سأورد فيما يلي فقرة من كتاب Why Nations Fail لمؤلفيه Acemoglu & Robinson تصف ما حدث في الأرجنتين في عهد كارلوس منعم، و ذلك للشبه الكبير لما نحن نعاني منه في لبنان الان. فكيف نفسر جهل القائمين على السياسات النقدية في لبنان و عدم اطلاعهم على الخبرة الدولية، انها الأمية الوظيفية
I quote verbatim: In 1991 Menes tied the Argentine peso to the U.S.Dollar. One peso was equal to one dollar by law. There was to be no change in the exchange rate. End of story. Well, almost. To convince people that the government really meant to stick to the law,
it persuaded people to open bank accounts in U.S. Dollars. Dollars could be used in the shops of the capital city of Buenos Aires and withdrawn from cash machines all over the city. This policy may have helped stabilise the economy, but it had one big draw back.
It made Argentine exports very expensive and foreign imports vey cheap. Exports dribbled to halt, imports gushed in. The only way to pay for them was to borrow. It was an unsustainable situation. As more people began worrying about the sustainability of the peso,
they put more of their wealth into dollar accounts at banks. After all, if the government ripped up the law and devaluation the peso, they would be safe with dollar accounts, right? They were right to be worried about the peso. But they ere too optimistic about their dollars.
On December 1, 2001, the government froze all bank accounts, initially for ninety days. Only a small amount of cas was allowed for withdrawal on a weekly basis. First it was 250 pesos, still worth $250; then 300 pesos. But this was allowed to be drawn only from peso accounts.
Nobody was allowed to withdraw money from their dollar accounts, unless they agreed to convert the dollars into pesos. Nobody wanted to do so....
In January the devaluation was finally enacted,and instead of there being one peso for one dollar,there were soon 4 pesos for one $.
In January the devaluation was finally enacted,and instead of there being one peso for one dollar,there were soon 4 pesos for one $.
