Neoliberal Dystopias: Postmodern Aesthetics and a Modern Ethic in Four Pairs of Plays by Argentine and Irish Playwrights (1990-2003)

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Neoliberal Dystopias: Postmodern Aesthetics and a Modern Ethic in Four Pairs of Plays by Argentine and Irish Playwrights (1990-2003) City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2015 Neoliberal Dystopias: Postmodern Aesthetics and a Modern Ethic in Four Pairs of Plays by Argentine and Irish Playwrights (1990-2003) Noelia Diaz Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/547 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Neoliberal Dystopias: Postmodern Aesthetics and a Modern Ethic in Four Pairs of Plays by Argentine and Irish Playwrights (1990-2003) by Noelia Diaz A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 © 2015 NOELIA DIAZ All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in satisfaction of the Dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ______Dr. Jean Graham-Jones__________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee ______Dr. Giancarlo Lombardi __________________ Date Executive Officer Dr. Clare Carroll Dr. Jerry Carlson Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Neoliberal Dystopias: Postmodern Aesthetics and a Modern Ethic in Four Pairs of Plays by Argentine and Irish Playwrights (1990-2003) by Noelia Diaz Advisor: Jean Graham-Jones This project is an exploration of eight plays, four from Argentina, four from Ireland, comprehending the period between 1990 and 2003. Both countries share a strong tradition of national theatre that, from its beginnings, was closely intertwined with the development of the nation state. Theatre functions in Argentina and Ireland as a medium through which representations of what it means to be Irish or Argentine have been explored, questioned, and contested. It is the aim of this project to examine how the apparently non-political and ahistorical theater of the playwrights I will examine is indeed a response to a contextualized sense of political, social, and economic uncertainty, fueled by globalization. The postmodern aesthetics of the plays go beyond the playful to question how community, identity, and meaning are articulated in a world where national frameworks are being replaced by transnational movements (both economic and cultural). The impact of neoliberal economic policies implemented on Argentina and Ireland in the 90s and the severe displacement and rise of inequality of large sections of the population in both countries is contested, critiqued, and examined in all the plays of my study. In both the Argentine and Irish cases, lingering repressive practices responsible for human rights violations coexisted with an economic neoliberal agenda that generated its own particular set of discriminations, abuses, and diminish citizenships. This project analyzes how the chosen plays establish links between present and former instances of repression, violence, and abuse—underscoring for audiences unaddressed haunting human rights concerns in late twentieth-century Argentina and Ireland. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my committee chair Professor Jean Graham- Jones for her support, guidance, encouragement, and faith in my project. I am so grateful for having had the opportunity to benefit from her unique insight, warm spirit, ceaselessly thoughtful questioning and vast knowledge of Latin American Theatre. I would also like to thank my committee members, Professor Clare Carroll and Professor Jerry Carlson, who offered invaluable advice and encouragement. In addition, my most sincere gratitude to the staff at the Child Development Center of CUNY, in particular Linda Perrotta and Dolores Buonasora, for providing priceless care to my daughters while I pursued my studies. I also want to extend my gratitude to Leah Anderst, for her mentoring throughout the years, and to the family and friends who provided me with wide-raging support at the different stages of this project. It takes a village. Finally, I am profoundly thankful for my husband, Thomas Walser, and my daughters, Lola and Nina, whose love and reassurance made completing this dissertation possible. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter One Reclaiming the Liminal Space: Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats… (1998) and Lucía Laragione’s Cocinando con Elisa (1993)……………………………………..15 Chapter Two Resisting Neoliberalism and Patriarchy: On Raftery’s Hill (2000) by Marina Carr and La escuálida familia (2001) by Lola Arias…………………………………...……...61 Chapter Three Mocking Truths, Reclaiming Fictions: The Pillowman (2003) by Martin McDonagh and Martha Stutz (1997) by Javier Daulte…………………………………………….....109 Chapter Four Traumatized Bodies and Collapsed Masculinities: Socavón (1999) by Luis Cano and The Holy Ground (1990) by Dermot Bolger…………………………………………157 Conclusion…………...