Effects of the global crisis in post-convertibility Argentina. Economic rationality under discussion doi: 10.5007/2175-7984.2010v9n17p69

Abstract

Emerging from the repeated crises that Argentina has gone through over the last 35 years and particularly from the hyperinflation of 1989 came the neoliberal program that during the 1990s tied the country to a system of currency convertibility linked to the dollar. These measures opened the market to exportation, privatizing public firms, further expanding foreign debt and turning the country into an exemplary model for orthodox economic thought. Yet in 2001, a popular insurrection led to the model’s collapse and created new conditions of governability. The economy was re-oriented and, in spite of opposition coming from several sectors, the country embarked on a new stage of unprecedented growth.
While this did not stop Argentina from becoming quite a bad example to follow, within the frame of reference of the global economy, the financial quarantine to which it was subjected preserved it from the worse effects of the 2008 crisis. This article looks at some elements that derive from this situation as well as the strong and weak points of current administrators. We seek attempt to use this opportunity to look at an experience that questions the parameters of the rationality that  prevails in normative economic discourse.