Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, is the lucky winner of $40 billion that Donald Trump managed to conjure from thin air. Less lucky are the Americans who rely on the government programs Trump has gutted to be able to “save” that sum.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    3 minutes ago

    That little guy with the hair beside trump was on stage at one of Elon Musk’s “rallies” not too long ago. Something smells like rotten fish here.

  • maskquerade@ttrpg.network
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    2 hours ago

    It’s because Argentina fucked its economy by trying to exploit it’s workers too hard, so trump has to step in and cover it up to avoid a change in culture.

  • hansolo@lemmy.today
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    18 hours ago

    Hey. Hey.

    Y’all remember when he closed USAID for sending too much taxpayer money overseas?

    USAID’s budget was fucking $44 billion to work in 130 counties.

    Now T is sending that all to one guy. Literally one guy.

  • frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io
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    19 hours ago

    In other words, our taxes now pay for health care for Argentinians, not Americans. Despite the fact that they are claiming the current shutdown is because they don’t want our taxes paying for non-Americans getting health care. Make it make sense.

    • Katrisia@lemmy.today
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      15 hours ago

      Healthcare for Argentina? Milei is destroying public welfare. That’s for other oligarchs. $40B in exchange of… Well, Milei is acting unhinged and won’t explain, but probably lands, water, lithium. Trump bought something, we just don’t know what yet.

      • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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        11 hours ago

        It could also be partly to help keep him in power, as Argentina collapsing, again, under libertarianism makes their attempts at libertarianism harder to justify. They’d still lie about it, so I agree there is an ulterior motive, that personally benefits Trump or his cronies.

    • kinsnik@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      oh, this is not to pay for health care. it is to sustain the carry trade scam that both the american and argentinan goverment are involved in.

  • venusaur@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Can somebody please clarify the actual transaction here? We’re not simply giving Argentina this money. It’s a swap or a loan, right? Who know if/when they’ll pay it back, but I think it should be clarified.

    • sparky@lemmy.federate.cc@lemmy.federate.cc
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      12 hours ago

      It’s a currency swap. Basically, we give them dollars and they give us pesos. Eventually, they could theoretically be swapped back.

      Holding dollars is good for them because it shows foreign investors’ confidence in their economy, and allows them to shore up the peso if necessary by using dollars to prop it up through central bank buybacks.

      Holding pesos is a high risk for us because the inflation rate has historically been extremely high. $1 US was like 300 pesos five years ago, and it’s more like 1500 today. So if we swap them back down the road, we will probably lose money, since we swapped dollars at $1 = 1500 pesos, but may swap back later at $1 = 2000+ pesos.

      In a way it’s like we gave them an interest free loan. Or actually: more like we gave them a loan with a negative interest rate. Because we likely lose money the longer they hold it.

      Why would we do this? Because Milei says lots of nice things about the orange man on TV.

      • venusaur@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        No interest paid to US when swapping back?

        People are saying there’s some billionaire that Trump is bailing out.

    • starrysonics@lemmy.today
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      15 hours ago

      So, I haven’t been getting any answer here myself but in general here’s what has been happening.

      Aregentina’s…idk president? Has been cutting their social program funding and regulation for the last year or two. It’s wildly unpopular in his country.

      Those cuts in regulation inflated their currency value for a bit but it was temporary.

      Now, Aregentina is coming up on an election and the president is at risk of loosing and having his policies reversed.

      So this money…it’s not actually going anywhere or for anything specific. It’s a currency swap. We are kind of giving them a loan. Just giving them money.

      Because. Again. The Argentinian President cut tons of stuff and artificially inflated his currency with deregulation.

      So Trump sending him money is like a bandaid to get him through his election.

      He can point to this influx to show that “his policies are working.” They’re not. Argentina has had unstable currency for ages.

      He’s stealing from Peter to pay Paul.

      But this is complicated money science and I can’t explain in technical terms but that is the jist of it.

      I mean, it could work. Javier Milei, The Argentinian President, is trying to get external investors to pump money into he economy so, if nothing else Trump giving him this money signals that he has America’s support.

      Argentinia also just had a big win with soybean contracts and China.

      But in the short term he’s essentially doubling down using a loan from his American pal.

      • venusaur@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        Thanks for the details but as I understand it it’s swapping US for Argentinian currency that then needs to be paid back? So I guess it’s technically giving money in the sense that Argentinian currency is trash?

        • starrysonics@lemmy.today
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          15 hours ago

          Yeah pretty much. See this is where it starts getting into money theory and I’m a few years out of my economics and finance classes.

          But much like stocks and bonds currency swap also deals with interest and growth rates. It’s a high-scale ‘loan.’ (But not technically a loan.) Loan-like.

          It doesn’t need paid back exactly but if one parties money becomes garbage then it does start to feel like a loan.

          We are getting pesos in exchange, but again. The peso is risky. If it grows then you can argue we didn’t loose any money. But we have to hold the pesos to help stabilize it’s value.

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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      17 hours ago

      Hell we don’t even know where the money is coming from (our Government is shut down right now, remember?) let alone what form the transfer will take.

    • klammeraffe@lemmy.cafe
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      17 hours ago

      Since it’s Trump, I’m guessing it’s buying support. Or Argentina got a copy of that Russian video where Trump is urinating on a child in a hotel room and they decided to blackmail him.

  • the_q@lemmy.zip
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    19 hours ago

    Huh. I guess our tax dollars are going to pay for non citizen’s healthcare.

  • borQue@lemmy.zip
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    15 hours ago

    America, land of the Capitalism. Endulge your facedown as it was chosen.