At the beginning of the 20th century Argentines lived en par with Europeans and in some instances surpassing them. The capital city of Buenos Aries gleamed as the Paris of Latin America, with high art, and a city that would rival any in the world. Argentina was a prosperous economy, all the way up to the late 40's. When Peron took power and turned the prosperous export oriented economy into a introverted one, the economic miracle was over. The country from 1950-1975 was struggling to even find a purpose. The country stagnated, and thanks to the green revolution in the advanced west prices for traditionally gold mines, like meat, and crops went down. Argentina prescribed to the "Depencia" theory in which import substitution was the policy of the state. When the dictatorship and the dirty war began the country began to borrow heavily. Up to $70 billion of debt was accumulated under the dictatorships. Argentina by 1998 had experienced a economic boom, but based on debt, and pegging the peso to the dollar. When the Asian flu hit American currencies value exploded, as did Argentina's debt. Things were just too expensive, and the HUGE, monolithic debt in excess of $150 billion had to be dealt with. http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2440367 How do we fix Argentina's mess, it is even fixable?
No it is not fixable in the imediate future. Government debt can only be paid off through a trade surplus. That would mean tarrifs and that cannot be allowed. In short it the is world order that is to blame for the stagnation and unfixability of the argentine economy. The same thing that happened to them could easily happen to the the united states. So tat had better be ware for the sake of ther people.
Well thankfully the Argentines are running a huge trade surplus ($ 9 billion imports, $25 billion exports). But I really don't think that it would really matter in the short run, Argentina has $150 billion in debt, utterly huge. Although not near the $220 billion Brazil currently boasts, but both states should pursue a export-oriented economic policy and develop from there. I think the greatest asset that Argentina has obviously is her natural Grasslands known as the Pampas. What has plagued Latin America has been economic populism, which is the death knell of development.
Who does Argentina owe it's debt too: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Although Argentina does have about $100 billion worth of assets overseas. Which I would imagine could be seized if the Argentines cannot pay back their private debts. http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2495542 Interesting read.
Acording to the CIA factbook the Argentinians are importing a portion of the electricity they use. I doubt they are getting it for free, so they should probably try to expand their power grid to support their population. They also consume a portion of the gas they produce. Using less would be more they could sell and profit from. Not much beyond that I can think of except cutting government spending where ever posible but that could become risky.