One thing I learned from programming since the early 2000s, there is no such thing as one size fits all advice. You do what is best for future folks--as I like to call the unfortunate folks who would have to maintain the code I wrote--by providing them helpful hints (be it business rules, assumptions related to code/tech) along with as simply and clearly written code as possible (how do I know if my code is simple and easy to understand? Have a junior teammate review my code and have her/him leave comments wherever she has to spend more than 10-15 mins reading an area in the code).
I hope not of a lot of the future folks hate me for leaving them with ample context and clear/dead simple code.
In a very real way, a codebase is a conversation among developers. There's every chance the next guy will be less familiar with the code than you, who just did a deep dive and arrived at some critical, poorly documented line of code. There's an even better chance that person will be you, 6 months from now.
I generally don't like the idea of relying on one private company to track private individual citizens' movement. So, I have an issue with this punishment (although I see that allowing that would also make it harder for automated toll charging systems to collect tolls).
On a related note, when I lived in FL, I often saw cars with this opaque plastic cover on number plates. I think these are installed by the drivers so that they can avoid paying road toll (FL has many road tolls). I also noticed that these drivers tend to be more aggressive in driving than others (that's how I noticed their license plates are covered). Will the same punishment be applied to those drivers?
Those covers in FL are now fully illegal (Oct 1) along with most license plate frames.
Have a friend who got pulled over recently and given a warning for the clear cover on his plate. Apparently, they can be a felony in some cases.
I recall on an old Top Gear episode years ago, in the UK, people were selling mud in a spray can. You apparently sprayed the mud up the bumper and across the plate so it looks like it’s just slung mud, but it just so happens to block the plate. Plausible deniability in a can…
I think an always-installed bike rack is going to be the "safest" solution.
Here in Tennessee I'm also thinking about making a "frame" which extends out about 12 inches from the rear of the bumper, blocking aerial observation (but still in compliance with Tennessee law, "visible from rear at 100ft").
Our photo tickets aren't legally enforceable (across the entire state, except for automated school/bus citations), but the Flock cameras have really started being deployed over the past year.
Most of our new Flock cameras have additional security cameras prominently recording, nearby (like you'd see in a bigbox parking lot for security). I hope we can legislate these out of existance, pronto.
The opaque covers (and essentially all license plate decorations, frames, covers, etc.) are illegal as of October 1 in Florida. I believe initially the plan is stop-and-educate, but the law provides for a $500 fine and up to 60 days jail time for obscuring your license plate.
It is weird to me that we got to a point where we are being literal about the law again, instead of the spirit.
I guess laws should no longer say:
A license plate should be attached to a car.
Instead it should say:
All vehicles that don't display their license plate for cameras of any kind are illegal, the spirit of this law is to make it so we can identify through the number assigned to the vehicle from the state that identifies it is obvious if a picture is taken of the vehicle from the front or the back.
Better yet, judges and legal experts should just stop playing these games with words and figure out a new way to make things that are supposed to be legal, legal.
> It is weird to me that we got to a point where we are being literal about the law again, instead of the spirit.
The "spirit" of any law requiring license plates on vehicles is that the license plate can be read under normal conditions. The letter of the law may have been more generic, although many countries define very precisely everything about the plate, its condition and legibility. So demanding visible plates is exactly in the spirit of the law. What's the point of a license plate that nobody can read?
People exploited the letter of the law by having a license that was illegible somehow. Covered, faded writing, flipped under the motorcycle seat, etc.
> vehicles that don't display their license plate for cameras of any kind are illegal
License plates predate traffic cameras and the requirement for readable plates has been in force in many countries since for almost all that time. The license needs to be visible first and foremost so humans can easily identify a car. It can be police or a witness when someone runs you over.
Cameras automate this so they make abuse far easier. But the need was always there for various legitimate reasons.
Almost no law would survive if everyone was allowed to just take some literal interpretation of their own choice. The attitude that "well technically the law says" is usually shot down by any judge for good reason. Someone could have a lot of fun with your right to "bear arms".
