Arguably, the situation in Argentina improved a lot after a the 2001 protests. I'm not a great fan of teh current government, but I think they are adequate. And I don't think we've had an adequate government sin the 60s. If anything, it's nice to be able to say that when people protests nowadays is because they can't protect their savings as well as they used to, instead of protesting because they are in real risk of starving to death as they were a decade ago.
Just came back from Buenos Aires... while some things improved, they're NOT adequate. The desperate economic measures will end up cratering the country again (I mean, they already have, only the effects will be felt in a few months or years).
Protect their savings? They can't even sell their property in a "hard" currency, and government is blatantly inflating away people's money. When the artificial dollar cracks, the facade will crumble and people WILL be hungry.
What I see is things improving from the bottom up instead of from the top down, for the first time in a very long time. For people who are nearer to the top (and this includes a large sector of the middle classes that looks up to the top percenters), this looks like a step back, as they can't see the benefits of the things that are improving. But I really believe in the long run, this is the only plan that won't destroy the country.
To me, things just seems better. I hope you are wrong.
I hope I'm wrong too :P I live in Uruguay and we'll feel the backlash.
I'm probably being too harsh on the government, they are doing redistributive policies - whether that's the best thing to do with the money I'm not sold, but at least they aren't stealing it all or handling all of it to contractors.
However, while all this helps in the short run, on the outside it looks like it will destroy a lot of things in a not so distant future. Argentina will recover as usual, but the next few years look like a repeat of 2001.
