Sergio Massa communicated to Emiliano Yacobitti that he will ask the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires for an opinion to define whether the papers in AnSeS’s hand will be included in the operation.
The conversation took place on Friday evening.
Both know each other from Congress and have a relationship of “professional respect” which they define next to the minister. They coincided in parliamentary work when Massa was President of the Chamber of Deputies. Yacobitti is a representative of the UCR and supports Martín Lousteau in the city. In October 2022, the radicals negotiated with Massa the quorum that would allow the debate on the finance law (see below).
There is another fact that is perhaps more important. The radical leader is also currently vice-rector of the UBA and knows the corner of Córdoba and Junín well: there he graduated in public accounting, was in Franja Morada and was vice-president. And now Massa needs the stamp of that house that Yacobitti knows well.
It would be useful for the minister to have it because it would protect him from many of the professional criticisms that fell on him this week for the bond swap with Anses. Massa is a lawyer and with that imprint he has reacted to prevail over the debate between economists which has taken place at the level of public opinion in these hours: that a report tell him whether it is ruinous for the Treasury to borrow in dollars at 45% and that his shares rise 14%.
– Will he tolerate a negative opinion from the UBA?, they would have asked the minister.
Massa would be willing to take the risk. The report prepared by the UBA – not yet sent – could not express a favorable opinion on the possible advantage for Anses of which the Economy boasts. Instead, the minister wants the field of the field where the game is ‘played’ to be level: that the evaluation lacks comments or political pronouncements on the Government and its policies and that “the professors who make the report are serious.”
“The report will be made by the best technicians of the faculty”, says the UCR deputy.
The radical names the economists Andrés López, Sebastián Katz and Javier Curcio, the three names of prestige and experience in Córdoba and Junín.
The first is the director of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy of Buenos Aires of the UBA and CONICET. He has a doctorate in Economic Sciences and an expert in international integration and productive sectors. Among the lines of work of the IIEP are public finances and the social safety net with specialists in the field.
Katz is director of the economics program. Professor for decades in the faculty, he was part of the economic teams of Roberto Lavagna and Hernán Lacunza (he was deputy minister). His specialty is macroeconomics.
Curcio is the head of the Department of Economics. He deals with public finance and social security policies and protection of minors.
Yacobitti is convinced that the UBA can assess whether the bond swap is ruinous for Anses.
“It’s one of the roles that public universities must have, the work must be 100% technical,” he clarifies. “We will have a formal consultation and it will be determined who will do it. The work can be done quietly in the faculty and the result will be published. In any case, it is striking that the government submits to such a measure”.
It is that one of the options Massa could have resorted to is the Congressional Budget Office. Plus having served the minister there.
Recently, Representative Ricardo López Murphy proposed integrating all the proposals of the Executive Branch with a report from the OPC. Massa’s current move is not really a proposal as it is a decree. However, on Saturday he announced that he would send the measure to be analyzed by the UBA School of Economics.
One of the comments in the faculty is on the possible pressures that the house of studies receives, as happened when the UBA observed the intervention of the INDEC at the time of the first Kirchnerism.
Source: Clarin
