Peronism in Context

Paul Kedrosky links to an outstanding piece in the Financial Times comparing the economic development of America and Argentina over the last 100 years. Inspired by a commenter here, I've spent some time in the last several weeks exploring Juan Peron as a model for Barack Obama and this article is easily the most comprehensive, if implicit, comparison I've found. The thing is long - it took me 10-15 minutes to read it. There's not much econobabble in it, so I think it's accessible to all.

I found it worth the read, maybe you will, too.

Short excerpt:

Peronism endured, and indeed endures: Argentina’s ­current president calls herself a Peronist, and so did her predecessor, who happens to be her husband. One reason is that, in a limited way and under its own distorted terms, it succeeded. The state had become strong. The government owned and ran not just natural monopolies such as water and electricity but anything that looked big and strategic – steel, chemicals, car ­factories. The economy did industrialise. But it was still falling behind. In 1950 Argentine income per head was twice that of Spain, its former coloniser. By 1975 the average ­Spaniard was richer than the average Argentine. Argentines were almost three times richer than Japanese in the 1950s; by the early 1980s the ratio had been reversed. Argentina’s was a fragile and superficial progress that masked relative decline.