News of James Neilson

James Neilson

James Neilson

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

The intractable migrant problem

The intractable migrant problem

14-01-2023 06:17 While a stalwart minority continues to insist that all comers with a legitimate claim should be allowed in and taken care of, in most places doubts about the wisdom of clinging to what in effect is an open-borders policy are now shared by a rapidly growing majority of their compatriots.

by James Neilson

Celebrations marking the World Cup win at the Plaza de Mayo.

After a brief moment of togetherness

23-12-2022 15:26 Politicians and their associates have yet to make out what the reaction to winning the World Cup means for them. If only they could be fêted with such adulation!

by James Neilson

@KidNavajoArt

A short spell in an alternative universe

17-12-2022 03:00 Whatever else Argentina may be, unlike her football team, she is not a meritocracy.

by James Neilson

Cristina’s reign is almost over

Cristina’s reign is almost over

10-12-2022 05:50 It is perfectly feasible that, before too long, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s once imposing political capital will dwindle almost to vanishing point, as did Carlos Menem’s 20 years ago.

by James Neilson

Vialidad: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Diego Luciani.

The law finally catches up with Cristina

03-12-2022 05:43 Like much of the rest of the country, Cristina takes it for granted that the law is a weapon the powerful are entitled to use to defend their own interests and punish their foes. This makes what is happening even more painful for her than would otherwise be the case.

by James Neilson

The place of progressives in a capitalistic world.

The place of progressives in a capitalistic world

26-11-2022 06:47 If Argentina’s experience is anything to go by, fiscal laxity when the going gets tough can have ugly consequences.

by James Neilson

Opposition, Javier Milei.

Time is fast running out

12-11-2022 07:04 Argentina’s unhappy plight owes much to the ruling class’s strong adherence to the fixed-term political system which is enshrined in the Constitution.

by James Neilson

The search for something different.

The search for something different

05-11-2022 06:00 For years now, the dissatisfied with this state of affairs have been looking for something different. Their ongoing search for new blood has had some startling results.

by James Neilson

Getting ready for hard times.

Getting ready for hard times

29-10-2022 06:00 The long-predicted but frequently postponed crack-up seems to have arrived.

by James Neilson

Alfonsín and Alberto.

Further down the slippery slope

22-10-2022 06:30 The coalition that Cristina assembled in order to beat Mauricio Macri is so fragile that important bits, among them the bellicose faction that answers to her, have swung into opposition.

by James Neilson

A paradigm shift is on the way

A paradigm shift is on the way

15-10-2022 06:29 To handle what is happening, governments make out that, after a period of belt-tightening that can be blamed on Putin, things will return to normal. Will they, or rather, can they?

by James Neilson

We certainly live in interesting times

We certainly live in interesting times

08-10-2022 07:00 The way things are shaping up, the Russian Federation could soon find itself consigned alongside them to what Leon Trotsky called “the dustbin of history.”

by James Neilson

Giorgia fails the identity test

Giorgia fails the identity test

01-10-2022 07:00 Practitioners of identity politics want all members of a victim group to think the same way.

by James Neilson

The end game nears for Putin

The end game nears for Putin

23-09-2022 13:16 By now, Putin must know that his “special military operation” has been a humiliating failure and that prolonging it would be almost certain to make things even worse for him.

by James Neilson

Rumblings from down below

Rumblings from below

17-09-2022 02:55 The botched attempt to assassinate Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has encouraged fears that Argentina could see the return of political violence.

by James Neilson

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Something is knocking on the door

10-09-2022 02:00 As was to be expected, the government wasted no time in trying to take advantage of what had happened last week outside Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's apartment building in Recoleta.

by James Neilson

Cristina & Perón

Cristina has her back against the wall

27-08-2022 00:01 Cristina’s arraignment and her followers’ reaction to it are having an ambiguous effect on the country’s reputation.

by James Neilson

The long arm of the Iranian inquisition

The long arm of the Iranian inquisition

19-08-2022 17:28 In 1989, leading Western literary figures closed ranks behind Salman Rushdie, though even then some said they thought he had been asking for it, but since then much has changed.

by James Neilson

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