Latin America

[winston]

Tsunami warning issued for Central American nations and Mexico after 7.4 magnitude earthquake off El Salvador coast.

Source: CNN International

[winston]

Tsunami warning issued for Central America and parts of South America after 7.9 magnitude quake in Costa Rica.

Source: CNN International

[winston]

Argentina Freezes Supermarket Prices To Halt Soaring Inflation; Chaos To Follow by Tyler Durden

Up until now, Argentina's descent into a hyperinflationary basket case, with a crashing currency and loss of outside funding was relatively moderate and controlled.

All this is about to change.

Today, in a futile attempt to halt inflation, the government of Cristina Kirchner announced a two-month price freeze on supermarket products.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-0 ... aos-follow

[winston]

Venezuela devalues currency 32% against US dollar

Venezuela said Friday it is devaluing its currency by 32 percent against the dollar.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130208-ven ... -us-dollar

[winston]

Argentina Imposes Ad Ban, Businesses Say BY TAOS TURNER

BUENOS AIRES—Supermarkets and electronics retailers say Argentina's government has ordered them to stop advertising in the country's top newspapers, in a bid to weaken independent media companies as President Cristina Kirchner turns to increasingly unorthodox policies to prevent inflation from derailing an ailing economy.

The order, confirmed by retailers and newspapers but denied by government officials, comes after retail executives say price-control czar Guillermo Moreno pressured them earlier this week to agree to freeze prices for two months. Executives say Mr. Moreno then told them to pull all newspaper sales ads in hopes this would somehow curb inflation.


Source: Wall Street Journal

[winston]

Hyperinflation has officially arrived in this country

A total economic collapse in Venezuela is now underway.

In a futile battle against high prices, President Nicolás Maduro ordered the military to enforce an order that the Daka electronics chain reduce its prices to October levels. The store did not comply and the result was chaos...

Source: Global Economic Trend Analysis

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... -army.html?

[winston]

Crisis shows power of free-market system

Emerging markets may be in crisis, but not all of them are blighted. For like what happened during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, many emerging markets are still seeing fairly decent growth.

Latin America has two groups with different economic philosophies, with one including Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, which do not believe in globalization and their governments holding the economic power.

The other has Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia, where free trade and markets rule.

Those countries hit by problems recently are led by countries like Argentina.

When China's economy was going full tilt, it was fueled by large quantities of Venezuela's oil, Argentina's soybeans, and Brazil's iron ore - boosting their economies.

But with China's slowdown, commodity prices fell significantly, leading countries such as Argentina to suffer heavy losses.

Chile also depends on exports of copper ore and other commodities. But why doesn't it devalue its currency like Argentina? Isn't its slowdown as serious as Argentina's?

The main reason is that countries such as Mexico, Peru, and Chile advocate free trade. High productivity and an open economic can attract more overseas investors.

In Mexico, manufacturing exports account for nearly a quarter of gross domestic product, while Brazil is only 4 percent.

Also, because of these factors, Mexico and Chile enjoy low inflation and increasing foreign exchange reserves - which mean the chances of a crisis will not be too high.

But will the problems caused by Argentina have a domino effect, leading to more problems in other emerging countries?

And will China become the key?

We can talk about this after my column returns in two weeks.

Source: Andrew Wong Wai-hong, The Standard HK

[behappyalways]

Argentina at the tipping point
http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/25/investi ... ?hpt=hp_t4

[behappyalways]

The 61% Devaluation That Venezuela Told No One About
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-0 ... cmpid=yhoo

[behappyalways]

Venezuela needs cash, but there's no easy way to get it
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102244067?trknav ... :topnews:8