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Article: Historical reflections on the splendor and decline of Argentina.
- Article from:
- The Cato Journal
- Article date:
- September 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Cato Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Argentine crisis has its origins neither in the economic reforms undertaken by President Carlos Menem in 1989 nor in the globalization process of the previous decades. Rather, Argentina's decline has been a slow process that began in the early 20th century. President Menem, in fact, based his economic reforms on sound economic logic: the privatization of state-owned enterprises, a monetary conversion ratio of one peso to the U.S. dollar, and a commercial opening to the world. In 1991, inflation--which had reached hair-raising figures--was curbed, and substantial GDP per capita growth was achieved in the following years. Despite these short-lived achievements, the ...