Kicillof Returns to the Speech Circuit and Predicts That He and His Policies Will Continue into the Next Administration

Kicillof Returns to the Speech Circuit and Predicts That He and His Policies Will Continue into the Next Administration

Post date : 05.01.2015 2:59 pm

Argentine Economic Minister Axel Kicillof was in New York this week, but apparently it was not to make any efforts toward solving his country’s most pressing economic problems, which are related to his and President Kirchner’s decision to default on more than $25 billion of debt.

Argentina’s creditors have repeatedly asked to meet with Kicillof to negotiate a settlement.  They have said publicly that they would negotiate without preconditions, and would be willing to accept bonds as part of a non-cash settlement.

Settling with creditors would immediately improve the Republic’s economic situation.  Instead, the government continues to demonstrate such disregard towards creditors and contracts that even Iraq and Rwanda can borrow at more favorable rates.

But rather than meet with creditors while he was in New York, or work toward any solution, Kicillof resorted to what he seems to do best:  Give a bombastic, overwrought speech at the UN, blame everybody else for the mess that he helped create, and absurdly claim that these policies are working for Argentina.

At the UN on Wednesday, Kicillof gave an erratic conspiratorial rendition of how the global financial system is somehow threatened by Argentina’s creditors. Of course, Argentina’s problems are not due to its creditors, but to the Republic’s refusal to take action and negotiate a good faith settlement.  Moody’s has pointed out that Argentina is the outlier in sovereign restructurings.  The report states: “unique in the historical context…of the 36 sovereign bond exchanges that have taken place globally over the past decade and a half, the case of Argentina was the only one that resulted in persistent litigation.”

Embarrassed by his own refusal to settle, Kicillof actually told the reporters who covered the speech that he did negotiate with creditors last summer. However, anyone who has followed this saga remembers that Kicillof’s excuse for putting the country into a second default last summer was that the RUFO clauseprevented Argentina from negotiating, period. Furthermore, Kicillof conceded that all Argentina has ever done has been to repeat the same coercive, unilateral offer from a decade ago. Even President Kirchner admitted earlier this week that Argentina is not negotiating. In a public speech, she bragged about Argentina’s continued refusal to negotiate after RUFO expired.

And, as a defense against the consensus view that he and President Kirchner, by not negotiating, are simply leaving the problems they have created to her successor to deal with, Kicillof provided a foreshadowing of their intention to remain in power in the next administration and perpetuate the current policies:

“This administration will not leave any problems to anyone because the next government will be us.”

For Argentina, perhaps the only thing worse than Axel Kicillof’s dismal record as Economy Minister is the thought of another four years of the same failed policies.