Argentine 'President' to Harvard students: there is no ‘dollar clamp’; don’t repeat monochord questions

President Cristina Fernandez speaking at Harvard University denied there was a “dollar clamp”, chided some students for making the same “monochord questions” as the Argentine media, attacked the IMF and finally described a question on her wish for re-re-election as ‘abstract’ since it does not depend from her or a single party.

Cristina Fernandez at the Kennedy school of government came out aggressive.

“There is no such thing as a dollar clamp in Argentina”, said strongly Cristina Fernandez on Thursday addressing students as the Kennedy School of Government forum.

“The dollar clamp is a ‘media made up phrase’; Argentina is the second country with dollars after the US, but we had a problem during the last election because of strong rumours that said we were planning to devalue. This led to the flight of four billion dollars in cash, stacked away, something which does not happen in Brazil, Chile or Colombia”, underlined CFK.

“There is great misunderstanding about the issue and much media muddling. I’m not blaming anybody; I also had a deposit in US dollars”.

However addressing the student who was Argentine the president asked him if it was a fair question to ask about the so-called dollar clamp.

“Do you have an idea of how many Argentines can’t even make it to the University of La Matanza (a poor neighbourhood of Buenos Aires and stronghold of the dominating Peronist movement)?

On re-re-election the president was evasive.

“It’s not whether I want it, but rather of what I can and should do. It is an abstract question because the Constitution does not allow a third mandate. At home we discuss many things, a constitutional reform does depend on me or an only political party”, said CFK.

Another student asked about her patrimony to which the president said she could give an account of each of her assets and added “my economic position is because I’ve worked all my life and because I have been a very successful solicitor”.

An Argentine student timidly said he felt one of the few privileged Argentines because he could ask the President and then brought up the issue of the government’s ‘self-criticism’.

“That short phrase you are using. Look, I’ve talked with millions of Argentines. It seems I was numb. You are intelligent kids you can’t go around repeating in monochord what two or three journalists have come up with”, said CFK increasingly annoyed by some of the questions.

As in previous speeches in the US and before answering questions CFK was particularly critical of multilateral organizations and at the same underlined the successful policies of her administration.

“We can’t say we are living in Disney World. Argentina is no paradise or Disney but we have improved our situation”, she said in reference to policies implemented in the country since 2003.

She then went after the IMF. “International multilateral bodies evidently are not working, and not recently, but from a long time back”.

On the current economic crisis that the developed countries are living in CFK affirmed that “the economic conflict has turned political,” and added that “as a president, I'm obliged to protect the Argentines' reserves”.

She added that “the core of the international crisis was that they went from a production economy to believe that money could reproduce by money itself.”

And regarding the 2008 financial crisis of the United States, the Argentine president reminded that “the investment banks had built a series of economic derivatives that led to the collapse of banking institutions”.

With a degree of irony CFK said that Argentine sovereign debt ballooned in the nineties with the one Peso-one dollar convertibility system implemented by then Finance minister Domingo Cavallo. “I believe that at some time he (Cavallo) taught here in Harvard, well what he did is Argentina was totally absurd”.

When asked about the controversy generated around the dubious rates and indexes release by the Indec stats agency such as the inflation rate, the President obligingly responded by asking what the US annual inflation rate was, to then unwittingly add: “but give me the official rate”.

Informed it was around 2% on annual average, CFK just said: “Oh, really? Come on! And you believe that? If Argentina's inflation rate was at 25% like some people say, the country will blow up in the air”.

CFK also had time for a quick reference to the bilateral conflict with the UK over the Falkland Islands and again attacked multilateral organizations.

“The UN Security Council has lost all functionality because we are in a new scenario, with problems totally different to those after World War II”.

According to the Buenos Aires media over 2.800 graduates and under graduates registered for the Argentine president conference. However since the capacity of the forum is 700 they had to draw lots for the seats.

Another group of an estimated fifty Argentine residents were also waiting anxious to meet President Cristina Fernandez when she walked into Harvard University, but as in Buenos Aires banging pots and pans and with signs complaining about “Korruption” lack of security, no re-re-election and more respect for the Argentine media.

Before flying to Boston for the conference at Harvard Cristina Fernandez received the president of the Exxon Mobile Corporation, Rex Tillerson.

