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Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2008 7:44 PM

Kirchner: All Your Pensions Are Belong to Us!

Katie Paul
Think things are bad in the United States right now? Only seven percent of the country would disagree with you. But, hey, at least the government isn't raiding your pension fund.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner today proposed for a government takeover of the country's nearly $30 billion private pension system, claiming to protect it from the global financial crisis. Critics accused her of "looting," while she shot back the same accusation at the country's ten private pension fund managers. The markets, for one, didn't show much faith in the decision; stocks plummeted 11 percent, bringing total losses for the month to 35 percent. Elected last October by an overwhelming margin, Kirchner has since fallen out of favor with many Argentines, who were quick to criticize the move as a self-serving attempt to grab cash to pay off the country's billions of dollars in debts.

The criticism is not exactly a shocker--politician-bashing is practically a national pastime in Argentina--but it has been resounding nonetheless. "Liars" and "thieves" were popular words today in the comments section of leading Argentine newspaper La Nación, with the ghosts of the financial collapse that prompted most Argentines' savings to evaporate overnight eight years ago haunting many of the diatribes. "They need the money to balance their books. Next, they will come next for our deposits," wrote one reader, "just like they did in 2002."

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