the intercollegiate review ª Fall 2010 12 Marcelo Resico & William F. Campbell William F. Campbell is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Lousiana State University and cur- rently serves as Secretary of the Philadelphia So- ciety. Marcelo Resico is Professor of Econom- ics at Universidad Catolica Argentina (Catholic University of Argentina) and author of a book on Wilhelm Ropke, La Estructura de una Economia Humana (2008). Should We Cry for Argentina? A s Argentina celebrates the bicenten- nial of its Revolution of 1810 and approaches the same milestone of its inde- pendence from Spain in 1816, it is a good time to reflect on the paths of Argentine economic and political development from the colonial period to the twenty-first cen- tury. In light of recent turns in the Ameri- can economy, the persistently dismal con- dition of Argentine economic life should provide a cautionary tale: Argentina’s ex- perience vividly illustrates the power that a single political leader can exert to change the historical fortunes of an entire nation. Indeed, the career of Juan Perón shows what might have happened if Franklin Roosevelt’s statist inclinations had not been curbed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the early days of the New Deal. It is not co- incidental that Argentine President Néstor Kirchner and his successor-wife, Cristina, the current leaders of Argentina’s Peronist party, idolize the New Deal. The alleged motto of FDR’s close advisor Harry Hop- kins was: “Spend-Spend-Spend; Tax-Tax- Tax; Elect-Elect-Elect.” We can add a touch of Louisiana hot sauce to the warning. Argentina shows what could have happened to the United States economy had Huey Long not been assassinated in 1935. Long’s slogans of “Share the Wealth” and “Every Man a King” and his demagogic attacks on big business might well have led to a Long victory over Roosevelt in the 1936 Presi- dential election. Had that happened, we would then not have had to wait for the similar political slogans Americans have been hearing since the housing bubble burst in 2007–8. Bad economics are usually preceded by bad politics. In the case of Argentina, centralized monarchical rule under the Spanish gave way to unstable republics in the first half of the nineteenth cen- tury. Temporarily restrained in the mid- dle of the nineteenth century, demagogic populist rule eventually established itself in the twentieth century. The Argentine economy has never recovered. Why was this allowed to happen? The effects of wealth and the diseases of luxury perhaps softened the Argentine middle and upper classes; they lacked vigilance in defense of their liberties. They had neglected to strengthen and reinforce the balances in