Argentina’s president vs capitalism

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s president, has been vying with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to nationalise businesses.
 
Fernandez nationalised private pension funds and Aerolineas Argentionas, the country’s flagship airline.
 
But nothing has ruffled feathers more than the audacious move on the country’s oil company YPF. The problem is that it was owned by Spanish oil giant Repsol and a diplomatic row has ensued.
 
Argentina accuses Repsol of driving down production at YPF and taking 90 per cent of the company’s profits.
 
But could this drama have a lot more to do with Fernandez falling out with Argentina’s billionaire Eskenazi family?  Through the family’s Peterson Group it owns 25 per cent of YPF.

Nestor Kirchner, Fernandez’s late husband, helped the Eskenazis buy the stake – although it was Repsol that loaned the money.
 
Plus, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) put out its latest estimates on global growth. It is predicting 3.5 per cent growth, slightly higher than before. And a mild recession for the eurozone. But it warns the recovery is fragile.

John Terrett talks to Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist.
 
And finally, two-years after the deadly explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen and scientists say things are getting worse. Al Jazeera’s Dahr Jamail has been back to the region to find out more.

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