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A Helicopter, Five Presidents In Two Weeks, and 25% of Your Life Savings
What’s left when a country collapses?
The year 2001 was a watershed year.
Before it arrived, it was probably most associated with the words ‘space’ and ‘odyssey’. Later, those four digits have been engraved in world history because of 9/11, the ensuing War on Terror and the slow realization that the End of History and the triumph of Western liberal democracy wasn't coming.
This December also marks the 20-year anniversary of the Argentinian crisis, one of the most dramatic economic meltdowns in world history.
It was a very special kind of Christmas for Argentinians. It saw the President fleeing from the angry mobs in a helicopter, with several of his successors following the same route in a matter of two weeks.
It came with restrictions to withdrawing cash from banks to avoid the total collapse of the financial system.
It’s a memory of uncertainty, chaos in the streets, and the loss of most of their life savings for many people.
The 2001 crisis still weighs on Argentina’s institutions and in the minds of its people. It’s a lesson on resilience, but also of the conditions that allow for populism to rise.
