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[Reelya]

Checked out inflation in Argentina, and it is indeed saw a massive spike recently. But that got me thinking about a related media narrative.

Recently, inflation tripled in Venezuela and the media blame that on the Venezuelan socialist government (even though it was at the lowest inflation in decades for the first 14 years the socialists were in power). But Argentina went sky-high at the same time as Venezuela, and it's really hard to blame that on Chavez. Double checked for Colombia and Brazil, they also saw a tripling of inflation over the same time period.

It's pretty much the whole continent which saw a tripling of inflation at exactly the same time. Clearly, the US media is bullshitting that the sudden rise in inflation in Venezuela is the socialists' fault, because that doesn't explain why completely unrelated countries had the same thing happen at the same time.

Venezuela's inflation was lower under the first 14 years of socialism than the entire decade before socialism, for the record, so "Chavez = high inflation" is blatant misinformation, just going off public records.

[Tomcost]

I can say, at least, that inflation in Argentina is spiking because of a devaluation of 40% in a single day. And it is a consequence of not adjusting the exchange rate to go with the inflation that happened in the former years (instead, for political reasons, they kept is more or less fixed). This changed with the recent change in the goverment, and thus the sudden devaluation, and the additional inflation.

[FearfulJesuit]

I can say, at least, that inflation in Argentina is spiking because of a devaluation of 40% in a single day. And it is a consequence of not adjusting the exchange rate to go with the inflation that happened in the former years (instead, for political reasons, they kept is more or less fixed). This changed with the recent change in the goverment, and thus the sudden devaluation, and the additional inflation.

Visited Argentina back in mid-2013. What's going on right now is a painful, but necessary, market correction. When I was there, anyone who could afford to do so kept their savings in dollars- the official exchange rate was about 5 pesos to the dollar, but the street exchange rate was 10 pesos to the dollar, and the Kirchner administration never took any steps to keep Argentines away from dollars- we withdrew dollars at ATMs, and every store we went to would take them, at the market rate. Often at a ridiculous margin, too- one evening my uncle, mother and I went to a lovely little restaurant near the Iguazu Falls that was recommended by our charmingly skeevy taxi driver. My uncle and I both got the best steaks I've ever eaten, my mother got an excellent pasta dish, and we split a really good bottle of wine. Final price? $54 for three people, for a meal that would have been well into triple figures in the States.

Yeah, it sucks that the peso is in free-fall, but when you spend a decade cooking the books to pretend the dollar is half as expensive as it actually is, don't be surprised when it comes back to bite you.

[Tomcost]

I can say, at least, that inflation in Argentina is spiking because of a devaluation of 40% in a single day. And it is a consequence of not adjusting the exchange rate to go with the inflation that happened in the former years (instead, for political reasons, they kept is more or less fixed). This changed with the recent change in the goverment, and thus the sudden devaluation, and the additional inflation.

Visited Argentina back in mid-2013. What's going on right now is a painful, but necessary, market correction. When I was there, anyone who could afford to do so kept their savings in dollars- the official exchange rate was about 5 pesos to the dollar, but the street exchange rate was 10 pesos to the dollar, and the Kirchner administration never took any steps to keep Argentines away from dollars- we withdrew dollars at ATMs, and every store we went to would take them, at the market rate. Often at a ridiculous margin, too- one evening my uncle, mother and I went to a lovely little restaurant near the Iguazu Falls that was recommended by our charmingly skeevy taxi driver. My uncle and I both got the best steaks I've ever eaten, my mother got an excellent pasta dish, and we split a really good bottle of wine. Final price? $54 for three people, for a meal that would have been well into triple figures in the States.

Yeah, it sucks that the peso is in free-fall, but when you spend a decade cooking the books to pretend the dollar is half as expensive as it actually is, don't be surprised when it comes back to bite you.

Oh, to be clear I was not complaining, just trying to be objective. I am glad that things are getting fixed, even if the medicine is painful.

[TheDarkStar]

Wasn't Argentina the country that tried to fix their currency to a specific value a few decades back?

[Tomcost]

Wasn't Argentina the country that tried to fix their currency to a specific value a few decades back?

Yes. It was a fixed exchange rate of one peso for one dollar, with a law to guarantee it. The current crisis in Greece is sometimes compared to the one originated in Argentina over a decade ago because of that.

[Morrigi]

wtf Germany http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/04/world/europe/ap-eu-germany-sex-assaults.html?_r=1

o hai six posts ago

Oops. Still, wtf Germany. Also, apparently the story is being actively censored on Reddit. No surprises there.

That article says that just one rape charge has been filed, and merely around sixty 'criminal complaints'.
Additionally I'd like to remark that I live very close to Cologne - hell, I passed through that train station yesterday and will do so again in two days - and I've only heard one radio report mention it.

TL;DR: It's a bad thing, but not that big a deal.

Cologne's police chief is calling it a "completely new dimension of crime". Is he wrong?

[WealthyRadish]

Drunken new years hooligans are on the forefront of a criminal insurgency and threat to national security so immense, that when all is said and done, not one of us will be spared as the crimewave spreads like vomited peppermint schnapps and confetti on pavement.

[Flying Dice]

Maybe they discovered how to into unaided human flight and were drunkenly harassing people while floating a few meters above their heads.

[GiglameshDespair]

Maybe they're actually from 2015 and travelled forward in time to commit their crimes?

[Morrigi]

Drunken new years hooligans are on the forefront of a criminal insurgency and threat to national security so immense, that when all is said and done, not one of us will be spared as the crimewave spreads like vomited peppermint schnapps and confetti on pavement.

Confirmed for not reading the story. If it was just a few drunken hooligans, it wouldn't even make the news at all.

[Helgoland]

So it turns out that this was 1000 partyers, hidden among them some criminals, and not a gang of 1000 criminals.
Also the criminals are known to the police, and so-called 'Intensivtäter' - 'intensive perpetrators'. This has been waaaaaay overblown by the media. Albers is right insofar as this is a new way of conducting street crime, and it is rather shocking that none of the partyers at the scene intervened - but it's hardly something that can't be tackled by a slight adjustment in policing.

[Strife26]

I think that more than a battalion's worth of criminals chilling is a much more interesting thing to consider.

[Bouchart]

Stuttgart and Hamburg join Cologne

[Graknorke]

Ssh Helgo, you're ruining the drama. It's much more outrage-inducing if we leave it the way it was before.