By way of Tam at the View From The Porch blog comes this account of multiple mass inflations in Argentina: “¡Qué Quilombo!” Here is a key quote: “What seems peculiar about Argentina’s case is the government’s Herculean effort to ignore the immutable laws of economics in their pursuit of grand larceny. The country has seen five currencies in just the past century, averaging a collapse every twenty years or so. In 1970, the peso ley replaced the peso moneda nacional at a rate of 100 to 1. The peso ley was in turn replaced by the peso Argentino in 1983 at a rate of 10,000 to 1. That lasted a couple of years, and was then replaced by the Austral, again at a rate of 1,000 to 1. To nobody’s surprise, the Austral was itself replaced by the peso convertible at a rate of 10,000 to 1 in 1992. During the past four decades, when all was said and done, after the various changes of currency and slicing of zeroes, one peso convertible was equivalent to 10,000,000,000,000 pesos moneda nacional.”
Some commentary from George Schultz, et al: The Magnitude of the Mess We’re In
Athens Municipality Runs Out Of Cash; Suspends All Operations
F.G. sent: Gary Schilling: Why There’s No Housing Recovery And Prices Will Collapse Another 20%
Items from The Economatrix:
Stagflation in Extremis and the Explosive Rise in Gold
Former Goldman Sachs Analyst: War to Erupt In 2012, Dow to Fall to 5,000