…………………………………………………………………. 196 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………. 205 vi Introduction This project commenced, almost twenty years ago, with my viewing of Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) at the Atlantic Theater in New York City. At that point, writing my dissertation was still several years away, but McDonagh’s work introduced me to Irish Theatre—and while The Beauty Queen of Leenane is not included in this study, that production was the seminal impulse for the work at hand. Argentine Theatre joined the panoply of this work both before McDonagh and after. I had the privilege of studying acting in Madrid with Zulema Katz, a renowned Argentine actress who exiled herself first to Paris, and then to Madrid, after her second husband, poet, and political militant Francisco Urondo was executed by the Junta Government. Zulema’s life story was my first introduction to the horrific violence perpetrated by the Junta regime. Her mastery and talent, both as a performer and a teacher, marked the beginning of my lasting passion for theatre. This project is an exploration of eight plays, four from Argentina, four from Ireland, encompassing the period between 1990 and 2003. Four texts are by playwrights self-identified as Irish: By the Bog of Cats… (1998) and On Raftery’s Hill (2000) by Marina Carr, The Pillowman (2003) by Martin McDonagh, and finally the Holy Ground (1990) by Dermot Bolger. Four texts are by Argentinean playwrights: Martha Stutz (1997) by Javier Daulte, La escuálida familia (2001) by Lola Arias, Cocinando con Elisa (1994) by Lucía Laragione, and Socavón (1999) by Luis Cano. My study limits itself to the theatre created in the Republic of Ireland, not in Northern Ireland, and while acknowledging that contact between both areas has taken place, all of the Irish writers of this study come from the Republic, not from Northern Ireland. Argentina and Ireland share a strong tradition of national theatre that, from its beginnings, was closely intertwined with the development of the nation state. Theatre functions in both Argentina 1 and Ireland as a medium through which representations of national identity—what it means to be Irish or Argentine—has been explored, questioned, and contested. It is not the aim of this investigation to provide an exhaustive history of either the theatrical landscape or the political circumstances in Ireland and Argentina when the plays were written. Such a study would be gargantuan and perhaps unproductive, by virtue of its size. Within the smaller scope of this project, it is easier to highlight the key similarities embedded in the two sets of plays I analyze. However, an understanding of the crucial local and national debates at the time the plays were written is indispensable to interpret their creation. In his seminal work on Irish theatre Theatre and Globalization: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era, Patrick Lonergan notes that Irish theatre’s international success, with plays like Dancing at Lughnasa (1990) by Brian Friel, reinforced for audiences abroad what an Irish play was, rather than leading to intercultural exchange (54). Lonergan is critical of how an emphasis on globalization theory runs the risk of a subsequent failure to investigate the particulars of how a play is made and received. Local knowledge, he asserts, must be part of the conversation (223). I concur with Lonergan’s stance, and the aim of this project is to facilitate intercultural exchange between seemingly unrelated plays that nevertheless ponder similar questions on either side of the Atlantic. By remaining attendant to local histories and to crucial social changes in Ireland and Argentina, this project seeks to engage in a truthful “intercultural exchange,” one which understands national particularities while underscoring how globalizing forces, and their neoliberal agenda, generate diminished citizenships across the world. I will argue that in spite of vague or absent historical signifiers (Martha Stutz being the exception here), all the plays are critical of the profound political and social changes unfolding in the 1990s in their respective countries. The period examined coincides with the implementation 2 in Argentina and Ireland of aggressive neoliberal economic and social policies that undermined, in both cases, their previous welfare states. Under the governments of Carlos Saul Menem (1989-
Recommended publications
  • Argentina's Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies After the Convertibility
    CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH April Argentina’s Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies after the Convertibility Regime Collapse • ii Contents Introduction 1 1. The Convertibility Regime 2 2. The Post-Convertibility Macroeconomic Regime and Performance 9 2.1 The Main Characteristics of the Economic Recovery 10 2.2 The Evolution of Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies 16 3. A Macroeconomic Policy Regime with a SCRER as an Intermediate Target 25 3.1 The Orthodox Arguments Against RER Targeting 26 3.2 The Exchange Rate Policy 29 3.3 The Exchange Market and Capital Flows 30 3.4 Monetary Policy 31 Conclusion 35 References 36 Chronological Appendix 39 About the Authors Roberto Frenkel is a senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. and Principal Research Associate at the Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Martín Rapetti is a research assistant at CEDES and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Acknowledgements This paper was written as part of an international research project on Alternatives to Inflation Targeting for Stable and Equitable Growth co-directed by Gerald Epstein, PERI and Erinc Yeldan, Bilkent University. The authors thank the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Ford Foundation and UN-DESA for financial support. Additionally, Nelson Barbosa-Filho, Erinc Yeldan and the participants in the workshop on “Alternatives to Inflation Targeting Monetary Policy for Stable and Egalitarian Growth in Developing Countries” held at CEDES in May 13-14, 2005 contributed comments to a previous version of this paper. Finally, the authors thank Julia Frenkel for her collaboration and Erinc Yeldan and an anonymous referee from World Development for their comments and suggestions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Constitutionality of Bank Deposits Pesification, the Massa Case
    Law and Business Review of the Americas Volume 14 Number 1 Article 4 2008 Bank Crisis in Argentina: The Constitutionality of Bank Deposits Pesification, the Massa Case Ignacio Hirigoyen Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/lbra Recommended Citation Ignacio Hirigoyen, Bank Crisis in Argentina: The Constitutionality of Bank Deposits Pesification, the Massa Case, 14 LAW & BUS. REV. AM. 53 (2008) https://scholar.smu.edu/lbra/vol14/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law and Business Review of the Americas by an authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu. BANK CRISIS IN ARGENTINA: THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF BANK DEPOSITS PESIFICATION, THE MASSA CASE Ignacio Hirigoyen* I. INTRODUCTION RGENTINA experienced its biggest bank crisis in history from 2000 to 2002. The financial crisis was so severe that it is re- garded as one of the most severe to ever occur during a peace- time period. At one point during such economic turmoil, Argentina went through five presidents in eight days. The fifth President, Eduardo Duhalde,1 declared a state of economic emergency 2 and made executive decisions, taking economic measures that were the source of much con- troversy and litigation. This paper will address the Massa case,3 which arose out of a challenge to the constitutionality of such executive deci- sions and went all the way through to Argentina's Corte Suprema de Jus- ticia de la Naci6n (Supreme Court).
    [Show full text]
  • A R G E N T I
    JUJUY PARAGUAY SALTA SOUTH FORMOSA Asunción PACIFIC TUCUMÁN CHACO SANTIAGO S OCEAN NE CATAMARCA SIO DEL ESTERO MI CORRIENTES á River an LA RIOJA Par BRAZIL SANTA FE SAN JUAN CÓRDOBA ENTRE RÍOS SAN LUIS URUGUAY MENDOZA Santiago Buenos Aires ARGENTINA Montevideo LA PAMPA BUENOS AIRES CHILE NEUQUÉN RÍO NEGRO SOUTH CHUBUT ATLANTIC OCEAN SANTA CRUZ Islas Malvinas TIERRA DEL FUEGO 0 200 miles david rock RACKING ARGENTINA opular protest erupted on the streets of Argentina through the hot December nights of 2001.1 Crowds from Pthe shanty towns attacked stores and supermarkets; banging their pots and pans, huge demonstrations of mainly middle- class women—cacerolazos—marched on the city centre; the piqueteros, organized groups of the unemployed, threw up road-blocks on high- ways and bridges. Twenty-seven demonstrators died, including five shot down by the police beneath the grand baroque façades of Buenos Aires’ Plaza de Mayo. The trigger for the fury had been the IMF’s suspension of loans to Argentina, on the grounds that President Fernando De la Rúa’s government had failed to meet its conditions on public-spending cuts. There was a run on the banks, as depositors rushed to get their money out and their pesos converted into dollars. De la Rúa’s Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo slapped on a corralito, a ‘little fence’, to limit the amount of cash that could be withdrawn—leaving many people’s savings trapped in failing banks. On December 20, as the protests inten- sified, De la Rúa resigned, his helicopter roaring up over the Rosada palace and the clouds of tear gas below.
