paid by them to put the kibosh on credit until things get sorted out. But there are physical reasons you don't want to base your survival plans on plastic.

It wouldn't take a mountain sized meteor melting Montreal to put plastic survival plans in the potty. When we ran our store something as trivial as a lightning strike on a power pole would take whole sections of the city (and our credit card machines) down. The Northeast and New York City Blackouts in 1965, 1977 and 2003 made cash king for the durations.

And then there's the prospect of sabotage of our national electrical grid, Internet or banking industry infrastructure to worry about.

No, I'll stock up on food and forgo the opportunity to join the desperate mobs of looters left holding a wallet full of useless plastic when the pantry is empty.


To Comment on this article E-Mail Me Unless you specifically ask me not to, I'll post your reply here in the blog so everyone can read it. Of course I'll remove your last name, email address and any other specific information for privacy purposes.