The meeting took place at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York at 5:30 pm (local time). Also present in the meeting were Argentine ambassador to the US Jorge Argüello, Legal and Technical secretary Carlos Zannini and presidential spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro.

On Thursday night, Fernández de Kirchner had confirmed that Tillerson had requested to meet with her during her stay in the US.

Following the Harvard appointment the Argentine president and her delegation were scheduled to leave from Boston arriving in Buenos Aires early Friday morning.

IMF calls on Argentina to implement measures on the quality of official data

The International Monetary Fund announced on Tuesday that it “regretted the lack of sufficient progress” with Argentina to address the quality of the official data reported by the country and urged it to come up with a response to the organization’s concerns by December 17th.

 Managing Director Christine Lagarde will again report to the issue December 17

The Executive Board is scheduled to meet again on that day and “may consider additional steps based on Argentina’s response and in line with IMF procedures,” a press release said.

“The IMF’s Executive Board met on September 17, 2012 to consider the Managing Director’s report on Argentina’s progress in implementing the remedial measures to address the quality of the official data reported to the Fund for the Consumer Price Index for Greater Buenos Aires (CPI-GBA) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“The Executive Board regretted the lack of sufficient progress in implementing the remedial measures since its February 1, 2012 meeting and expressed to the authorities its concern that Argentina has not brought itself into compliance with its obligations under the IMF’s Articles of Agreement by implementing the said measures. The Board took note of the ongoing dialogue between the IMF and the authorities regarding the measures, and called on Argentina to implement the measures without delay.

“The Managing Director is required to report to the Executive Board by December 17, 2012 on Argentina’s response to the Fund’s concerns. At that time, the Executive Board will again review this issue, and may consider additional steps based on Argentina’s response and in line with IMF procedures”, concludes the brief communiqué.

IMF turned down Israeli request for $1 billion loan for Palestinian Authority

Request was turned down because Palestinian Authority is not a state.

Israel recently asked the International Monetary Fund for a bridge loan of a billion dollars that it planned to transfer to the Palestinian Authority to help prevent its financial collapse, but the IMF turned down the request.

The PA, which is not a state, cannot ask the IMF for help on its own. The plan therefore, was for Israel to take the loan on the Palestinians' behalf, have the PA repay the loan to Israel, and Israel would repay the IMF.

The IMF rejected the Israeli request, however, saying it did not want to set a precedent of a state taking a loan on behalf of a non-state entity.

Israel's approach to the IMF began to take shape during the IMF's annual conference in Washington in mid-April. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad met during the conference with Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and the two discussed the PA's serious financial crisis.

According to a senior Israeli official, Fayyad explained to Fischer that the euro crisis in Europe and the financial crisis in the United States made it impossible for Western nations to increase their financial assistance to the PA. At the same time, Arab states were not transferring funds that they had promised, and Palestinian banks were refusing to extend any more credit to the government due to its inability to make debt payments.

This economic squeeze was giving the PA a serious cash-flow problem that was making it hard to pay salaries to government workers, particularly to security personnel. Salaries are being paid late, and many only get half their salaries when they are paid.

Fayyad told Fischer that the PA needed $1 billion to make its payments for the coming year and asked him to help the Palestinians get a bridge loan from the IMF. Since the PA is not a state and not a member of the IMF, it cannot qualify for a loan, even if its circumstances might merit it.

Fischer discussed the matter with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and got a green light to proceed.

"Netanyahu is interested in preventing a situation whereby the PA collapses financially, which is liable to have a very negative impact on the West Bank security situation," a senior Israeli official said.

Fischer approached IMF officials and suggested that Israel would take the loan from the IMF and would in turn loan the money to the Palestinians. The PA would pay Israel back, and Israel would forward the money to the IMF.

The IMF considered the request, but in the end, refused it, saying that the proposal was against its regulations and was liable to set a problematic precedent.

Despite the refusal, Fischer and Fayyad are trying to find an alternate solution.

Fischer and Fayyad know each other well from the period when the two of them worked at the IMF from the end of the 1990s until 2001. During those years Fayyad was the IMF representative to the PA and Fischer was the fund's deputy director. Both ended their terms at the IMF at about the same time; Fayyad was named finance minister in the PA government and Fischer went to the private sector, becoming Bank of Israel governor in 2005.

In 2011, when Fischer was contending for the post of IMF director after the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was caught up in a sex scandal, Fayyad publicly supported Fischer.