as recent as 2/3 years ago, both IMF and WB put Argentina as the star all LDC should follow. All the problems facing today were there, not as deep and intense, but were there, income distribution and poverty had worsen, money from privatization was used to increase spending and pay for "fees". The only good thing was low inflation, but both internal and external equilibrium were lacking. Now, of course, formally, the IMF does not anticipate measures, each coutry runs to the IMF looking for help, but it is undeniable that both institutions and the US Govt. (the Washington Concensus) favored the Argentine regime.- Now, they have nothing to do.
Worse, we had to listen to Economists on CNN blaming Cavallo for "sovietizing" the country, come on.
Bradford DeLong wrote:
> >In Empire, Negri and Hardt posit that there is no
> >outside to Empire...we are all embedded in the nexus
> >of global capital and there is no longer an escape
> >route through a struggle known as "national
> >liberation".
> >
> >Now we have seen a heroic revolt in Argentina this
> >week, but one has to wonder how even the best
> >intentioned group that came to power could free the
> >country from the clamps of the IMF and World Bank. Is
> >it possible or impossible...and what are the political
> >implications of this? I would like to hear from
> >everyone but am especially interested in the
> >economists perspectives.
> >
> >Thomas
>
> It's not the IMF or the World Bank that has raised Argentina's
> government debt/GDP ratio from 30% in 1994 to 54% today. It's not the
> IMF that continues to announce, daily, that Argentina must maintain
> its currency board and maintain its parity with the dollar, thus
> overvaluing its currency and strangling its own exports.
>
> I have yet to find anyone who can explain to me just how Argentina's
> situation would be improved if the IMF and the World Bank were to
> vanish tonight...
>
> Brad DeLong