Argentina and the IMF: Can This Marriage Be Saved?
Before agreeing on a new program, the 23rd in their convoluted history, the IMF and its main borrower should do some honest soul-searching.
The writing is on the wall.
Photographer: Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images
In the world of finance, few relationships are more toxic than the one between Argentina and the International Monetary Fund.
With 22 credit programs in slightly more than 65 years, the IMF has played a role in the most disappointing decades of the Argentine economy. To say the results of this partnership have been disastrous is an understatement: Since 1950, the South American nation has spent more time in recession than any other country and — depending on how you see it — the IMF was there either as a hapless spectator or incompetent accomplice.