By Mike Andrew
“You can’t spend your way out of a recession!”
So say Republicans and all economic conservatives.
And yet Argentina did just that, bouncing back not just from mere recession but from national bankruptcy, in less than 10 years.
In 2001 Argentina defaulted on $100 billion of sovereign debt. Its banks were collapsing like a house of cards. Its people were occupying shut down factories.
In the four years between 1998 and 2002, Argentina’s economy shrank by almost 20%.
The problem was easy to see. Argentina was the victim of a series of right-wing military dictatorships trying one supply-side economic experiment after another, all of them failures.
The solution was a brave gamble by the Argentine government.
First, the government intervened in the currency market to keep the value of its own currency low. This in turn boosted local industry by making Argentina’s exports cheap, while keeping foreign imports expensive.
It then taxed imports and exports, and spent the revenue on a series of public works projects. Today, Argentine government spending is 25% of GDP, compared with only 14% in 2003.
As a result of the government-financed construction projects, the country has 400,000 new low-income housing units, and a new 235-mile highway between the northern cities of Rosario and Córdoba.
The Argentine government also strengthened its social safety net.
The Universal Child Allowance gives 1.9 million low-income families a monthly stipend of about $42 per child, which helps increase consumption. The Allowance began in 2009 with bipartisan support from both the ruling party and the opposition,
Because the amount of the stipend depends in part on the child’s school attendance, the allowance is also a measure to promote public education.
The Argentine economy has grown by over 6% a year for seven of the last eight years, unemployment has been cut to under 8% today from a whopping 20% in 2002, and the poverty level has fallen by almost half over the last decade.
Argentines are expected to buy some 800,000 new vehicles this year. Plasma TVs and BlackBerrys have become common among Argentina’s growing middle class.
Obviously, this policy is inflationary, with the inflation rate now well over 20%. It remains to be seen how well Argentina’s working people will be able to cope with that.
Nevertheless, Argentina is another example that runs counter to the all-cuts austerity response to economic crisis.
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Hey, look at Argentina!
By Mike Andrew
“You can’t spend your way out of a recession!”
So say Republicans and all economic conservatives.
And yet Argentina did just that, bouncing back not just from mere recession but from national bankruptcy, in less than 10 years.
In 2001 Argentina defaulted on $100 billion of sovereign debt. Its banks were collapsing like a house of cards. Its people were occupying shut-down factories.
In the four years between 1998 and 2002, Argentina’s economy shrank by almost 20%.
The problem was easy to see. Argentina was the victim of a series of right-wing military dictatorships trying one supply-side economic experiment after another, all of them failures.
The solution was a brave gamble by the Argentine government.
First, the government intervened in the currency market to keep the value of its own currency low. This in turn boosted local industry by making Argentina’s exports cheap, while keeping foreign imports expensive.
It then taxed imports and exports, and spent the revenue on a series of public works projects. Today, Argentine government spending is 25% of GDP, compared with only 14% in 2003.
As a result of the government-financed construction projects, the country has 400,000 new low-income housing units, and a new 235-mile highway between the northern cities of Rosario and Córdoba.
The Argentine government also strengthened its social safety net.
The Universal Child Allowance gives 1.9 million low-income families a monthly stipend of about $42 per child, which helps increase consumption. The Allowance began in 2009 with bipartisan support from both the ruling party and the opposition. Because the amount of the stipend depends in part on the child’s school attendance, the allowance is also a measure to promote public education.
The Argentine economy has grown by over 6% a year for seven of the last eight years, unemployment has been cut to under 8% today from a whopping 20% in 2002, and the poverty level has fallen by almost half over the last decade.
Argentines are expected to buy some 800,000 new vehicles this year. Plasma TVs and BlackBerrys have become common among Argentina’s growing middle class.
Obviously, this policy is inflationary, with the inflation rate now well over 20%. It remains to be seen how well Argentina’s working people will be able to cope with that.
Nevertheless, Argentina is another example that runs counter to the all-cuts austerity response to economic crisis.
“You can’t spend your way out of a recession!”
So say Republicans and all economic conservatives.
And yet Argentina did just that, bouncing back not just from mere recession but from national bankruptcy, in less than 10 years.
In 2001 Argentina defaulted on $100 billion of sovereign debt. Its banks were collapsing like a house of cards. Its people were occupying shut-down factories.
In the four years between 1998 and 2002, Argentina’s economy shrank by almost 20%.
The problem was easy to see. Argentina was the victim of a series of right-wing military dictatorships trying one supply-side economic experiment after another, all of them failures.
The solution was a brave gamble by the Argentine government.
First, the government intervened in the currency market to keep the value of its own currency low. This in turn boosted local industry by making Argentina’s exports cheap, while keeping foreign imports expensive.
It then taxed imports and exports, and spent the revenue on a series of public works projects. Today, Argentine government spending is 25% of GDP, compared with only 14% in 2003.