    [Show full text]
  • Argentina at the Abyss
    ARGENTINA AT THE ABYSS PAUL COONEY1i INDEX I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 1 II. THE STEPS LEADING UP TO THE CRISIS................................................................................................. 1 III. FOREIGN EXCHANGE CRISIS ................................................................................................................... 2 IV. PRIVATIZATIONS........................................................................................................................................ 2 V. TRADE DEFICIT ........................................................................................................................................... 3 VI. FOREIGN DEBT........................................................................................................................................... 3 1. NEOLIBERAL POLICIES DURING THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE 70S................................................. 3 VII. NEOLIBERAL POLICIES UNDER MENEM AND THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ............................. 4 VIII. CONVERTIBILITY AND FINANCIAL REFORMS ......................................................................................5 IX. REFORM OF THE STATE AND PRIVATIZATIONS.................................................................................... 5 X. TRADE LIBERALIZATION ...........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Argentina's Economic Crisis: Causes and Cures
    ARGENTINA’S ECONOMIC CRISIS: CAUSES AND CURES Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Vice Chairman Joint Economic Committee United States Congress June 2003 Summary In 1998, Argentina entered what turned out to be a four-year depression, during which its economy shrank 28 percent. Argentina’s experience has been cited as an example of the failure of free markets and fixed exchange rates, among other things. The evidence does not support those views. Rather, bad economic policies converted an ordinary recession into a depression. Three big tax increases in 2000-2001 discouraged growth, and meddling with the monetary system in mid 2001 created fear of currency devaluation. As a result, confidence in Argentina’s government finances evaporated. In a series of blunders that made matters even worse, from December 2001 to early 2002, succeeding governments undermined property rights by freezing bank deposits; defaulting on the government’s foreign debt in a thoughtless manner; ending the Argentine peso’s longstanding link to the dollar; forcibly converting dollar deposits and loans into Argentine pesos at unfavorable rates; and voiding contracts. Achieving sustained long-term economic growth will involve re-establishing respect for property rights. A summary version of this study is available on the Web site of the Vice Chairman’s Office of the Joint Economic Committee. Joint Economic Committee 1537 Longworth House Office Building G-01 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510 Phone: 202-226-3234 Phone: 202-224-5171 Fax: 202-226-3950 Fax: 202-224-0240 Internet Address: http://www.house.gov/jec/ ARGENTINA’S ECONOMIC CRISIS: CAUSES AND CURES I.
    [Show full text]
  • Capital Restrictions As an Explanation of Stock Price Distortions During Argentine Financial Collapse: December 2001 – March 2002
    Capital Restrictions as an Explanation of Stock Price Distortions during Argentine Financial Collapse: December 2001 – March 2002 Matias Brechner The Leonard N. Stern School of Business Glucksman Institute for Research in Securities Markets Faculty Advisor: David Backus April 1, 2005 I. INTRODUCTION By the last quarter of 2001, Argentina entered into one of the most important financial and economic crises of its history. The crisis was characterized by huge bank deposit withdrawals, a significant decrease in Central Bank reserves, the abandonment of the Argentine peso peg against the dollar, the country’s formal declaration of the largest debt default in history, and a GDP decrease of 4.4% in 2001 and 10.9% in 2002. Paradoxically, in the middle of this financial and economic collapse, the Argentine stock market boomed, shown by an increase in the MERVAL index (local index) of 115% (in Argentine pesos) between the end of November 2001 and the end of March 2002. This was contrary to what happened in other emerging countries’ financial crises, such as Mexico, Malaysia or Korea during the 90’s, whose stock markets declined by roughly 50%. At the beginning of December 2001, before the debt default declaration and devaluation, extensive restrictions on bank deposit withdrawals and international transfers were imposed, in order to stop the severe decline in government reserves and local bank deposits, as well as to prevent a speculative attack to the local currency. This group of restrictions was named the Corralito. Under the Corralito’s restrictions, it was legal to purchase Argentine stocks using frozen bank deposits, including stocks that were cross- listed in international stock markets.
