Argentina reshuffles

Boudouuuuu!

If your government was soundly whipped at the polls as Argentina's has recently been whipped, you'd replace a bunch of ministers too. However Klishtina has decided that the best way to cope with the rejection of her policies is to simply ignore that it happened and reshuffle one set of ultra-Kircherists with another.

So farewell, then, to Carlos Fernandez, the (now ex) FinMin that nobody even noticed was there. And farewell, then, to Sergio Massa, the (now ex) cabinet chief who was brought in from his mayorial-type role in the Tigre region (North of BsAs) because he'd been doing a great job and was a breath of fresh air and would lead ministers in a new direc.....etc....errrrr...it didn't happen, ok?

The new FinMin is a certain Amado Boudou (a last name that makes Francophones titter), party loyalist who was having fun at ANSES (the social security people) and was basically next in line anyway. He now gets to play at big numbers and DON'T TOUCH THOSE DIALS! until 2011 when it's all over for this team. So stfu and think about the pension at the end of the period, Amado. As for cabinet chief, ultra-K of all ultra-Ks Anibal Fernandez has got the job, moving over from the Justice Ministry. A stuffed suit named Julio Alak, who was in charge of the newly nationalized Aerolineas Argentinas until yesterday, is now the Justice Dude.

The bottom line is that this is the cabinet reshuffle of a dead duck administration. Nothing has changed and nothing will change due to yesterday's botox injections and new shades of eyeliner. We now enter The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul as regards Argentine politics, so wake me up when the 2011 Pres election campaigning starts.

News roundup

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In Peru, the nation's inferiority complex with Chile is a generous and unending source of political capital for its pathetic and vomitworthy ruling class. The Toledo gov't (pre-Twobreakfasts) is the one that made the Free Trade Agreement with the USA happen, but now ex-PM of the Toledo era, Carlos Ferrero, says that the brand new FTA with Chile "damages the independence of Peru". Your humble correspondent is confused about this; how can you damage something that was smashed into a thousand pieces years ago?

In Brazil, Petrobras (PBR) watched the absurd trick Citigroup (C) pulled with its leaked "we're making a profit" documents and thought "hey! cool! let's do that too!". Unfortunately for PBR, unlike the anglosaxon world Brazil actually has a regulatory body that does some work occasionally and now the episode is being investigated. Market Memorandum tells you more on this link.