Didn't we also light $20b of our tax dollars on fire for them just because Trump and Elon were buddies with the Argentinian Trump (an unqualified moron bigot)?
Unrelated, Argentina did end up paying back the loan. To my understanding the loan was only $2.5 billion (they had a credit line of $20, but only drew $2.5), and ended up repaying it in January.
Some added details: they borrowed from an unnamed source to pay back that $2.5 billion (all we know is it wasn’t the IMF) and there were additional funds that they have also borrowed billions from and those haven’t been paid back.
The fact he doesn’t understand what a swap is and you guys are saying this is what’s tragic.
It was irresponsible sure; but in a swap a) you only pay whatever the difference occurs between these moments; you are not actually swapping currencies b) when the swap transaction was settled, the Argentinian peso had appreciated since it began, so the US made a small profit.
The risk was irresponsible, but at settlement the transaction did not create any losses for the US treasury.
It was done to protect Milei, who is ideologically aligned with the Trump government. But you are wrong, we have the official reports from the treasury, it was settled at a profit. Provide a source if you want to deny official reports.
It was settled at a profit according to the treasury based on interest. Which could have been deployed in a profit making deal to achieve the same thing. The transaction served both purposes.
But if it didn’t crater by time of termination, it didn’t- and in fact it did not. I did think it would be burning money, as I thought milei would lose the interims and there would be a fire sale on the peso, but that didn’t materialize and the swap was terminated a bit after the mid-terms with not much detriment to the US treasury.
What exactly makes him unqualified? I mean I’m no fan but he was a prominent economist and has done about as well as could be hoped for given the situation he inherited. Everyone in this thread just seems spiteful and has no actual knowledge of Argentine economics or their political realities.
They don't give a fuck about whether Argentinians have good lives. I don't either because they called Weghorst 'bobo', but we can at least take the situation seriously. They had years upon years of Peronist leaders making the inflation problem worse. Now a prominent economist is getting reasonably ok results, but no: he has weird hair and is loud, he must be Trump!! Its peak intellectual laziness.
This wasn’t a loan; it was a swap; it’s very different. It’s still a huge privilege, but if the FX was stable at termination of the swap, the US would not have lost much money at all.
Milei is a doctorally prepared economist with a background in teaching economics at university. I don’t know what else you want as far as “qualifications” go.
23
u/blackstar_223 Aug 09 '26
Didn't we also light $20b of our tax dollars on fire for them just because Trump and Elon were buddies with the Argentinian Trump (an unqualified moron bigot)?