The convertibility plan in Argentina: Limits of monetary policy

Abstract

Between 1989-2002, the argentine economy highlighted the restructuring of the conditions of capital valorization that characterized the largest Latin American economies during the nineties. More than any other monetary policy, the Convertibility Plan brought into focus the specific role of banking sector legislation within the reproduction of these conditions and within the subsequent crisis. A series of difficulties and errors in the implementation of economic policies brought about the imposition of the Convertibility Plan, which generated a set of greater limitations to economic activity, until finally ending in a sharp and deep crisis throughout the Argentine economy. The process of the financialization of the economy and a subordinated monetary policy led to the collapse of one of the largest Latin American economies, leaving the Argentine society, and in particularly its workers, in conditions of heightened vulnerability.