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To: Frederick Langford who wrote (16197)	4/22/2002 11:00:13 PM
From: Susan G	Respond to of 26752

I still cannot believe no one was watching the back door into Pakistan while they were bombing the front door of Tora Bora, but don't get me started <G>

To: Frederick Langford who wrote (16197)	4/22/2002 11:01:40 PM
From: Susan G	Respond to of 26752

Can you imagine, having to search for an ATM with cash still in it to get YOUR money out?? Scary.... I thought they'd be rioting, looks like they are just banging pots and pans and cursing <g> Argentina races to pass plan as bank freeze to end Reuters Securities Monday April 22, 9:49 pm Eastern Time By Stephen Brown BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, April 22 (Reuters) - The Argentine government faced a race against time on Monday to win support for plans to give depositors bonds in lieu of savings after the Central Bank lifted measures preventing the financial system from collapsing. Without Congressional approval for his plan by the time the banks and foreign exchange markets re-open on Friday, President Eduardo Duhalde could be left helpless to stop furious depositors from pulling their cash and sinking the banks. Protesters waited outside Congress in the evening rain Monday to heckle politicians over a looming debate on the bond plan as they left for home, banging pots and bans and chanting ``sons of bitches''. Others spent the day trawling bank branches searching for one of the few ATMs still loaded with cash. Warned by the International Monetary Fund again this weekend that it must stop runaway spending to merit crucial aid, the government rushed its bill to convert bank deposits into IOUs to Congress on Monday. The vastly unpopular plan aims to halt withdrawals of cash from banks by depositors panicked by a tumbling currency and the specter of more political and economic chaos, with a four-year recession showing no sign of ending. ``Thieves! No bonds!'' read banners waved outside Congress by depositors who chased one senator who dared show his face and lunged at other workers leaving the building. ``It's what we have to do,'' Duhalde said of the bank holiday that began on Monday, saying banks would be reopened even if the bill is not approved. ``Then -- God knows. The situation is that more people want to take out money than there is money in the banks,'' he added ominously. He upped the stakes by saying that since it was Congress that appointed him caretaker president until 2003 elections, it could remove him: ``I have a parliamentary mandate. If parliament doesn't agree with me, they can choose another president.'' Latin America's No. 3 economy is in total disarray after a 10-year currency peg -- which fixed the peso at one to the dollar by law -- was scrapped in January. Credit has dried up since Argentina defaulted on its sovereign debt that month. ``The bond switch is definitely the lesser of two evils since the alternative was a total collapse,'' said a Wall Street banking analyst. ``This may save the banks. It's just a shame that the government took so long to do the inevitable.'' The man on the street is horrified at a return to a bond system foisted on the public a decade ago amid crisis. ``This is a rip-off. It's our money. I think there's going to be violence. This is going to explode,'' said 33-year-old systems analyst Luis Cordoba as he sought to withdraw cash downtown. PROTESTS MOUNT The peso has now fallen to over 3.0 to the dollar and currency fears have brought soaring inflation to a population of 36 million people that expresses its anger in daily protests against politicians widely seen as corrupt and ineffective. The main parties of Congress have promised to pass the main points of the bill, which would allow banks to return an estimated 60 percent of savings in bonds rather than cash. Small opposition parties planning to vote against it accused the government of ``blackmail'' for forcing Congress to rush through the bill or answer for chaos in the real economy. ``This bill is being proposed to benefit bankers rather than the people. It will force savers to take bonds from a bankrupt state which won't be able to honor it, while the banks get away scot-free,'' said leftist congressman Mario Cafiero. A wave of court rulings has sprung a leak in a savings freeze decreed in December limiting cash withdrawals and putting many savings out of reach. It contributed to the bloody rioting in December that forced an elected president to quit. Duhalde, who became Argentina's fifth leader since December, began with populist promises to create jobs and take power away from the banks and debt markets that funded rapid growth in the mid-1990s. But he has now gone ``with lowered head'' -- in his own words -- to the IMF for help. The fund, which withheld $1 billion in aid in December, is blocking new help until Argentina gets spendthrift provinces under control. Its plans are reportedly only to give Argentina the $5 billion it needs to roll over its existing debt with the fund, though that could facilitate loans from other agencies. Economy Minister Jorge Remes Lenicov's deputy, Jorge Todesca, said the IMF's line was that ``if Argentina doesn't carry out reforms, it won't have the opportunity to restore communications with the world, and they say it in a tough way because they know we have the capacity to react.'' Some respected economists from Buenos Aires University, who call themselves the ``Phoenix Plan,'' advised the government to act more independently of the IMF. ``This country must get back on its feet by itself, and then afterwards it should talk to the fund. But it has been doing things the other way around and that's not the way out,'' said Aldo Ferrer, head of the Phoenix Group. Duhalde added to the debate by saying January's peso flotation was the result of ``a mistaken demand'' among the IMF's conditions for starting Argentine rescue talks. biz.yahoo.com