As a result of the government-financed construction projects, the country has 400,000 new low-income housing units, and a new 235-mile highway between the northern cities of Rosario and Córdoba.
The Argentine government also strengthened its social safety net.
The Universal Child Allowance gives 1.9 million low-income families a monthly stipend of about $42 per child, which helps increase consumption. The Allowance began in 2009 with bipartisan support from both the ruling party and the opposition. Because the amount of the stipend depends in part on the child’s school attendance, the allowance is also a measure to promote public education.
The Argentine economy has grown by over 6% a year for seven of the last eight years, unemployment has been cut to under 8% today from a whopping 20% in 2002, and the poverty level has fallen by almost half over the last decade.
Argentines are expected to buy some 800,000 new vehicles this year. Plasma TVs and BlackBerrys have become common among Argentina’s growing middle class.
Obviously, this policy is inflationary, with the inflation rate now well over 20%. It remains to be seen how well Argentina’s working people will be able to cope with that.
Nevertheless, Argentina is another example that runs counter to the all-cuts austerity response to economic crisis.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Robbing each working woman of $2 million
By Edie Koch
Although the global recession has had serious impact on working men and women alike, women in the United States and throughout the world have suffered most because of long-standing discrimination.
At first, the recession was felt in work done primarily by men, such as finance, manufacturing and construction. Now, however, the impact has shifted to other areas of work, including service work, where women generally are dominant. Of course, when men lose their jobs, women have to support their families. That is a very real burden for women. Although they do essentially the same work as men, or the equivalent of it, women in all countries earn substantially less than men, typically 30% to 40% less. In the United States, women average only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
The pay gap exists, in part, because we still find many more women than men taking up low paying jobs either because this is the only type of job made available or because they need to find employment that allows them to balance work and family responsibilities. This is usually not the case for men.
Not only in the U.S. but everywhere, we need equal treatment for working women. We need to pay women the same, and treat them the same, as men doing comparable work. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has never delivered on its promise to guarantee women equal treatment on the job. The long-stalled Paycheck Fairness Act should be enacted to close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act that have made it easy for employers to discriminate against women in pay and other work issues.
The New Center for American Progress (CAP) estimates that if US women were granted equal pay, they could each earn as much as $2 million more over the whole of their working lives. It’s estimated as well that equal pay would reduce the number of families living in poverty by as much as half.
In addition to paycheck fairness, the CAP report called for worldwide updating of basic labor standards “to recognize that most workers have family responsibilities and need predictable and flexible work schedules, family and medical leaves and paid sick days.” Such standards would ensure that women “who stay employed to support their families” won’t end up unemployed because of “family-work conflicts.”
A recent poll cited in the CAP report showed that “a large majority of Americans support new, more family-friendly workplace policies.” Eight-five percent said, “Businesses that fail to adapt to the needs of modern families risk losing good workers.” Businesses that fail to adapt will be furthering the mistreatment of working women that’s gone virtually unchecked for far too many years. No matter what the recession or its end brings, we will not have a truly healthy economy until working women are guaranteed their full rights. Amen to that!
Although the global recession has had serious impact on working men and women alike, women in the United States and throughout the world have suffered most because of long-standing discrimination.
At first, the recession was felt in work done primarily by men, such as finance, manufacturing and construction. Now, however, the impact has shifted to other areas of work, including service work, where women generally are dominant. Of course, when men lose their jobs, women have to support their families. That is a very real burden for women. Although they do essentially the same work as men, or the equivalent of it, women in all countries earn substantially less than men, typically 30% to 40% less. In the United States, women average only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
The pay gap exists, in part, because we still find many more women than men taking up low paying jobs either because this is the only type of job made available or because they need to find employment that allows them to balance work and family responsibilities. This is usually not the case for men.
Not only in the U.S. but everywhere, we need equal treatment for working women. We need to pay women the same, and treat them the same, as men doing comparable work. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has never delivered on its promise to guarantee women equal treatment on the job. The long-stalled Paycheck Fairness Act should be enacted to close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act that have made it easy for employers to discriminate against women in pay and other work issues.
The New Center for American Progress (CAP) estimates that if US women were granted equal pay, they could each earn as much as $2 million more over the whole of their working lives. It’s estimated as well that equal pay would reduce the number of families living in poverty by as much as half.
In addition to paycheck fairness, the CAP report called for worldwide updating of basic labor standards “to recognize that most workers have family responsibilities and need predictable and flexible work schedules, family and medical leaves and paid sick days.” Such standards would ensure that women “who stay employed to support their families” won’t end up unemployed because of “family-work conflicts.”
A recent poll cited in the CAP report showed that “a large majority of Americans support new, more family-friendly workplace policies.” Eight-five percent said, “Businesses that fail to adapt to the needs of modern families risk losing good workers.” Businesses that fail to adapt will be furthering the mistreatment of working women that’s gone virtually unchecked for far too many years. No matter what the recession or its end brings, we will not have a truly healthy economy until working women are guaranteed their full rights. Amen to that!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)