    [Show full text]
  • Argentina's Financial Crisis
    This draft: June 3, 2002 Comments welcome Argentina’s Financial Crisis: ⊗ Floating Money, Sinking Banking Augusto de la Torre World Bank Eduardo Levy Yeyati Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and Sergio L. Schmukler World Bank Abstract This paper argues that the relation between the currency board and the financial system—i.e., the link between money and banking—is essential to understand the 2001-02 Argentine crisis. The establishment of the currency board in 1991 helped develop the Argentine financial system. Despite its strengths, the financial system remained vulnerable to real exchange rate misalignments and fiscal shocks. After 1998, Argentina fell into a currency- growth-debt trap. It tried to break away by focusing on growth, but failed to address the currency and debt components of the trap, dramatically raising uncertainty. This unleashed a depositor run, which lead to the abandonment of the currency board. We argue that an early exit of the currency board into dollarization would have likely prevented the run and substantially lowered the magnitude of the crisis. Dollarization would have preserved property rights and financial intermediation. Moreover, it would not have necessarily implied giving up nominal flexibility altogether, since dollarization could have been followed over time by “pesification at the margin.” JEL classification codes: E44, E58, F31, F33, G28 Keywords: currency crisis; banking crisis; currency regime; currency board; dollarization; floating ⊗ Authors are Senior Financial Sector Advisor, Latin American and the Caribbean Region; Professor; and Senior Economist, Development Research Group, respectively. We are grateful to Paul Levy, Sole Martinez Peria, Guillermo Perry, Andrew Powell, Luis Servén, and Ted Truman for helpful comments.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of Argentina's 2001 Default Resolution
    CIGI PAPERS NO. 110 — OCTOBER 2016 AN ANALYSIS OF ARGENTINA’S 2001 DEFAULT RESOLUTION MARTIN GUZMAN AN ANALYSIS OF ARGENTINA’S 2001 DEFAULT RESOLUTION Martin Guzman Copyright © 2016 by the Centre for International Governance Innovation The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Centre for International Governance Innovation or its Board of Directors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution — Non-commercial — No Derivatives License. To view this license, visit (www.creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). For re-use or distribution, please include this copyright notice. Centre for International Governance Innovation, CIGI and the CIGI globe are registered trademarks. 67 Erb Street West Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6C2 Canada tel +1 519 885 2444 fax +1 519 885 5450 www.cigionline.org TABLE OF CONTENTS iv About the Global Economy Program iv About the Author 1 Acronyms 1 Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 The Path to the 2001 Default Crisis 4 Macroeconomic Performance in the Post-default Era 4 The First Two Rounds of Restructuring: 2005 and 2010 11 The Legal Disputes 15 Implications for Sovereign Lending Markets 17 Conclusions 19 Appendix 21 Works Cited 24 About CIGI 24 CIGI Masthead CIGI PAPERS NO. 110 — OCTOBER 2016 ABOUT THE GLOBAL ECONOMY ABOUT THE AUTHOR PROGRAM Addressing limitations in the ways nations tackle shared economic challenges, the Global Economy Program at CIGI strives to inform and guide policy debates through world-leading research and
    [Show full text]
  • Redalyc.LA INCONSTITUCIONALIDAD DEL
    Ius et Praxis ISSN: 0717-2877 [email protected] Universidad de Talca Chile Hernández, Antonio María LA INCONSTITUCIONALIDAD DEL CORRALITO FINANCIERO Y BANCARIO Ius et Praxis, vol. 8, núm. 2, 2002, pp. 141-175 Universidad de Talca Talca, Chile Disponible en: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=19780205 Cómo citar el artículo Número completo Sistema de Información Científica Más información del artículo Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal Página de la revista en redalyc.org Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto LA INCONSTITUCIONALIDAD DEL “CORRALITO” FINANCIERO Y BANCARIO Antonio María Hernández (H.), RESUMEN Se trata de un análisis detallado sobre la constitucionalidad de las normas que dispusieron la confiscación de los depósitos bancarios, en el marco de la actual emergencia económica argentina. Se estudia la violación de derechos humanos producida, la utilización masiva de la garantía del amparo, la afectación de los principios del Estado de Derecho y del sistema republicano y la respuesta del Poder Judicial. En definitiva, se sostiene que la conformación del popularmente denominado «corralito» no ha sido la respuesta correspondiente a un orden constitucional liberal. ABSTRACT It deals with a detailed analysis about the constitutionality of the regulations that disposed of the confiscation of the bank deposits in the frame of the current extre- me argentinian economic situation. Under study they are the violation of the human rights, the massive usage of the proceedings to guarantee the inviolability of constitutional rights, the affectation of the principles of the rule of law and the republican system and the answer of the Judicial Power.
