Customer Reviews

Argentina: An Economic Chronicle. How one of the richest countries in the world lost its wealth

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a special book for a number of reasons. It is an excellent account of how bad policies and politicians can destroy wealth. The problem is much deeper than just the lack of fiscal discipline, though the observations on the continuous deterioration of the Argentine fiscal system are really enlightening. But Vito Tanzi offers much more than just a pure "narrow-minded" economic analysis, he describes a society that lost the most important element of success, social coordination. A fascinating reading for everyone, economists and non-economists alike. I cannot resist pointing out that there is another beautiful country in Europe Vito frequently visited in the past four decades that would certainly benefit from a book like this.

I read this regular book, here in Brazil.This book is about argentine economic history, in the last decades.
There's many good parts of this book,that are very good.
Same examples:
Page 7:"By 1910... Argentina was one of foremost countries in the world.It was one of the most important grain and meat exporters.Its GDP represented 50 percent of all Hispanic America, ranked in the world's economy, and its amounted to 7 percent of world's total."
Page 18:"Between May 1973 and March 1976, when the military returned to power, there were 5079 terrorist attacks".
Page 150:"I hope I am wrong, but my understanding of the fiscal history of Argentina over the past sixty years does not make me optimistic about the future in spite of the good perforamnce of the economy in the 2003-2007 period."
Some mistaks are in this book.To example, on page 44, there's a claim that Alfonsin came after eight years of military rule, whyle the military rule was of seven years.
Compared to the book "The Crisis of Argentine Capitalism", by Paul H. Lewis, this book isn't outdated, but this book is far worse than Lewis' book.
Why?Because this book hasn't deepness in anything, about Argentine economic history.Beyond any doubt, Argentina was a developed country in the past.Decades before Spain, Argentina was the first Spanish speaking country, to have a first world status, but this became over decades ago.
This book hasn't nothing about the so called "Concordacia" between 1930-1945 and almost nothing, about Perón government.
Perón wasn't just corrupt, but also a calamity and a watershed in Argentine history.Perón took terrible ways to rule Argentina.
Argentina became third world, because of "Concordacia" or because of Perón?
Why Argentina's economic history was even worse, than of its neighbors?
Is peronism the cause or the consequence of Argentina's decline?
Why Chile became a sucess after 1970 decade, whyle Argentina became even worse?
This book hasn't any clues about the answers, to any of these questions.I gave four stars to the Lewis' book, then I should to give three stars, for this regular or weak book.This book also doesn't tells that loans to Third World, including Brazil and Argentina, were bad to peoples, whyle spreading poverty and corruption.The author was a director of IMF, but again he hasn't deepness, about IMF's rule.
I'm a brazilian and all smart brazilians must learn about Argentina,but this book isn't a good choice to really learn, about Argentina.

Vito Tanzi has written a compact, highly readable account, of the causes and consequences of Argentina's economic decline since the early Twentieth Century, providing valuable lessons for Argentina, for other countries, and for the International Monetary Fund. According to Mr. Tanzi, a persistent lack of fiscal discipline led to economic disaster, and the International Monetary Fund fed, prolonged, and intensified the process. In telling this compelling account, he also provides an appealing introduction to Argentina, with its beautiful tourist attractions and rich cultural heritage. I highly recommend this book both to economists and non-economists alike.

An outstanding book that blends very well a traveler's description of this beautiful and outstanding country, together with important glimpses of recent and important political events as well as a thorough analysis of the history of Argentina's poor fiscal policies, that ultimately lead to its economic decline. An easy to read book that should not be limited to economists, by to all of those interested in what has happened to Argentina in the last few decades.

This book captures the inside political economy of the Argentine fiscal recent history. Tanzi added to his traditional solid economics and well-written prose a thoughtful inside angle of Argentine politics of fiscal policy. This is a nice reading which teaches about the process of policy making on public finance and lessons learned to better frame fiscal reforms.Argentina: An Economic Chronicle. How one of the richest countries in the world lost its wealth