License plates have always been required to be legible; that's the whole point. Obscuring them is clearly against the spirit of the law, whether or not that particular method is specifically codified.
> All vehicles that don't display their license plate for cameras of any kind are illegal, the spirit of this law is to make it so we can identify through the number assigned to the vehicle from the state that identifies it is obvious if a picture is taken of the vehicle from the front or the back.
Quarter inch high license plates are now legal. It’s hardly the motorist’s fault if the camera is too low resolution :)
Regular license plates are illegal, because they’re unreadable to a type of camera - thermal cameras :)
Once I started looking for the plastic plate covers I was actually shocked how common they are. Of course enforcement is so lax these days many people seem to be using a paper temporary plate that they printed out. No word on how many of those are even real, I can't even read the numbers on them through the window.
Did you see the one which used an electromagnet to hold fake leaves in place? If they got pulled over, they could push a button which would allow the leaves to fall off.
Leaves are not ferromagnetic, so they won't stick to an electromagnet.
A few small holes with a small pump that constantly sucks the air from them would help stick a real, unmodified leaf to the surface. and release it at will. This would require tampering with the license plate, even though in a very minor way.
I'm not sure how the cameras used to take pictures of car license plates so that the driver can be identified and required to pay a toll for use of the road, is meaningfully different than a camera used to take pictures of car license plates (and other things in the scene) for the purpose of detecting crime. It's still the government running a camera in public to take pictures of things, including cars with clearly-visible license plates, and then knowing that the car was at a specific location at a specific time.
> On a related note, when I lived in FL, I often saw cars with this opaque plastic cover on number plates. I think these are installed by the drivers so that they can avoid paying road toll (FL has many road tolls). I also noticed that these drivers tend to be more aggressive in driving than others (that's how I noticed their license plates are covered).
I've noticed the same thing in my area of CA. Lots of folks with different devices to obscure their plates, and a strong correlation between the obscured plates and very poor or aggressive driving.
I've started to quip that the obscured plates + tinted windows + blacked-out taillights is the "frequent moving violation starter kit".
Or "tell me you violate the rules of the road without telling me you violate the rules of the road".
> Will the same punishment be applied to those drivers?
One could imagine that's actually the targeted demographic, and not the subset of folks trying to circumvent Flock cameras.
I think flock tracks more than just the number. A plate cover is another piece of entropy that can be used just like browser fingerprinting. The tinfoil hat side of me thinks the camera aspect is a red herring and they are actually using the tire pressure sensors and other junk to do the actual tracking.
I mean, is it a problem if that's what I believe? In practice I'm not even getting "tracked". No one is likely to be looking up my license plate and looking at my movements, because I don't do anything that would warrant that kind of attention.
In the off chance someone is looking up that information, it's probably a mistake (i.e. mistaken identity), and seeing where I've been will likely clear that up.
And in the infinitesimal chance it doesn't, I imagine motive would be really hard to establish.
I'm not saying we shouldn't have proper oversight, strong data controls, etc, but I'm not opposed to this kind of tracking on principal alone. It does have real benefits!
But personally, seeing and meeting the kinds of people who oppose this kind of tracking _on principal alone_, I'm immediately suspicious of all of them. But that's definitely bias on my part: I've known many folks in this category from the world of crypto, and 90+% of them are just trying to avoid taxes and/or scrutiny of accountability for whatever scam they're running.
> No one is likely to be looking up my license plate and looking at my movements, because I don't do anything that would warrant that kind of attention.
Want to spend an hour on the side of the highway while the police search your vehicle?
> Want to spend an hour on the side of the highway while the police search your vehicle?
Again. I don't commit crimes, so this isn't likely to happen to me. And if it does, they will find nothing, and I'll be slightly inconvenienced. It'll suck, but you know what else is inconvenient? Getting bipped.
Guess which of those risks is higher, and which has changed more based on this technology?
> The principle is _Don't Tread On Me._
Pretty sure that doesn't mean what you think it means. Tracking your movements in public spaces doesn't diminish your freedom in any way, so nothing is being tread on.
