Addressing Concerns: Presidential Candidates, Mobile Phone Bills, Highway Maintenance, and Monetary Policy in Argentina

“I am an attentive citizen who followed the presidential debate last Sunday. Regarding Patricia Bullrich, candidate, I want to say, first, that she lacks education, moderation, she continues to be taken away; even Milei moderated herself. She always tries to attack Kirchnerism. Second , shows ignorance in political and economic issues. I don’t see her as capable of representing the country. For me there are two candidates left: Massa and Milei. Although I hope Milei doesn’t win and it’s not because I’m seduced by Massa…”,

Mobile phone bills do not arrive at home

“My neighbors and I do not receive mobile phone bills. We do not know why and it is something that causes us problems. However, we do receive those from Litoral Gas, Aguas Santafesinas, EPE. Please, to whom it may concern. We request that you comply with the users. We are several elderly people and we find ourselves with the conflict of not knowing whether or not we owe the respective invoices; and we have to turn to relatives who handle the computer so that they can be fixed. Thank you very much, El Litoral newspaper.

“It seems to me that what happened on Sunday of the Santa Fe classic was a scam on the people. A total abuse. They have let in more people than the stadium allowed. On top of that, the ticket prices, for the places where one I could be calm and safe, they were very expensive, over $25,000. There were people who went to the seat they had paid for and found it occupied… A total chaos. People crowded together, like cattle. Some with their torsos exposed, blocking the view and no one came out to show their face. Where was and is the respective Board of Directors? A disaster, the stalls, everything… To top it all off, the embarrassment of the game! I say: if you go to a theater and don’t The work is good, you can get up and leave and leave a complaint. There, nothing could be done, they even applauded them! The classic was a disaster! Did one pay so much to see that?! It was a scam, because it was fixed the game. The two coaches hugging! The players were like friends. I’m not saying that they didn’t tie, but that they did it by winning, playing, tying but playing well, it was clear that they didn’t play for anything! All wrong. It only served them to raise money. And what bad teams! You see those from Rosario and they are happy…”.

Rosario-Santa Fe Highway

“To whom it may concern: for months the Rosario-Santa Fe highway, in the section from Coronda to Sauce Viejo, has been in a deplorable and dangerous state for those who travel through it. I remind you that we paid $1,800 in tolls to come and go. ..Will we have to regret a misfortune so that they deign to fix it?”

When the Constitution of 1853 was sanctioned, a Federal State was created in Argentina, where the provinces delegated to the Central Government powers that were theirs until that moment. One of these powers is to create a Bank for issuing a national currency. This delegated power goes hand in hand with the prohibition of provincial coinage or local issuing banks. The National Government was also tasked with defending the value of the national currency. If the Central Bank (created in 1935, like in the rest of the world, as a consequence of the crisis of 1930, when the gold standard and the Currency Board existing until that moment were abandoned), the orders should still be complied with. constitutional and in case of reforming the Constitution it would return to the state prior to the Monetary Unification Law of 1881 where different provincial currencies circulated in the country.

Once the difficult (due to the political agreements that they require) constitutional and legal reforms were made, the National Issuance Bank was closed, there would be no impediment for each of the Provinces or States that make up the Federation or Federal State to resume their powers and mint its own currency. Some Provinces will support it with gas, others with lithium, others with oil or soybeans; But it is almost certain that when the monthly pay day for provincial and municipal employees arrives, lacking foreign exchange and a national currency, each provincial administration will resort to its own paper money, with a provincial issuing bank. None of the countries that are given as examples of the adoption of a foreign currency as legal and compulsory tender have a federal structure; they are unitary states with strong central power and there is no original provincial autonomy.

We Argentines who have lived and suffered the crisis of 2001 have also suffered from the monetary disorder and the existence of Patacones, Lecor, Lecop, Quebrachos, Federales, Petrom, Bocades, Huarpes, Petrobonos, etc. I cannot imagine returning to that anarchic scenario, due to the improvisation of a leadership that is not up to the task. That is why I ask those to whom citizens give the mandate to design the country’s economic and monetary policy, maximum responsibility and intellectual honesty to recognize what is politically, economically and legally feasible, also sincerely stating that economic stabilization In our country it will require more than four years of efforts and several periods of government. The conditions of the present (external and internal debt, high percentages of poverty and indigence, inflation, poor indicators in education, worrying insecurity rates, etc.) will make the slope hard, but together we can climb it if we dare to share a collective dream and seeing the person next door, who thinks differently, as a companion on the journey and not as an enemy.