Working fictions of money: the making of currency (dis)trust in Argentina (1880-2020) Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln 2020 presented by Guadalupe Moreno from General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina First reviewer: Prof. Dr. Jens Beckert Second reviewer: Prof. Dr. Pablo Nemiña Date of oral defense: 18.11.2020 To my father Jaime and my sister Florencia, without whose unconditional love and constant support this thesis would not exist. To the living memory of my mother Adriana. To all those who have themselves gone through a monetary crisis, in the hope that this work contributes to alleviating their misfortune. Table of contents Acknowledgments vii 1. Introduction 1 2. What is money, and why do we trust it? 6 What is trust? 7 What is distrust? 15 Money and trust 17 Money and trust within mainstream economics 18 Sociopolitical approaches to money and trust 28 Money and trust within sociology and anthropology 36 Trust and the working fictions of money 45 (Dis)believing money: the logics of distrust 53 3. Reshaping value: the transformation of money during the 20th century 58 The value of money from the gold standard to Bretton Woods (1875-1944) 62 The Bretton Woods agreements and the US dollar supremacy (1936-1960) 66 The fall of the Bretton Woods international monetary system (1960-1973) 72 The international monetary system after Bretton Woods (1973-2020) 75 The monetary reality in Latin America after Bretton Woods (1973-2000) 83 4. One hundred years of value: The Argentine currency during the 20th century (1880- 87 1970) The Argentine peso during the gold standard (1883-1929) 89 The early debates about money’s value (1930-1946) 97 The creation of the Argentine central bank (1935) 101 The transformations of the Peronist’s years (1946-1955) 106 The financial reform of 1946 and the disappearance of saving instruments 110 The financial reform of 1949 and the debate about the gold reserves 116 The crises of the Stop & Go phase and the emergence of monetary distrust (1949-1967) 123 The dollarization of savings and the early popularization of the dollar in Argentina 126 (1950-1970) 5. (Dis)believing money: the consolidation of currency distrust in Argentina (1970-2010) 131 The early fight against inflation (1946-1973) 132 Living with high inflation (1973-1976) 140 The military dictatorship and the use of the dollar as a nominal anchor (1976-1981) 143 The financial reform of 1977 145 Anti-inflation policies and the use of the dollar as a nominal anchor 147 Argentina’s lost decade: from high inflation to hyperinflation (1980-1990) 152 The advance of dollarization (1970-1990) 158 From stabilization to a new crisis. The Convertibility Plan (1991-2001) 161 “We will give back the people their currency”. The Macri administration and a new 6. 171 promise of value (2015-2018) A new central bank 175 A new promise of value 179 Towards a new monetary pedagogy: the establishment of inflation targeting in 189 Argentina Contested futures: the performance of inflation targeting in Argentina 202 7. Conclusions 232 The passive and the active dimensions of monetary trust 233 Crises and the nature of money 236 Dollarization and monetary policy constraints 238 Appendix: Methods and analysis 241 List of data sources 243 Bibliography 245 Acknowledgments Anyone who has written a dissertation knows that such an intellectual endeavor is many years in the making. My passion for research began to develop in 2003, when I first read Marcel Mauss' essay The Gift and started to conceive the idea of writing a dissertation. The project of writing this dissertation took shape gradually. During my Bachelor's studies in Anthropology and then my Master's studies in Economic Sociology, I experimented with different research questions and empirical topics. I only started working on the concrete research project that is embodied in this doctoral thesis in October 2016, upon my arrival at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne (MPIfG). Four years have passed since the beginning of this research and more than fifteen since the initial intellectual interest that prompted me to carry it out. Fifteen years is far too long to be able to do justice to all the people who have contributed, to a greater or lesser extent, to shaping my current thinking on capitalist money. I am very grateful to all of them, even if they are not individually mentioned in these acknowledgments. Writing this dissertation on the fictions that keep capitalist money rolling over was an exciting personal and intellectual adventure, which I had the privilege of pursuing at the MPIfG under the direction of Prof. Jens Beckert. Without doubt, my greatest thanks go to Jens Beckert for giving me the opportunity to be his student and for accompanying me in the process of conceptualizing and writing this dissertation. Without his support, trust, and invaluable ideas, this dissertation would look very different and perhaps not even exist. Jens is