    [Show full text]
  • One Year After Pot-Banging Argentines LETTERS Threw out Their President, How Much
    MJF-16 THE AMERICAS Martha Farmelo is the Institute’s Suzanne Ecke McColl Fellow studying gender issues in Argentina. ICWA One Year After Pot-Banging Argentines LETTERS Threw Out Their President, How Much Since 1925 the Institute of Has Changed? Current World Affairs (the Crane- Rogers Foundation) has provided By Martha Farmelo long-term fellowships to enable JANUARY 27, 2002 outstanding young professionals BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – One year ago last month, Argentina exploded in to live outside the United States protest against prevailing economic policies and massively discredited politicians. and write about international The night of December 20, 2001, in the context of widespread looting and general- areas and issues. An exempt ized outrage against the government’s freezing of bank accounts (el corralito, which operating foundation endowed by translates to little corral or playpen), then-President Fernando de la Rúa appeared the late Charles R. Crane, the on television to announce a state of siege that suspended all constitutional rights Institute is also supported by and guarantees. contributions from like-minded individuals and foundations. Before his brief speech was over, massive, spontaneous groups of furious, pot-banging protestors took to their apartment balconies and began parading through the streets. They didn’t stop until Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo resigned and, less than 24 hours later, de la Rúa did the same. During the looting TRUSTEES and protests, 32 people were killed, seven of them in and around the historic Bryn Barnard Plaza de Mayo adjacent to the executive offices. Many Argentines reported feel- Joseph Battat ing a mix of grief, elation, hope and despair.
    [Show full text]
  • C:\Working Papers\11353.Wpd
    NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES INTERNATIONAL BORROWING AND MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN ARGENTINA Kathryn M.E. Dominguez Linda L. Tesar Working Paper 11353 http://www.nber.org/papers/w11353 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 May 2005 Prepared for the NBER conference on International Capital Flows, December 17-18, 2004 in Santa Barbara, California. Forthcoming in an NBER book to be published by the University of Chicago Press. We thank Ron Alquist for excellent research assistance. We are grateful for comments and suggestions from Nicolas Magud, Juan Carlos Hallak, Alan Taylor, Martin Feldstein, Barry Eichengreen, Charlie Calomiris, and Sebastian Edwards. The views expressed in this document are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Bureau of Economic Research. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. ©2005 by Kathryn M.E. Dominguez and Linda L. Tesar. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. International Borrowing and Macroeconomic Performance in Argentina Kathryn M.E. Dominguez and Linda L. Tesar NBER Working Paper No. 11353 May 2005 JEL No. O54, F3, F21, F42 ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of the major economic events in Argentina from the adoption of the convertibility plan in 1991 to the collapse of the exchange rate regime in 2001. We focus on the relationship between the credibility of the currency board and capital flows, and the inescapable link between fiscal and monetary policy.
    [Show full text]
  • Adrs and the ARGENTINE CRISIS
    NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES CROSS-BORDER TRADING AS A MECHANISM FOR CAPITAL FLIGHT: ADRs AND THE ARGENTINE CRISIS Sebastian Auguste Kathryn M.E. Dominguez Herman Kamil Linda L. Tesar Working Paper 9343 http://www.nber.org/papers/w9343 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 November 2002 We are grateful to Ariel Burstein and Juan Carlos Hallak for planting the seed for this paper last fall. We would also like to thank seminar participants at the University of Michigan Business School Argentina Conference, Ben Chabot, Andrew Karolyi, Maria Jose Luna, Augusto Darget, and especially Juan Ignacio Gomez Vega for helping us track down data and for many helpful conversations and suggestions.The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Bureau of Economic Research. © 2002 by Sebastian Auguste, Kathryn M.E. Dominguez, Herman Kamil, and Linda L. Tesar. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Cross-Border Trading as a Mechanism for Capital Flight: ADRs and the Argentine Crisis Sebastian Auguste, Kathryn M.E. Dominguez, Herman Kamil, and Linda L. Tesar NBER Working Paper No. 9343 November 2002 JEL No. F32, F36, G12, G15 ABSTRACT This paper examines the surprising performance of the Argentine stock market in the midst of the country’s most recent financial crisis and the role played by ADRs in Argentine capital flight. Although Argentine investors were subject to capital controls, they were able to purchase stocks with associated ADRs for pesos in Argentina, convert them into ADRs, re-sell them in New York for dollars and deposit the dollar proceeds in U.S.
    [Show full text]