A different form of "austerity"
Aug. 27th, 2011 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumMalawi and Argentina have both told the international banking community to pound sand. Both of them survived.
This is Argentina's story
In May 2001, 11.6% of the population was living in extreme poverty and 35.9% were under the poverty line. Ten years later, the figure for extreme poverty is at 4.4% of the population and those under the poverty line at 15.3%. Argentina renegotiated its debt and balanced their international trade. The country abandoned its dependency on financial institutions and global capital. A stream of left leaning (considered populist by some) governments followed, giving preponderance to internal development and investment schemes. International media still portrays Argentina as an unreliable country (“not serious” according to a fairly recent article at The New York Times). However, the country has avoided further liberalization of its markets and impositions from the IMF, which always come with demands of budget cuts from public services and social programs. Every IMF loan includes a set of mandatory “recommendations” that deplete benefits and welfare schemes for the working class and poor and demands of compliance with Free Trade principles that hurt local economies.
Western economies currently battling the effects of a long term recession and pressures from the International Financial industry might benefit from adopting a few of the measures that Argentina put in place in the aftermath of the 2001 crisis. The US currently struggles with high long-term unemployment and a USD 400bn trade deficit. If the government implemented a strong program of workers run cooperatives that gave prevalence to training opportunities, full ownership of tools and facilities and fomented local manufacturing, the long term effects would most likely be unprecedented. Self-sustaining communities would shift to a model of “Buy Local”, not only for regionally produced food but also for consumer goods and services, with a focus on development and individual participation.
This is Argentina's story
In May 2001, 11.6% of the population was living in extreme poverty and 35.9% were under the poverty line. Ten years later, the figure for extreme poverty is at 4.4% of the population and those under the poverty line at 15.3%. Argentina renegotiated its debt and balanced their international trade. The country abandoned its dependency on financial institutions and global capital. A stream of left leaning (considered populist by some) governments followed, giving preponderance to internal development and investment schemes. International media still portrays Argentina as an unreliable country (“not serious” according to a fairly recent article at The New York Times). However, the country has avoided further liberalization of its markets and impositions from the IMF, which always come with demands of budget cuts from public services and social programs. Every IMF loan includes a set of mandatory “recommendations” that deplete benefits and welfare schemes for the working class and poor and demands of compliance with Free Trade principles that hurt local economies.
Western economies currently battling the effects of a long term recession and pressures from the International Financial industry might benefit from adopting a few of the measures that Argentina put in place in the aftermath of the 2001 crisis. The US currently struggles with high long-term unemployment and a USD 400bn trade deficit. If the government implemented a strong program of workers run cooperatives that gave prevalence to training opportunities, full ownership of tools and facilities and fomented local manufacturing, the long term effects would most likely be unprecedented. Self-sustaining communities would shift to a model of “Buy Local”, not only for regionally produced food but also for consumer goods and services, with a focus on development and individual participation.