> No one is likely to be looking up my license plate and looking at my movements, because I don't do anything that would warrant that kind of attention.
What makes you so incredibly sure that you will never in your lifetime do a single thing that would ever draw this kind of attention, no matter who is pulling the levers of power?
I live in a country where such abuses are rare? They happen, sure, and are broadly covered when they do, but this distorts the perception of how often they happen, which is "not very often".
I also don't commit crimes, so I really don't have much to worry about.
This, coupled with the fact that I will leave the country if abuses start to become more common, gives me a lot of confidence that I indeed have nothing to worry about.
And I like the decreases in crime that these kinds of technologies drive. The downside of them can be large, sure, but the downside risk is minimal. The upside is small to medium, but is real and demonstrable.
To me, that makes it worth it, and I tire of folks who would prevent the upsides of various technologies, based on hypotheticals, vanishingly unlikely scenarios, and their own downside risks--which might, as it turns out, be large because they're the ones committing crimes?
> This, coupled with the fact that I will leave the country if abuses start to become more common, gives me a lot of confidence that I indeed have nothing to worry about.
There's a lot about your post that seemed naive, but this one takes the cake.
Given how we treat immigrants in the US, and the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that seems to be rising throughout the world, what makes you think the world would actually want you in their country?
I'd really love to see the breakdown between how much we spend on physicians/doctors vs. caretakers (nurses, therapists, etc.) vs. how much on hospital admin and other stuff.
At least in UK's chart, "GP & Primary Care", "Private GP Services" and "Administration" are separated. Same in Germany too.
I postponed all of my CPG and miscellaneous purchases (think AA batteries, socks, winter pants, skin lotion, body wash, etc.) until Black Friday "sales". I also stocked up on stuff like Ramen. I did NOT buy anything special for myself (e.g., I really wanted Switch 2, but I think it's too overpriced and decided not to pull the trigger).
I'd not be surprised if a good number of people did the same. PLUS, the prices rose by quite a bit between the start of the year and now. So we need to see if this increase is sales match up to inflation (which, unfortunately, would be more difficult to rely on knowing that that metric has become politicized.)
Disclaimer: I have nothing against R or Python and I'm not partial to either.
Python, the language itself, might not be a great language for data science. BUT the author can use Pandas or Polars or another data-science-related library/framework in Python to get the job done that s/he was trying to write in R. I could read both her R and Pandas code snippets and understand them equally.
This article reads just like, "Hey, I'm cooking everything by making all ingredients from scratch and see how difficult it is!".
I know it's impossible in some software stack and ecosystem. But I live mostly in the data world, so I usually could get away from such issues by aggressively keeping my upstream dependency list lean.
P.S. When I was working at Amazon, I remember that a good number of on-call tickets were about fixing dependencies (in most of them are about updating the outdated Scala Spark framework--I believe it was 2.1.x or older) and patching/updating OS'es in our clusters. What the team should have done (I mentioned this to my manager) is to create clusters dynamically (do not allow long-live clusters even if the end users prefer it that way), and upgrading the Spark library. Of course, we had a bunch of other annual and quarterly OKRs (and KPIs) to meet, so updating Spark got the lowest of priorities...
> All of these can be accessed through bloodwork and urinalysis and can be done at a local Quest Labs (I’d venture to bet there’s one within a 10-mile radius of your home), prescribed by your doctor, and will likely cost anywhere between $80-$120 out of pocket.
A frustrating thing about this suggestion -- if I tell my physician (I live in the US) that I want these unusual tests prescribed, s/he would scorn at me (as if I'm acting like a know-it-all and am questioning his/her wisdom attained through years of medicine school and practice).
I truly don't understand about US healthcare is why we allowed medical practitioners to put up barriers around medicine (sure, ban opioids,chemo drugs and maybe a handful of other toxic-with-low-dose meds) and testing by requiring everything doctor's prescription?!
