The economic emergency law passed by Congress on January 7 delegates to the President powers that traditionally belong to the legislature, and others, like the exchange rate, that ought to belong to the market. The task ahead is monumental, the risks of failure too terrible to contemplate.
Another decade of prudent management and reform will be needed to restore trust. Perhaps it will be a further decade before Argentina experiences rates of growth comparable to the 1990s. A wrong diagnosis could mean falling back on inflation, price and exchange controls, politically-fixed tariffs, excessive regulations, black markets and indefinitely frozen deposits.
