News of neilson

The crystal balls are getting cloudier

30-04-2022 01:21 Not only Argentina but most other countries have to decide if it would be better for them to cultivate their relations with what could soon be the top superpower, or to assume that the US will recover from its self-inflicted internal woes.

by James Neilson

Argentina still hostage to a psychodrama

23-04-2022 00:02 Cristina’s legal difficulties have dominated Argentine politics for many years. No doubt they will continue to do so for some time to come.

by James Neilson

Putin must be running short of cannon fodder

25-03-2022 11:08 Is Russia so different from the US and Western European countries that she will be able to shrug off the deaths of well over 10,000 soldiers after just one month’s fighting in Ukraine without their relatives demanding an honest explanation?

by James Neilson

The country needs a proper government

18-03-2022 08:08 President Alberto Fernández needs the votes of opposition legislators because he can no longer rely on those who obey the whims of Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

by James Neilson

An innocent abroad: Alberto in Russia and China

12-02-2022 09:32 Alberto’s willingness to kowtow to Xi and heap praise on the Chinese Communist regime was by no means as ridiculous as some seem to think, but he could hardly have chosen a worse time in which to cold-shoulder the United States.

by James Neilson

All the time in the world

04-02-2022 23:07 The ill-tempered conflict between those who still hope Alberto will succeed in taming the Kirchnerites and their rivals who want him to remain under Cristina’s thumb confronts the opposition alliance with an awkward dilemma.

Going it alone in limbo

07-01-2022 22:43 It is widely assumed that unless President Alberto Fernández’s government reaches an agreement with the International Monetary Fund very soon, Argentina will sink far deeper into the mire. We could be about to learn if the many who think this way have it right or if they are merely scare-mongering.

by James Neilson

The pros and cons of belonging

31-12-2021 11:19 The willingness of a small but significant minority of opposition politicians to let the Kirchnerite government have its way is driving the leaders of Juntos por el Cambio coalition up the wall.

by James Neilson

Does corruption matter?

03-12-2021 22:16 The blatant politicisation of the Judiciary does nothing to make Argentina look like a good place in which to do business.

by James Neilson

When the centre cannot hold

26-11-2021 22:52 The old order is in deep trouble. In its way, it has been far too successful, but it has also raised expectations so much that few are able to reach what they think are reasonable goals.

by James Neilson

The Tom and Jerry show takes an ugly turn

29-10-2021 22:09 For well over half a century, the International Monetary Fund and Argentina’s populist establishment have been playing cat and mouse with each other. Though the IMF comes equipped with very sharp teeth and claws, all its attempts to corner Argentina have failed.

by James Neilson

In the land of the magic money tree

22-10-2021 22:11 Capitalism is the only system that really works. Fighting it, as social justice warriors and politicians who seek to outbid them say is the duty of every decent person, is tantamount to waging war on prosperity.

by James Neilson

Kirchnerites reaping the whirlwind

18-09-2021 00:01 For there to be any chance of the country emerging relatively unscathed from the mess Cristina, with the help of easily bamboozled voters, has got it into, Alberto would have to start behaving like a genuine president.

by James Neilson

Closing time in the gardens of the West

11-09-2021 09:48 Perhaps it is premature to talk, as the British essayist Cyril Connolly did soon after World War II, of “closing time in the gardens of the West,” but for many it does feel that something like that is taking place.

by James Neilson

Desperately looking for an exit

14-08-2021 07:27 Though representatives of both sides are only too happy to tell us how much they detest their adversaries, they show little interest in examining their own record.

by James Neilson

Journey to an unknown destination

07-08-2021 11:31 If mere facts are anything to go by, Argentina is heading for yet another almighty crash.

by James Neilson

Let the rest of the world stew in its own juice

09-07-2021 22:22 The United States decided to retreat from Afghanistan after both Trump and his followers and Biden and his asked themselves: what is in it for us? The answer they gave themselves was: nothing much.

by James Neilson

A great time for malcontents

03-07-2021 23:17 In the rich Western countries and their cultural offshoots, what was once the fringe has become the centre.

by James Neilson

Through the foreign-policy looking glass

05-06-2021 00:36 Why does the government led by Alberto Fernández go out of its way to snub the Western powers and their allies, so it can make common cause with the enemies of what, despite everything, still remains of the old international order?

by James Neilson

An extremely sensitive superpower

29-05-2021 11:22 Should the government of a debt-ridden country such as Argentina come up with a statement that raised its hackles, China would have no qualms about doing whatever it would take to make it change its mind.

by James Neilson