Cristina Kirchner-Argentina's Indira Gandhi Bows Out

Inflation has plagued Argentina for much of the past decade; it still grew by an average of 5.6 percent from 2005-2013. Exchange and trade controls have long made it hard to get hold of primary materials, stifling production. But whereas in the past Argentina could maintain growth by propping up the peso and consumers’ purchasing power, falling foreign-exchange reserves mean it can no longer afford to do so.

Bank nationalisation did little to alleviate poverty, though it did accelerate the pace of branch expansion. It also spawned bureaucratic cultures, widespread behest lending, pervasive inefficiency and frequent need for budgetary recapitalisation. Despite 25 years of financial sector reform, government- owned banks still dominate Indian banking and are still plagued by weak governance…Indira Gandhi’s severe tightening of labour laws in the emergency year 1976 , notably through the insertion of the highly restrictive chapter V(B) in the Industrial Disputes Act (further tightened in 1982), has hugely discouraged fresh employment in the organised sector, constraining its share in total employment to around 10-15 per cent, far below levels in comparable economies like China and Indonesia. These exceptionally restrictive laws have also stunted the development of medium and large-scale, labour-intensive manufacturing, thus undermining the most potent transmission belt between growth and employment generation….

I am demanding, on the basis of the requirements of Argentine justice, that the Islamic Republic of Iran submit to the legal authority and in particular allow for those who have been accused of some level of participation in the AMIA attack to be brought to justice.

The president of the National Magistrates Association, Ricardo Recondo, summed up the situation perfectly: “The judge who investigates is persecuted; the judge who helps cover things up is rewarded.” For Recondo, “the country and democracy are under serious threat,” because “the government is guilty of many antidemocratic activities,” and “using democracy to destroy democracy.”

Her legacy is a sort of continuous ruin; she did more than anyone else to destroy institutions in India….