News of James Neilson

James Neilson

James Neilson

Former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald (1979-1986).

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The Donald and Cristina show

12-08-2022 11:12 While Trump could well benefit from that FBI “raid” on his garish residential complex in Florida, for Cristina the outlook is rather less promising.

by James Neilson

Massa embarks on his mission impossible

09-08-2022 13:30 After manoeuvring this way and that for well over a year, Sergio Massa has finally got his hands on the post he coveted most and is now the economy minister of a flat-broke country whose woes seem bound to get much worse in the coming weeks. So why did he want the job so much?

by James Neilson

Storms are heading everybody’s way

01-08-2022 16:46 The last few years have been propitious for alarmists of all descriptions who have made a profitable cottage industry out of warning people, often quite plausibly, that the end is uncomfortably nigh.

by James Neilson

PORTS IN A STORM

Ports in a storm

25-07-2022 15:56 Why is Boris Johnson out of office, but Alberto Fernández clings on? The simplest answer to that question lies in the difference between parliamentary and presidential democracy.

by James Neilson

Devil take the hindmost

Devil take the hindmost

15-07-2022 13:00 In an age in which it is assumed that just about everything must change with the times or be thrown on the scrap heap, people who are unable to keep up risk getting swept aside.

by James Neilson

Drifting towards a black hole

Drifting towards a black hole

09-07-2022 07:30 Hyperinflation looms; Argentina is flat broke, but the people who wield most political power think the only way to solve problems is to throw freshly-printed money at them.

by James Neilson

US soft power remains as potent as ever

US soft power remains as potent as ever

02-07-2022 07:00 US progressives who support the Democrats wield more influence outside their country than do their conservative foes who tend to vote Republican, but these too have managed to export their attitudes.

by James Neilson

Cristina & King Kong.

The Supreme Court has Cristina in its sights

25-06-2022 00:01 People are beginning to link the inability of the “political class” to run the country in a reasonably competent manner to the corrupt behaviour of some of its leading members.

by James Neilson

Politics in the age of resentment

Politics in the age of resentment

18-06-2022 08:00 Argentina’s politicians realised they could turn widespread disgruntlement to their own advantage by encouraging it.

by James Neilson

Turning the world upside-down

Turning the world upside-down

11-06-2022 00:01 Reports from the culture-wars front certainly make strange reading.

by James Neilson

Collaborating with dictators

Collaborating with dictators

03-06-2022 11:03 Those who are interested in what Alberto says and does attribute his fondness for unsavoury dictators to his desire to placate the Kirchnerite wing of the ruling coalition.PG 11: Neilson

by James Neilson

Jobs for the boys in the patronage state

Jobs for the boys in the patronage state

28-05-2022 00:50 As far as the Kirchnerites are concerned, a cat’s political colour is the only thing that really matters.

by James Neilson

What a Russian defeat could mean

What a Russian defeat could mean

21-05-2022 00:01 The Ukrainians are not the only ones who think Russia is heading for a historic defeat. Their opinion is shared by many in London and Washington.

by James Neilson

Who has the mandate of heaven?

Who has the mandate of heaven?

14-05-2022 00:01 As well as objecting stridently to Alberto’s willingness to come to terms with the International Monetary Fund, Cristina and her supporters are trying to undermine what authority he has by insidiously questioning his government’s right to exist at all.

by James Neilson

A culture of irresponsibility

A culture of irresponsibility

07-05-2022 00:02 Much as many dislike the idea, elected politicians have to take full responsibility for managing the country’s economy.

by James Neilson

The crystal balls are getting cloudier

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

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

The West receives a wake-up call

The West receives a wake-up call

15-04-2022 00:07 Attitudes towards the war being fought in Ukraine have excited those who, not that long ago, were on the defensive because they feared that the West really was a busted flush.

by James Neilson

Stumbling into the dark

Stumbling into the dark

08-04-2022 23:27 Unless the politicians who are currently in opposition come up with a realistic recovery plan and acquire the power and authority to carry it through, the future could be far worse than even the most pessimistic dare to imagine.

by James Neilson

Sergio Massa: Lingering outside the cemetery

Lingering outside the cemetery

01-04-2022 19:24 For a politician like Sergio Massa, the government is merely a vehicle he boarded because he thought it would take him towards his chosen destination.

by James Neilson

Putin must be running short of cannon fodder

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

Segundo Tiempo for Alberto?

