Neolib Policies and Argentina’s Economic Collapse

Documentary on the events that led to the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001 which wiped out the middle class and raised the level of poverty to 57.5%.

Central to the collapse was the implementation of neo-liberal policies which enabled the swindle of billions of dollars by foreign banks and corporations. Many of Argentina’s assets and resources were shamefully plundered. Its financial system was even used for money laundering by Citibank, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan. The net result was massive wealth transfers and the impoverishment of society which culminated in many deaths due to oppression and malnutrition. If you want to stop the same thing from happening here, and it is happening here, right now, please join the revolution at the Kick Them All Out Projet http://www.KickThemAllOut.com and the Fire Congress Campaign.

Argentina: Between disintegration and revolution
James Petras Henry Veltmeyer
CovertAction Quarterly magazine, Fall 2002

Throughout the early and mid-nineties, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the G-7 countries, all praised Argentina’s liberalization program as an economic model for the Third World. Then President Carlos Menem and Economic Minister Domingo Cavallo promised the Argentine people that they would soon become part of the “First World.”

[efoods]Today, Argentina is in total disintegration. Not only is the economy in its fifth year of recession/depression, but its banking system has collapsed, the unemployment rate has skyrocketed, and over half the population lives below the poverty line.

No country in contemporary Latin American history has fallen swifter and further into mass poverty and experienced as prolonged an economic collapse as Argentina. Though most Latin American countries have applied neoliberal policies, none has been as thorough and rapid as Argentina. Moreover, no Latin American country was as industrially advanced or had as diversified an economy. Finally, Argentina had the highest standard of living in the region, the most qualified and skilled labor force, and the political leadership most determined to follow the precepts of the International Financial Institutions (IFls) and the G-7.

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