El País: La crisis perpetua de Argentina

[Renzi]

"[T]he domestic market is one of the keys to Argentina's difficulty in maintaining sustained growth, and explains in part the formidable inflationary pressure: its economy is little connected with international trade. A comparison with Chile, a country with 19 million inhabitants compared to 44 in Argentina, is enough to reflect the phenomenon. Chile exports for an amount close to 500,000 million dollars and its imports are around 600,000 million; Argentina exports for just over 60,000 million dollars, basically grains and meat, and imports for a similar amount. The businessman Galfione allows himself to joke: "Look how rich the country will be, that it resists the Argentines." In 1984, when Argentina was emerging from its most gloomy dictatorship, the Nobel Prize in Economics Paul Samuelson (1915-2009) expressed a similar idea without joking: “Argentina is the classic example of an economy whose relative stagnation does not seem to be a consequence of the climate, racial divisions, Malthusian poverty or technological backwardness. It is their society, not their economy, that seems to be sick ”.

La crisis perpetua de Argentina

Desde hace un siglo, cuando era uno de los países más ricos del mundo, ha experimentado una inflación anual media del 105% y ha tenido que cambiar cinco veces de moneda. Hoy es el principal deudor del Fondo Monetario y sufre una de las contracciones más graves de América por la pandemia. ¿Dónde...

elpais.com

 

[artisans]

The quote of Paul Samuelson reminds me of a joke an attorney here told me at our first meeting. "Argentina is a magnificent land and country. There's only one problem. It's full of Argentines"

 

[gracielle]

The quote of Paul Samuelson reminds me of a joke an attorney here told me at our first meeting. "Argentina is a magnificent land and country. There's only one problem. It's full of Argentines"

And the negative inherited characteristics displayed in this society by a few appear to be contagious.

 

[jlynch]

"[T]he domestic market is one of the keys to Argentina's difficulty in maintaining sustained growth, and explains in part the formidable inflationary pressure: its economy is little connected with international trade. A comparison with Chile, a country with 19 million inhabitants compared to 44 in Argentina, is enough to reflect the phenomenon. Chile exports for an amount close to 500,000 million dollars and its imports are around 600,000 million; Argentina exports for just over 60,000 million dollars, basically grains and meat, and imports for a similar amount. The businessman Galfione allows himself to joke: "Look how rich the country will be, that it resists the Argentines." In 1984, when Argentina was emerging from its most gloomy dictatorship, the Nobel Prize in Economics Paul Samuelson (1915-2009) expressed a similar idea without joking: “Argentina is the classic example of an economy whose relative stagnation does not seem to be a consequence of the climate, racial divisions, Malthusian poverty or technological backwardness. It is their society, not their economy, that seems to be sick ”.

La crisis perpetua de Argentina

Desde hace un siglo, cuando era uno de los países más ricos del mundo, ha experimentado una inflación anual media del 105% y ha tenido que cambiar cinco veces de moneda. Hoy es el principal deudor del Fondo Monetario y sufre una de las contracciones más graves de América por la pandemia. ¿Dónde...

elpais.com

seems like the original article had its figures wrong for chiles exports/imports....it now has a correction listed at the bottom.

FE DE ERRORES
En una primera versión de este artículo, se dijo que el valor de las exportaciones e importaciones de Chile ascendía a 500.000 millones de dólares y 600.000 millones de dólares, respectivamente. La cifra correcta es 70.000 millones exportados y 59.000 importados.