Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Serial payers, serial losers? The political economy of Argentina’s public debt

2016; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03085147.2016.1161118

1469-5766

Francisco Cantamutto, Daniel Ozarow,

Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism

A global neoliberal architecture has enabled many countries to increase their public debts to meet their fiscal needs. But since 2008 a number of European and North American economies have faced financial crises induced by unsustainable debts. This paper analyses the case of post-default Argentina since 2001, so as to better comprehend the political economy of public debt, especially in cases where governments are elected on anti-austerity platforms. Presidents Néstor and Cristina Kirchner were committed to a debt-reduction policy, yet Argentina faced a new, 'selective', default in 2014. This paper analyses how the country has been trapped in a cycle of debt dependency, which can only be interrupted by a comprehensive audit of the debt's legitimacy followed by debt cancellation. Critical lessons are provided for other countries facing similar situations.