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DE RUEHBU #1309/01 2622015
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UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001309 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIN PREL AR
SUBJECT: Argentine President Criticizes Wall Street Analyst 
Naysayers 
 
The following cable contains sensitive information.  Not for 
internet distribution 
 
------- 
Summary 
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¶1. (SBU) President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) has taken on 
Argentine economic analysts abroad who have criticized the GoA's 
economic policy mix, calling them "parrots who always predict chaos 
and cataclysm...who are always talking about our country risk and 
never talking about the risks of Lehman Brothers or Merrill Lynch." 
She called on them to be more humble and think about their own 
country's interests.  Many Wall Street market analysts who cover 
Argentina are Argentine nationals and their criticism of the GoA's 
economic policy mix has dogged CFK's administration since she took 
office December 2007.  While the president's shadenfreude at the 
fall of Wall Street giants who warned of Argentina's own failings is 
understandable, post financial sector contacts call these Argentine 
analysts "patriots, not parrots," who are alerting citizens here to 
their government's economic mismanagement.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------------- 
Criticizing Economist "Parrots" 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) In the past months, GoA officials have hailed domestic 
economic stability in the face of international market turmoil, 
citing the GoA economic model and in particular its policy of dollar 
reserve accumulation as effectively insulating Argentina against 
exogenous shocks.  These GoA arguments have quieted of late as 
international commodity prices have dropped, Argentine country risk 
premiums have steadily risen (to over 900 basis points as of Sept 
18), and market analysts have continued to criticize Argentina's 
economic model as short-sighted and incapable of addressing high 
inflation and other developing macroeconomic disequilibria. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Over the past two days, however, President Cristina 
Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) has confronted those economic analysts 
-- and particularly Argentine economic analysts on Wall Street -- 
who have criticized Argentina's economic performance.  On September 
16, during a ceremony in Buenos Aires province capital La Plata, CFK 
railed against "international and national (financial analyst) 
'parrots' who always predict chaos and cataclysm...who are always 
talking about our country risk and never talking about the risks of 
Lehman Brothers or Merrill Lynch...and today we see how they have 
fallen.  We are here standing humbly and small before other large 
countries...we need to wise up not to be taken as fools...the First 
World that we have depicted as the Mecca to which we must arrive, 
has crumbled (sic) like a bubble." 
 
¶4. (SBU) On September 17, CFK again contrasted the willingness of 
international analysts to criticize Argentine economic policy while 
failing to predict the unfolding crisis in their own developed 
financial markets.  During a ceremony announcing the electrification 
of one of metropolitan Buenos Aires' commuter rail lines, she said 
"Today, they said that Lehman Brothers defaulted on $371 billion, 
double the amount Argentina defaulted on.  I hear economic experts, 
national and international 'parrots' repeating formulas, 
criticizing...but these developments (in international financial 
markets) oblige us to exercise more humility as we evaluate and 
diagnose."  CFK then directed comments at Argentine Wall Street 
analysts at major brokerage houses, who have been criticizing GoA 
economic management in their daily reports and in international 
press.  "I ask them to think about their own country's interests. 
Regarding the (Argentine) government officials who they continue to 
criticize, that's what they are there for, but one should care 
(more) for one's country." 
 
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Comment: CFK's Shadenfreude Moment 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) CFK's intemperate remarks may reflect her ire about the 
ongoing "suitcase" trail in Miami, on which mercifully she has not 
commented this month.  There is clearly an element of score-settling 
as well.  International market analyst criticism of CFK's economic 
policy mix has dogged her administration since she took office 
December 2007, and her shadenfreude at the fall of Wall Street 
giants who had warned of Argentina's own shortcomings is 
understandable.  Argentine analysts at major New York investment 
houses -- including Goldman Sachs' Pablo Morra, Lehman Brothers' 
Guillermo Mondino (ex-Secretary of Finance under Economy Minister 
 
Cavallo), JP Morgan's Vladimir Werning, Merrill Lynch's Pablo 
Goldberg, HSBC's Javier Finkman, Citibank's Alberto Ades, Barclays 
Eduardo Levy-Yeyati, and UBS's Javier Kulesz -- have indeed been 
increasingly critical of GoA economic policies, policies they see as 
improvised and failing to address macro-economic challenges 
appropriately.  Embassy financial sector contacts and pundits, in 
their turn, have criticized CFK's criticism of Argentine analysts 
abroad.  They call Argentine Wall Street analysts "patriots, not 
parrots," alerting citizens here to their own government's economic 
mismanagement. 
 
KELLY