For example, my wife had an swollen eyelid (through infection) recently. She is an oncologist in training (is a board-certified internal medicine doctor). She knows how to treat it -- by putting clean, warm cloth over her eyes to allow pores to expand and let secretions seep out (to treat the symptom); by adding anti-bacterial eye drop like Tobramycin ('mycin' means it's Penicillin-variant, which is usually used to treat bacterial infection) OR by taking antibacterial medicine like Azithromycin. If we were in our home country (in SE Asia), we'd just go to a nearby pharmacy and buy either the anti-bacterial eye drop or pill, and get it sorted. Since we live in the US (for now), my wife has to asked one of her coworkers to prescribe her the medicine (she wasn't sure if she can self-prescribe because we just moved to CA and don't want her to lose her license). Then she took the anti-bacterial pill three times (with the warm cloth treatment for symptom), and the infection was treated completely.
I strongly believe that this kind of infection treatment or self-prescribed blood tests should be allowed without any doctor prescription. Otherwise, it only adds more (unnecessary) patient volume to doctors, clinics and hospitals. I remember reading someone from India advocating for similar approach on HN or Reddit a year or so ago too. In India (just like my SE Asian country), they could just go buy medicines over the counter from a local pharmacy. No doctor's prescription needed (maybe the law is there, but it's not enforce strictly).
I didn't stop changing doctors until I found one that would work with me. I didn't go to a fancy concierge doctor - I just shopped around. I didn't go through a string all at once, but when I needed to go to the doctor, if I hadn't liked the last one, I went to the new one. After 4-5 years of this, I found one.
Younger guy. Keeps up with the research. Is interested in hearing about the research. He'd recommended statins to me when I first started seeing him, but I really wanted to see if lifestyle/diet modifications could help - I didn't succeed long term. He was supportive. I came back a few years after and mentioned statins again, but that I was particularly interested in pitavastatin because it looked to have the best side effect/positive effect ratio. I also said I'd like to try to target an even lower level moving forward, even if pitavastatin would likely get me in range, and he agreed that the research showed this should be a positive, so he added ezetimibe.
As noted in the other comment, in most of the US you can just walk in to labcorp or quest or another provider and get tests done without a doctor. NY is to the best of my knowledge the only exception here. The providers have them for order on their websites, and you can usually go through places like jasonhealth or privatemdlabs to get even lower pricing for the same labs at the same places.
Wish I could give your comment 10 more upvotes for visibility.
This is Myanmar military trying to do field work for China. China is the one who allowed these militias to thrive in the border areas and they have been arming them for decades. This particular operation happens in Myawaddy, which is in lower eastern part of Myanmar close to Thailand, but not in northeastern Myanmar closer to China, because Myanmar military dare only touch the militia there. It helps that the accused collaborators of these scam centers in the lower east part of Myanmar are Kayin ethnic militia, who--unlike Wa or Kokang--aren't as Chinese, and thus, China doesn't care. Also, China is now 100% backing the military regime (which staged a coup around 2021) in Myanmar, so this is like shooting two birds with one stone (i.e., get rid of scam centers for China, while helping Myanmar's brutal military to remove an income source of one of the non-ethnically Chinese militia).
Basically, China is getting what it sowed and now that its citizens are being impacted, it's asking its lapdog, Burmese military, to do the clean-up for them selectively.
PRC citizens were always impacted, these scam centers literally started (by twnese org crime) to target mainland retirees.
PRC would love for Junta to dismantle Kokang / northern scam centers but Junta couldn't because domestic factional power issues vs Northern states. The TLDR is scam centers are protected by pro Junta Kokang faction (BGF), so PRC got tired of Junta waffling and decided to support anti Junta three brotherhood alliance (aka rebels) who went HAM on the scam centers while PRC did military exercises to tell juntas to fuck off and understand PRC willing to patronize other internal players if junta doesn't play ball. Last year's 1027 operation only happened because PRC lost patience with Juntas and now Juntas more keen to help PRC deal vs scam centers (well at least performatively since they still need it for funding) because they know if they did nothing PRC will shop around and empower other players during civil war.