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

The new energy crisis could suit Argentina

The new energy crisis could suit Argentina

11-03-2022 11:30 Fossil fuels are back in fashion. Western leaders are now searching frantically for exploitable oil and gas deposits that are beyond Putin’s reach.

by James Neilson

The savage beasts that dreams engender

The savage beasts that dreams engender

04-03-2022 12:38 If he still imagines he can turn those Ukrainians who survive his ferocious onslaught into patriotic Russians, Vladimir Putin is surely mistaken.

by James Neilson

Putin’s great gamble

Putin’s great gamble

25-02-2022 13:30 Over the centuries some very important things have hardly changed at all. As in ancient times, the strong continue to prey on the weak when they think they can get away with it.

by James Neilson

Things are looking bleaker for Cristina

Things are looking bleaker for Cristina

18-02-2022 22:00 Cristina evidently fears that the austerity programme the government will have to press on with no matter what happens in the coming weeks will cost her the support of the millions of men and women who still kid themselves that she is on their side.

by James Neilson

An innocent abroad: Alberto in Russia and China

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

Make or break for Argentina

Make or break for Argentina

28-01-2022 18:24 Most serious economists think that what Cristina and her supporters want is utter folly, that telling the IMF where to get off would have a devastating effect on the country.

by James Neilson

Adrift in a world out of kilter

Adrift in a world out of kilter

21-01-2022 22:00 Imperfect as the order installed by the United States in the late 1940s may have been, it, or what remains of it, is surely preferable to what seems likely to come next.

by James Neilson

With friends like these…

With friends like these…

15-01-2022 00:01 Cristina’s decision, backed dutifully by Alberto, to move Argentina closer to the Latin American dictatorships that are challenging the international status quo has come at an awkward moment.

by James Neilson

Argentina and the economic problem with the IMF.

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

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

The beginning of the end?

A puzzle nobody wants

24-12-2021 08:35 While it is easy for opposition leaders to criticise the Kirchnerites for their handling of the economy and a great many other things, coming clean about what they themselves would do is far more difficult.

by James Neilson

Alberto caught between Biden and Xi

Alberto caught between Biden and Xi

10-12-2021 22:23 The Kirchnerite administration does not want to be forced to choose between the United States and China.

by James Neilson

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

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

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

Alberto in Wonderland

Alberto in Wonderland

20-11-2021 00:00 If Alice had a world of her own, “nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t.” In the world of Alice’s spiritual descendant, the Peronist coalition own a resounding victory in Sunday’s elections after losing in Buenos Aires Province. No doubt Alice would have approved.

by James Neilson

Is a change of course possible?

Is a change of course possible?

12-11-2021 21:58 Despite all the unpleasant things that have happened to the country since a pro-Axis military dictatorship gave birth to Peronism, millions still see belief in what they regard as its virtues as part of their personal identity.

by James Neilson

The moment of truth is fast approaching

The moment of truth is fast approaching

05-11-2021 18:00 In just over a week, we shall know how much support Alberto’s quarrelsome and ramshackle administration has managed to retain.

by James Neilson

The Tom and Jerry show takes an ugly turn

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

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

Peronism has its back against the wall

Peronism has its back against the wall

16-10-2021 00:01 In the eyes of a growing proportion of the country, Cristina, Alberto, Aníbal and the rest of them represent the very worst of a self-serving political elite whose members are more interested in their own personal welfare than anything else.

by James Neilson

Thanks for nothing

Thanks for nothing

09-10-2021 11:57 The technocrats in charge of the World Bank, the IMF and the like really want Argentina should be doing their best to scare the living daylights out of Alberto Fernández and his crew by warning them that at any moment the entire economy would go under, taking them with it.

by James Neilson

Argentina now in the danger zone

Argentina now in the danger zone

02-10-2021 00:33 In a country in which parliament calls all the shots, the fall of an unpopular government would not present any constitutional difficulties, but here things are done differently.

by James Neilson

Javier Milei

Make way for the shantytown liberals

25-09-2021 00:01 Some commentators and politicians have been considering the intriguing possibility that people who live in the country’s squalid urban slums could be acquiring a taste for free-market capitalism.

by James Neilson

Cristina the whirlwind

opinion and analysis

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

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

Faces of the 2021 midterm elections.

Playtime for politicians

04-09-2021 10:18 In Argentina, politics has always had more to do with tribal feelings than with anything else.

by James Neilson

Future tense or tense future?

When weakness is strength

27-08-2021 23:23 In politics, having an unprepossessing alternative at hand can be a big advantage.

by James Neilson

Biden and Afghanistan.

A most humiliating retreat

21-08-2021 21:36 The United States handed Afghanistan back to the Taliban because years ago most of her political leaders, including Donald Trump and Joe Biden, had come to the conclusion that “nation-building” was utter folly.

by James Neilson