Argentina: the state we're in, Celia Szusterman

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0100

At the end of 2001 Argentina suffered the most dramatic of the recurrent crises that have plagued the last sixty years. The difference was that this time it was a triple crisis: fiscal, monetary and of political representation. The fiscal crisis was partly solved earlier this year with the unilateral renegotiation of the largest sovereign default in history. A solution to the 25% of “hold-outs” that did not accept the government’s offer is still awaited.

The monetary crisis was solved through a devaluation that left 50% of the population under the poverty line, and salaries at their lowest in over thirty years. That figure is now down to 40%, but more than a million families are kept just above that line via cash subsidies handed out by the state and used as one means of sustaining a formidable clientelist political machine.

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Argentina: the state we're in, Celia Szusterman