Glad to see innovation in bicycle space. That said, when I was living in NYC, I was always afraid that someone on an e-bike would hit me when I'm trying to cross the road (esp. in the evenings or when the weather doesn't permit a lot of visibility). Some of these e-bikers also ride on the pedestrian platforms and it's dangerous (as of 2022, I don't think there was any enforcement to keep them out of the platforms).
It'd be interesting to see if/how e-bike laws would evolve if this trend gets bigger (ebikes are already big in big cities like NYC)
What's the benefit for trump and co. helping out Argentina (other than helping a kindred spirit, the current Argentinian president)? I really can't see any benefit for the US in this move. Hopefully, someone more versed in economics can explain what the missing angle is, if any.
I'm not convinced this bailout is good policy but you could maybe make a case that it's the least bad option. If the USA doesn't help Argentina then the lender of last resort becomes China. Do we want China to gain more control and influence in the Americas?
The US is not the global or continental lender of last resort. The IMF traditionally holds that role and it appears to be at its limit with regard to Argentina due to serial defaulting, political instability, corruption, and overall lack of credibility.
Not compelling at all to say the US just generally has an imperative to buy debt or lend to countries whenever they're least creditable just because China might do it anyway.
Up to you if you want to describe holding a 16% controlling stake as "its instrument," but I don't think many would.
In practice, your point is demonstrably false by the fact that IMF is likely backing away from further financing to Argentina while the US is stepping in.
Well that was my point. Argentina probably can't borrow any more from the IMF so that leaves the USA or China. China might do it for political reasons even if they lose money so we need to consider whether we're willing to accept the negative geopolitical consequences of that.
If the US had any desire to maintain influence in the Americas (or anywhere else), it wouldn't be calling their leaders drug lords, cutting off foreign aid, engaging in extrajudicial killings off their shores, threatening them with carrier groups, violating previously agreed-upon trade deals, etc.
Argentina also would not be getting some special treatment. There are far more strategically important and similarly struggling economies in the Americas and elsewhere that the US could choose to assist and is not.
There's just no coherence to this theory.
This is rich guys helping out their rich guy buddies using taxpayer dollars.
> it wouldn't be calling their leaders drug lords, cutting off foreign aid, engaging in extrajudicial killings off their shores, threatening them with carrier groups, violating previously agreed-upon trade deals, etc.
The world policeman is doing world policeman things. Luckily things are starting to get worse for the world policeman so those things might happen less.
Why would it happen less? Empires don't go down in peace. The dying Soviet empire morphed into the incredibly violent, dying Russian empire under Putin.
The US is playing nice with Argentina and El Salvador while harsh with Colombia and Venezuela due to the perceived difference in their politics.
Carrot, stick.
> This is rich guys helping out their rich guy buddies using taxpayer dollars.
Almost all foreign aid is this, complete with kickbacks such as donations to the Clinton Foundation, etc. Even domestically, eg, the high percentage of homeless and poverty support disappearing into NGO pockets.
What does "the high percentage" mean? I donate plenty of money to both foreign and domestic non-profits and a pretty bad overhead is 20% in my experience. I generally aim for overhead ratios of 10% or so and have no problems finding lots of quality orgs in that range.
It’s an intentionally difficult to parse network of public and private groups.
I did say specifically what I was talking about — public funds like Seattle, where $18000/homeless per year disappears through the network into employee pockets while delivering substantially less to those it’s nominally for.
"A lot of money is spent and the outcome is not as good as expected" does not indicate "an intentionally difficult to parse network of public and private groups" where money "disappears through the network into employee pockets."
Here's another possibility: the problem is much more challenging or more expensive to solve than one would expect from the outset. Or the challenge of the problem just vastly outstrips the talent of the people dedicated to solving it.
I don't know about you, but I encounter unexpectedly hard problems or insufficiently talented problem-solvers probably 1,000 to 10,000 times more frequently than I encounter complex conspiracies to steal money.
