CFK, Biden Meet At Progressive Summit

President Cristina Fernández met with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Friday at a summit of self-described progressive leaders in Chile. The meeting comes a week before she meets President Barack Obama and other G-20 leaders in London to discuss the global financial crisis.

String Theory

Like other nations, Argentina is pushing for greater regulation of financial institutions. But its main interest in the upcoming meeting can probably be summed up in one word: cash. It’s pushing to get multilateral organizations like the International Monetary Fund to lend money without strings attached. In that past, the IMF lent billions of dollars to Argentina, but the money always came with a lengthy laundry list of conditions, many of which were not always in Argentina’s best interest.

Those conditions infuriated Fernández’s husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, who has repeatedly slammed the IMF for “ruining” the Argentine economy and causing incalculable damage to economies around the world.

The IMF already has become more flexible with its loans. But at least one so-called string seems to be holding up Argentina’s ability to get fresh cash: Argentina’s refusal to reform its controversial statistics agency, INDEC. The controversy boils down to a simple dispute. On one side of it is INDEC, which says its data on inflation, poverty and economic growth are spot on. On other the side is, well, every other sentient being outside the administration who thinks the data are bogus.

Until this chasm is narrowed, or until the IMF drops virtually all of its strings, Argentina will likely still be pushing for reforms at the fund, and still pushing to get fresh cash.

*Photo courtesy of the presidential press office.

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