The International Monetary Fund and Latin America: The Argentine Puzzle in Context

To understand what happened in Argentina we need to look to the economic reforms that nearly all Latin America undertook in the ’80s. Countries emerging from years of poverty and dictatorship were told that democracy and the markets would bring unprecedented prosperity. And in some countries, such as Mexico, the rich few have benefi ted. More broadly, though, economic performance has been dismal, with growth little more than half of what it was in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Disillusionment with “reform”—neo-liberal style—has set in. Argentina’s experience is being read: Th is is what happens to the A-plus student of the IMF. Th e disaster comes not from not listening to the IMF, but rather from listening [to it].1