I think you need far more evidence than you have to make the claims you're making. Which is why they aren't specific.
If your goal is to help the Argentinian people, you would let Milei's extremely destructive and incompetent government fail and fall. This bailout only gives "General AnCap" more time to sell the country's future.
Its intervening to save a democratic and aligned country from yet-another economic collapse and political crises at their upcoming national elections. Not dissimilar to what the us did for mexico during the peso crisis and revaluation in the 90s.
I dont know why “bail out” is the headline term, it’s closer to a “currency backstop” AFAIK. The us is effectively extending hard dollars in exchange for pesos, allowing the argentine govt to not be destroyed in the open currency markets. If this works the peso would retain (or gain) value as the country recovers (economically, due to the ongoing reforms) and the us could feasibly even profit.
On the USD and peso backstop its important to note that “dollarization” was a big talking point for milei. But argentina never had anywhere close to enough USD reserves or even USD economic flows to make that at all feasible ever. Like many many billions away from plausible. So there was a background theme of trying to catch them out on that as well since the last elections.
Edit: and for context the current run against the peso is effectively because of dumb milei posturing ahead of regional elections, and a strong populist/peronist result. Lots of fear that if its repeated at the upcoming national elections then argentina goes back to kirchner style populism and debt/economic blow up.
The only people who will benefit from this are the financial elite in Argentina who are selling pesos and getting dollars as quickly as they can, and the hedge funds who invested in Argentina and need a way out. The current government, which is a bad joke, will never win anything else. The economy will continue to go south because this plan doesn't work even in the short term.
I personally think milei the politician is a clown. And many of his statements are just offensive to anyone who can spark two braincells together. I also thought he was going to burn it all down in a blaze of hubris after his election.
But its hard to argue with arresting the inflation, gdp, and budget surplus numbers. Im not sure how the economy is “going south.” Generously the policies have arrested the slide?
I dont imagine the typical argentine is better off with 200% inflation, 50% unemployment, and a 57% poverty rate. Avoiding that return seems to be quite a benefit for just about everyone?
> But its hard to argue with arresting the inflation, gdp, and budget surplus numbers. Im not sure how the economy is “going south.” Generously the policies have arrested the slide?
Sure it is. Public education and science funding is at a historic minimum that is destroying tons of long term scientific and educational initiatives. Roads are falling apart in a gigantic country and what’s left of rail is being scrapped for parts and sold to private entities that will let rails decay just like everywhere else where it was privatized.
Consumer spending continues to go down, industry is not competitive with this fake exchange rate causing a loss of high quality jobs and forcing everyone to take a second job as an Uber driver.
We’ve seen this play out again and again. The government will default, then hyperinflation and social crises until the low prices of everything make the economy competitive again.
This has played out again and again with far more competent governments and we keep being right about it.
The Argentinian government was literally out of cash. There was nothing left and no ability to borrow. So complaining about cuts to education, science, and transportation seems a little silly. How exactly were they supposed to pay for it?
In the long run there are things they can do to raise revenue and cut waste. But when you're stuck in a deep hole the first thing you need to do is stop digging.
One way to cover expenses is to raise income. The dude running the gov is a libertarian. I don't think he sees running out of other peoples money as a problem. It might be the point. "Big gov".
I don't think you understand the severity of the cash crunch they were facing. How exactly could they raise government revenue fast? Tax rates were already high and compliance was low. Can't get blood from a stone.
Longer term they could maybe sell off some state assets but it takes time to bring in any cash that way.
The severity of the cash crunch has been seen time and time again with the difference being that loans were used to fund a functioning government instead of being used by rich people to buy cheap US dollars to fund their vacations in Europe.
What's your point? Regardless of what was done before there were no more loans available in the short term.
Seriously, what was the alternative? If you have no money and no one will lend you any money then the only remaining options are to run the printing presses (hyperinflation) or stop spending.
The alternative was to take the loans, keep the existing currency control mechanisms, and run a moderate amount of inflation and exchange rate to keep the economy competitive while the income from exports in mining and ag kept coming in.
