ABSTRACT
The modern political history of Argentina begins with the election of Juan Peron in 1946. A principal legacy of Peronism was the nationalization of many of Argentina's large corporations and the consequent blurring of the distinction between corporations and the state. Nationalization of various elements of a country's economy is almost always a recognition that what is good for private enterprise is not always good for the large mass of the people. The typical common denominator of renationalization efforts has been allegations that private companies breached their contractual obligations, which could be anything from jobs and wages to provision of service to prices to investment obligations. The major Latin American economies–Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru–were all throttled by immense foreign debt, runaway inflation, and nonexistent national cash reserves. The proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" was the Aerolineas Argentinas crisis.
