Argentina goes from smoke to fire.........................from Rico

There has been smoke in Argentina for some time.

- You know what they say about where there's smoke, there is fire. It was true in Weimar Germany, and Zimbabwe, and Venezuela, and now in Argentina. Guess who's going to be next? [Think: hot stock market, rapidly devaluing currency, gold price suppression...]


But I digress. Back to Argentina:


A puff of smoke.

- Last year's best performing stock market was Venezuela's, but they need to look over their shoulder as Argentina's stock market takes off like a scalded cat.


Another puff of smoke.

- Of course, as was the case in Venezuela (and Zimbabwe before that), the currency is absolutely crashing.


A big billow of smoke.

- The loss in purchasing power of the Argentine Peso is mirrored by January's 28% rise in the cost of Gold there (consider that Gold stayed constant in value while the peso sharply sank).


And here's the fire.

- As the government of Argentina puts new FX controls in place and is facing serious questions about the 'truthfulness' and accuracy of their Central Bank reserves accounting practices, by sheerest coincidence all of Argentina's archived banking records were just destroyed by fire.