not only a brilliant sociologist, whose analytical clarity and precision are admirable, but also a very generous advisor, who appreciated my ideas and encouraged me to follow them, while at the same time helping me to improve them and make them more precise, rigorous, and engaging. Besides his incredible intellectual generosity, Jens was the one who opened the doors of the MPIfG to me, the place which has become my intellectual Heimat. My second greatest acknowledgment goes to my second advisor, Prof. Pablo Nemiña. With Pablo, I learned - many years ago - how to write a research objective for the first time, sitting in a classroom in downtown Buenos Aires. Over the years, he generously discussed with me the project that gave rise to this dissertation, analyzed data, proposed explanations, removed doubts, commented on chapters, and finally - just a few months ago - supported me when I defended this thesis, this time via Zoom, with cameras, microphones, and face masks, in the midst of the global uncertainty caused by a virus that is spreading unstoppably throughout the world. During all the years we have been working together, Pablo helped me to understand the political economy of the emerging economies and their crises, and to grasp their specificities and their nuances, which do not fit very well with the orderly picture usually presented in textbooks. My great friend and colleague, Matias Dewey, deserves a special place in these acknowledgments due to his unconditional and constant support in each and every stage vii of this research. During the years we shared at the MPIfG, Matias enriched my work and my days with his always constructive criticism, his companionship, and his advice. He also helped me through the difficult moments I had during the years I wrote this dissertation, which presented challenges such as learning to live in another country and facing hard personal losses. Beyond our professional relationship, my friendship with Matias and Eugenia will always be one of the greatest gifts of my years in Cologne. Another big acknowledgment is for my friend, and sister in this life, Laura Einhorn. With Laura, I shared my doctoral adventures from the first to the last day: we started our doctoral journey together back in October 2016, and four years later, we finished writing our theses amid a global pandemic and in an utterly empty Institute. Laura and I were doctoral spokespersons, office and travel mates; we went through crises and hard times, but we also laughed and grew up together. Her empathy, generosity, and enormous human quality made the - sometimes hard - work of writing this thesis lighter and full of unforgettable moments. Writing a dissertation is not only an intellectual endeavor but a stage of life in which we experience significant personal challenges. I could not imagine a warmer or more welcoming community for this than the MPIfG, an incredibly lively, stimulating, generous, and humane place. During my years at the Institute, I had the opportunity to discuss my work with excellent colleagues who provided invaluable suggestions. In particular, I would like to thank Lukas Arndt, Lucio Baccaro, Benjamin Braun, Björn Bremer, Fabio Bulfone, Timur Ergen, Felipe González, Martin Höpner, Manolis Kalaitzake, Sebastian Kohl, Aldo Madariaga, Fritz Scharpf, Marcin Serafin, Wolfgang Streeck, Lisa Suckert, Tod van Gunten, Arjen van der Heide and Leon Wansleben, for all the discussions that enriched my work over the years because knowledge is always collective. Many other colleagues shared their thoughts on my research during presentations at workshops and conferences. I thank Bruce Carruthers, Sebastian Diessner, Annina Kaltenbrunner, Kai Koddenbrock, Barbara Fritz, Alejandro Márquez Velázquez, Laurissa Mühlich, Aaron Sahr, Akos Rona-Tas and John Wilkinson. Besides being an intellectual challenge, writing a doctoral thesis is also an organizational undertaking. The support I received every day from all at the MPIfG made my work more comfortable and enjoyable and filled my days with pleasant, shared moments. Special thanks to Sharon Adams, Susanne Berger, Renate Bloedorn, Dirk Bloemen, Elke Buerger, Amanda Dixon, Astrid Duenkelmann, Frederik Fuchs, Heike Genzel, Ruth Hanisch, Susanne Hilbring, Juergen Lautwein, Cynthia Lehmann, Cora Molloy, Enke Otte-Wiese, Christel Schommertz, Murat Surat, Ursula Trappe, Christiane Wenz-Miebach and Petra Zimmermann, for their unfailing good humor, constant support, and spirit of solidarity. My years at the MPIfG also gave me close friends with whom I shared academically stimulating talks, sunny lunches and walks along the Rhine, among many other valuable everyday experiences. Indeed, my days would have been less bright and joyful if it had not been for the company of Elizabeth Carter, Donato Di Carlo, Andreas Eisl, Vanessa Endrejat, Laura Gerken, Kristina Gushchina, Jacob Habinek, Alexandra Hees, Andres and Jana Lopez Rivera, Inga Rademacher, Arjan Reurink and Nico Sonntag.