What's been done instead? Open currency markets while intervining to keep the US dollar artificially cheap, losing productivity and competitiveness and thus losing taxable income while funding cheap imports for consumer goods.
No, you're really missing the point. There were no loans being offered at the time the budget cuts were made. There were no loans to take. Their credit line had been exhausted. They had run out of other peoples' money. How are you not getting this?
No, I get the point because I've spoken to several specialists on the matter. The budget cuts Milei performed were far higher than what even the most conservative IMF program proposed.
There was no technical reason to cut budget to that level. It pure ideological motivation.
>>> No, I get the point because I've spoken to several specialists on the matter. The budget cuts Milei performed were far higher than what even the most conservative IMF program proposed.
You clearly don't. There was 2100% annual hyperinflation on the day Milei assumed. "Specialists" said that cutting inflation to monthly single digits couldn't be done, period.
Milei did it in less than 6 months.
The current predicament is a political one, not an economic one.
He allowed Argentinians to finally experience the freedom of a floating exchange rate. Under normal circumstances, if the Argentinians decided they had enough of the peso and wanted to forcefully commit to the USD, they could do so at whatever rate was offered.
The political problem is that now there's an election this weekend, and he now has to explain why Argentinians (and investors) don't want pesos if the FX goes too high. He should not have put the govt in the position to defend a peso... that Argentinians themselves do not want.
After the election, there will be nothing to speculate against, the currency will find whatever equlibrium was needed, and the "specialists" will go back to their corner, where they hide for being wrong.
> is at a historic minimum that is destroying tons of long term scientific and educational initiatives.
Education was always shit. I live in Argentina, the PISA results from last exam are demential and I doubt they can get worse, don't lie to people please. There's absolutely no way in the world education can get to today levels in one and a half years of Milei.
> Roads are falling apart in a gigantic country
Roads were NEVER good, either you don't live in Argentina and you definitely can't have an opinion, or you live here and never left your house. Again, please don't lie to people, we have been living in hell for 20 years, nothing breaks like you say in one and a half years.
> and what’s left of rail is being scrapped for parts and sold to private entities that will let rails decay just like everywhere else where it was privatized.
Whoa you have a crystal magic ball? The kukas governed for 20 years, don't tell me all the railroad system decayed exactly when Milei assumed...
Ok, good to know you have no idea what you're talking about.
Everything you're saying is hyperbole. "Things are bad" is not a serious talking point. Things are relative and between the education in Zimbabwe and Denmark there is a huge gap.
> I dont know why “bail out” is the headline term, it’s closer to a “currency backstop” AFAIK. The us is effectively extending hard dollars in exchange for pesos, allowing the argentine govt to not be destroyed in the open currency markets. If this works the peso would retain (or gain) value as the country recovers (economically, due to the ongoing reforms) and the us could feasibly even profit.
No no no, you don’t get it, it’s not a “bailout,” it’s simply a “magic bean repurchase facility” whereby dollars are made available to holders of magic beans. When the magic beans sprout and reach the sky, the profit could be considerable.
FX is magic beans? I guess if youre of the mind that “fiat is theft”. But in that case Im not sure why youd care if you can always go back to farming (digital) gold.
Although, to be fair, I can see the perspective that argentine _debt_ is magic beans funded by hopes, wishes, and the IMFs argentine refinancing.
couldn't the US do better by buying the pesos after the crash, and then when the argentine peso regains its value as part of recovery, the US gets a bigger profit?
Argentina wouldn't be "destroyed" by a currency devaluation. But Milei wants to keep the Peso strong so his upper/middle class supporters can keep buying electronics and going on international vacations.. at least until the next election.
Talking about the naked, open corruption and bribery is considered gauche in polite society. Executing random Colombian fisherman, OTOH, is perfectly fine.
The connection is very clear. Amazing Krugman piece. There's still a little bit of a why question to me? What will Citrone or anyone else ever be able to provide back, since they all know this is going to fail, & are using this loan to jack up prices & exit their positions?
