China’s Loan Demands and Sergio Massa’s Minuscule Marshall Plan

China demands more conditions than the IMF for its loans, contrary to what CFK believes.

Sergio Massa lands with a baguette under his arm after his trip to China. He promises a tiny Marshall Plan as food to reach the elections without devaluing and, incidentally, maintain his increasingly diluted will to run for the Presidency. Two illusions, perhaps, some will come true. The mention of the economic rescue of that General George Marshall, Harry Truman’s Secretary of State, seems necessary. In 1947, in addition to contributing to the publicized reconstruction of Europe with credits and donations, Marshall’s program imposed a counterpart: the dollar as the universal currency for commercial transactions and the guarantee that its increasing exports would be acquired in the Old Continent. Not everything is humanitarian in life.

With less imagination and a minuscule contribution of money, now the oriental giant tries to repeat that North American purpose at the end of the Second War with Argentina: to establish a more growing use of the yuan in international trade to displace other currencies and, in addition, the obligation to that the country buy more Chinese products if it wants credit (progressive trend observed in the exchange between the two nations). Nothing new, ideologies aside. The well-worn system of “tied loans” was also observed during the government of Raúl Alfonsín, when Italy tried to promote a similar operation and various projects aimed at converting peninsular ventures into local needs. Business mischief to earn money, of course. As is known, the public works club, the perks and the confessions of the notebooks are not exclusively national patrimony.

It also seems that China demands more conditions than the IMF to grant loans, contrary to what Cristina thinks. In this regard, she will be informed by her son Máximo, who participated in the trip and, they say, what was achieved by the official delegation that he himself was part of was insufficient. He declared it to her mother, who confessed pride for having seen him dressed in a suit. On another visit, she will surely wear a tie, just like the Chinese hosts, who often wear the same suits, shirts, shoes and hair dye to the central committee. Uniformity in the revolution. Nor should Máximo have been satisfied with the unsuccessful request to the Brics, the foolish idea that this body provide funds for Brazil to act as China in its commercial relationship with Argentina. As if the slant-eyed boys were inattentive. Lula’s new mistake, as if she were conspiring against Cristina, in favor of Alberto.

The result of the negotiations between Massa and Máximo, forced by Cristina to resolve their problems on the trip, to determine candidates and lists, was not disclosed either. Something will be known this week, when Massa’s work continues in ten days, he travels to Washington again with the expectation that they will renew the peremptory maturities and grant him fresh money to continue sailing. He will have to convince the board, said his own spearhead in the Biden government, the influential Juan González: the official maintained that there will be assistance when the Fernández government goes through the blood test demanded by the IMF. And that González, according to mints, is the most sensitive figure that Massa reached thanks to a legal study specialized in lobbies. Free, hard. The minister is not discouraged: he believes that he can ride freely between China and the United States assuming that expression of the true oriental revolutionary, Deng Xiao Ping, who cared that the cat caught mice, regardless of whether the cat was red or black.

Massa will stumble upon another less fortunate spectacle when he returns home tomorrow at the end of the Tigre access: his route in Buenos Aires is littered with posters of Wado de Pedro accompanied by a photo of Cristina de Kirchner (note: no one in the ruling party would risk using that image without female consent). It is an indication of a certain preference of the vice president, sponsoring the slogan “It is coming” that goes back to the last century, a robbery of the successful campaign of Alfredo Palacios and Argentine socialism. Out there in Justicialism, merits are recognized for stealing legends and ideas from those who participated in the Liberating Revolution and had promoted laws that General Perón later appropriated.

Some already assign Massa a more peaceful retirement in the future Chamber of Deputies (the senator for the province of Buenos Aires would be Máximo), even because not only inflation corrodes him for his aspiration: from the Casa Rosada they blocked his demand that there be a single candidate, a condition in which he himself had sealed himself. Alberto Fernández is not even fixed: tenacious in his revenge, he maintains the candidacy of Daniel Scioli in the internal party along with his partner Pepe Albistur, his wife Victoria Tolosa Paz, Minister Rossi and the all-rounder Aníbal Fernández. He is engaged in that election.

Although he does not ignore that, for the final fight, Scioli does not benefit from Massa’s eventual withdrawal: Cristina does not want the ambassador in Brazil, neither frontally nor in profile. She is less now associated with Alberto, his daily indigestion. She never wanted him, despite having been the most obedient and also the most punished since he was with Néstor Kirchner in the vice presidency. Nor can Scioli offer support that is not from the leadership, not even a councilor is with him, but the biggest problem lies in an equation: perhaps the ruling party with De Pedro a candidate and the support of Cristina cannot win in the general election, but no other he can look forward to victory without the support of Kirchner’s widow. That is the drama of Scioli, the romantic who is doomed to defeat by the unrequited love of a fickle lady. Despite the faith and hope of the Pichichi.

Roberto Garcia