Business press hails new Macri govenment

The newly-elected President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, is already enjoying the celebration of the financial press. And likely will continue to do so.

This is one example: Charlie Devereux, Ex-JPMorgan Banker Confirmed as Argentina's Finance Minister Bloomberg Business 11/25/2015. Devereux reports:

A former JPMorgan Chase & Co executive and central bank president, Alfonso Prat-Gay, will be Argentina’s new finance minister, responsible for rolling back a decade of state intervention in the economy. ...

“They’re building a great team with solid technical grasp, it’s way superior to what we’ve had previously,” said Fernando Jasnis, a money manager at Explorador Capital Management. “It’s a good signal, this team is going to promote trust. They’re people with a great track record and reputation in the market.”

Peña also confirmed that Federico Sturzenegger, a lawmaker from Macri’s Pro party who was president of Banco Ciudad, the bank owned by the Buenos Aires city government, would become president of the central bank. Macri economic adviser Rogelio Frigerio will become interior minister, while Francisco Cabrera, the head of a think-tank linked to the party of the incoming president, will become production minister.

When you start seeing talk in the business press about policies to promote "trust" and "confidence" among corporate investors, ordinary people need to start worrying.

The article concludes with a paragraph fretting over whether ordinary people might to start doing just that: "'On the economic side, Macri’s team is top notch," Daniel Kerner, head of Latin America research at Eurasia Group, wrote in a note today. 'The main challenge for Macri will be to minimize the political cost of the economic adjustment. His institutional and political weaknesses will become more problematic if he loses support rapidly because of the adjustment.'" (my emphasis)

Devereux also notes, "One of [Prat-Gay's] first tasks would be to find a resolution to a decade-long legal battle with disgruntled creditors from the 2001 default that’s blocking Argentina from international capital markets."

They plan to cave in to the vulture funds, in other words.

Alfredo Zaiat reports on a complicated story of possible problems in Prat-Gay's financial disclosures: El ministerio de la city Página/12 29.11.2015.

Argentina's ride with a One Percenter government committed to austerity economics will begin with Macri's inauguration on December 10.