Maybe there's some more elaborate way this will enrich certain American cronies. Maybe.
But I tend to think the answer comes if we look back 80 years. A lot of bad evil people needed a friendly state to run to after WWII ended. Today, beyond just being friends-of-an-(evil-doing)-feather together with some other exploitative public-services-destroying extremists, part of me thinks, maybe perhaps: Argentina is being set up as a new exit, a new place to flee too, when justice comes a calling.
> Citrone, the co-founder of Discovery Capital Management, is also a friend and former colleague of Bessent—a fact that has not been previously reported in US media outlets. Citrone, by his own account, helped make Bessent very wealthy.
I think it's simply that Bessent can give his buddy (Citrone), who made him (Bessent) "very wealthy," a bailout at zero cost to any of them. $20 billion is really insignificant for the US government, even if a gross waste of tax dollars, and they know there's not going to be a single repercussion.
> Argentina is being set up as a new exit, a new place to flee too, when justice comes a calling.
I too have been thinking that lately. It wouldn't be ideal for any of them but, from their perspectives, it surely would be better than the alternative.
>So while millions of children must die to save a few billion dollars, taxpayers are on the hook for billions more to bail out Bessent’s hedge fund buddies in a predictably futile attempt to save the Elon Musk of the South.
It's a good thing he didn't give into hyperbole...
Which part of that sentence do you think is hyperbole?
> Forecasting models predicted that the current steep funding cuts could result in more than 14,051,750 (uncertainty interval 8,475,990-19,662,191) additional all-age deaths, including 4,537,157 (3,124,796-5,910,791) in children younger than age 5 years, by 2030.
It will be damn hard to get Bessent or close sources to him to confirm it.
Sometimes you have to go by circumstantial evidence which, in this case, is quite clear: Rob Citrone helped Bessent to make a lot of money, Citrone is deeply invested in Argentinian bonds and overall economy; Bessent controls the US purse, we can be very suspicious about this move since it doesn't make any sense for the US to burn money to help bail out Argentina.
If you have a better theory for why this was done it might help reduce the suspicious nature of it. Just calling "there are no sources" doesn't.
1. Every dollar that he can spend on whatever he wants without congressional permission is another nail in the legal theory of 'The president is an unaccountable god-king.'
2. What kind of god-king wouldn't reward his friends and allies?
Perhaps some of his administration consider Argentina a back-up in the event that things go poorly for them in America. I've heard of something like that happening before.
I'd guess it's because of its natural resources and "cheap" labor which is only getting cheaper, whether this was done intentionally or not, it seems to go hand in hand with CHIPS Act
There is no benefit for the US as a country. You're forgetting that Trump's first impeachment showed us he runs foreign policy for his own benefit. Trump is almost certainly getting some of that money as a kickback.
Speculation is that some of Bessent's buddies are financially exposed to an Argentinian default, and that this keeps them safe from losing money on a sovereign default.
Trump views Milei as a buddy, it's that simple. The personal angle is more important than you might think. Plenty of insiders have discussed this aspect of Trump's foreign policy, most recently I watched this podcast with John Bolton talking about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_BB-96D6qg
What follows is just my theory, but I think it's merely a matter of politics and culture.
Trump doesn't want Milei's government to fail, he needs successful examples of neoliberal, anti-woke, populist, anti-inmigration governments and Milei is probably his best bet. He's not helping Argentina, he's helping a political ally's party.
Betting on the Peso doesn't make sense. It's a lot of money but it's <1% USA's budget. Trump was probably thinking the American media would not pay too much attention to it but apparently it slightly backfired and they did.
Fair enough, forget I said neoliberalism but the rest of the keywords apply. Evidently they don't care that one is neoliberal and the other is protectionist, I guess they care more about anti-wokeism at the end of the day.
Have you paid any attention to how the US has been treating its actual existing powerful allies this year? Is Argentina a more valuable ally than, say, Canada?
I hope not of a lot of the future folks hate me for leaving them with ample context and clear/dead simple code.
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