Argentina

FX intervention is certainly in the air this week for Latin America. Brazil stands out as the most aggressive, of course, as the central bank intervened in the forward market Friday and in the spot market Monday.

I have been reading a lot of Western European and Spanish-language press recently. These articles give me a good sense of what the local press is thinking about the euro crisis (and the developing situation in Argentina) in addition to what…

Fernandez will try to maintain the unorthodox mix of policies for as long as she can, and has shown little willingness to more towards orthodoxy during her first term. Troubles will come both internally and externally, with the growing fear…

Greece needs to default too. The right thing to have happen is for Greece to default in a hard restructuring as part of a comprehensive credible plan. The goal is to right the ship by getting all of the biggest debtors within the Maastricht…

With markets now contemplating some sort of debt “re-profiling” by Greece, we thought it would be helpful to summarize the two most recent major debt restructurings by an EM borrower for some guidance on what such a move could imply for…

If the strongest argument against going back to the Drachma always was that this would imply default, now that default is coming, why not allow Greece to devalue? As Krugman says, the issue isn’t whether Greece would openly decide to exit…

News coverage: Argentina 'in shock' at former President Kirchner death – BBC Argentine assets rise on death of ex-President Kirchner – Reuters Kirchner's death may mark end of an era in Argentina – Miami Herald Consternación…

Fears that the global recovery is faltering is unlikely to prevent Chile's central bank from hiking rates tomorrow.  It had hiked rates last month and the data since has been strong and economists have generally revised higher growth…

Within the euro-zone, Portugal comes in at #6. Spain and Ireland are not in the top ten. Source: CMA Sovereign Risk Monitor

The first link is interesting. And too bad it is in Spanish for those of you who don't speak English. It is an important piece about what happens when a central bank is not independent.  The opinion piece from Argentine daily "La…