Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a stupid thing to say. Have you ever read about the currency crisis? This is from a Wikipedia article you could have found in 30 seconds; if you had, perhaps you would have changed your mind about posting, saving us all the pain of knowing that someone on HN is capable of posting such a glib, worthless comment: Several thousand newly homeless and jobless Argentines found work as cartoneros, or cardboard collecto…
Do you think what happened was Argentina's worst-case scenario, given the magnitude of its crisis? Plenty of knowledgeble people [1] think crag's comment is not a stupid thing to say. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/opinion/argentinas-turnaro...
That opinion piece talks about how Argentina recovered from the crisis, and it definitely does not say that defaulting on their debt was the right step. If anything, it is a resounding endorsement for the Obama plan and a rebuke of austerity in times of crisis.
Argentina has regained its prosperity partly out of dumb luck: a commodity price boom has vastly benefitted this soy, corn and wheat producer.
The government intervened to keep the value of its currency low, which boosts local industry by making Argentina’s exports cheaper abroad while keeping foreign imports expensive.
It then taxed those imports and exports, using the money to pay for a New Deal-like public works binge, increasing government spending to 25 percent of G.D.P. today from 14 percent in 2003.
Why have Argentines embraced bigger government? In part because the preceding era showed how poorly austerity measures — the sort now being pushed by conservatives in the United States — promote growth. In the late 1990s, Argentina cut government spending drastically on the order of its lenders at the International Monetary Fund.
For one thing, extreme cost-cutting during a stagnant economic period will only inhibit growth. And government spending to promote local industry, pro-job infrastructure programs and unemployment benefits does not turn a country into a kind of Soviet parody. It puts money in the pockets of average citizens, who then spend it and spur the economy.