Aldo Ferrer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ambassador of Argentina to France | |
| In office February 3, 2011 – April 18, 2013 | |
| President | Cristina Fernández de Kirchner |
| Preceded by | Luis Ureta Sáenz Peña |
| Succeeded by | María del Carmen Squeff |
| President of theBank of the Province of Buenos Aires | |
| In office December 22, 1983 – December 18, 1987 | |
| Preceded by | Arnaldo Cisilino |
| Succeeded by | Eduardo Amadeo |
| Minister of Economy of Argentina | |
| In office October 26, 1970 – May 28, 1971 | |
| President | Roberto Levingston |
| Preceded by | Carlos Moyano Llerena |
| Succeeded by | Juan Quillici |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1927-04-15)April 15, 1927 Buenos Aires |
| Died | March 8, 2016(2016-03-08) (aged 88) |
| Nationality | Argentine |
| Political party | Radical Civic Union |
| Alma mater | University of Buenos Aires |
| Signature |  |
Aldo Ferrer (April 15, 1927 – March 8, 2016) was an Argentine economist. He was one of the leading proponents ofeconomic nationalism in Argentina.[1][2]
Aldo Ferrer was born inBuenos Aires in 1927, and enrolled at theUniversity of Buenos Aires School of Economics, where he received a Doctorate in 1953.[1] He served as adviser to theUN Secretariat as a doctoral student under ProfessorRaúl Prebisch, and hisdissertation,The State and Economic Development, earned him early repute as a defender of industrialprotectionism.
Ferrer was named economic policy attaché to theArgentine Embassy in London in 1956 and in 1957 co-founded theArgentine Association of Political Economy. Following the progressiveUCRI's victory at thepolls in 1958, the new Governor of theProvince of Buenos Aires,Oscar Alende, named Ferrer Minister of the Economy, from which Ferrer promoted increased spending in infrastructure and neededflood control works, for example.[3]
His turn as chief economist for Argentina's largest province (home to over a third of the population) gave Ferrer national stature, though it also left him out of the halls of power after the UCRI's standard-bearer, PresidentArturo Frondizi, was forced to resign by conservative opponents in 1962.
Ferrer returned to academics as Professor of Economics at theUniversity of La Plata and at theUniversity of Buenos Aires.[1] In this capacity, he created a new, fourth edition of the well-known textbook,The Argentine Economy (translated into English at theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1967). Appointed a committee-member in U.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy'sAlliance for Progress, he was also invited as a founding member of the Latin American Social Science Council (CLACSO), anNGO created in 1967 in a consultative capacity toUNESCO.[4]
Growing instability in Argentina led to the removal of GeneralJuan Carlos Onganía as president in June 1970. His replacement, GeneralRoberto M. Levingston, had become a supporter of the Alliance for Progress during his turn in the Frondizi administration as head of Army Intelligence and while stationed in the Argentine Embassy inWashington, DC. Careful to placate conservatives, he appointed an "inflation hawk," Carlos Moyano Llerena, asMinister of the Economy; but, instead relied on the head of the new Ministry of Production, Aldo Ferrer, as his chief economic policy maker. Announcing new subsidies for industry, requirements for a higher domestic component in autos and other large consumer durables and the creation of a national small-business lender (BANADE), Ferrer secured increasedcollective bargaining rights for Argentine labor (the bast-paid and most-unionized in Latin America at the time) and became a household word in Argentina with his ads encouraging consumers toCompre Nacional! ("Buy Domestic").[4]
Having entered a mild recession following a boom in 1968–69, growth reaccelerated in late 1970 and early 1971, despite the worst drought since 1952. Ferrer presented President Levingston afive-year plan in September in the hope of giving his new program a permanence seldom seem in Argentine policy and it earned him appointment as full Minister of the Economy in October, as well as the support of former PresidentArturo Frondizi and of economistRogelio Julio Frigerio, a pro-development businessman close to Frondizi. Levingston's political designs, the most controversial of which was to be the replacement of Argentina's myriad political parties with four Presidentially-sanctioned alliances, led to his replacement in March 1971. Ferrer was initially retained by the new president,Alejandro Lanusse. Ferrer's efforts to discourage speculative practices entrenched in Argentine farming such ashoarding and underproduction drew opposition from the powerfulbeef andgrain lobbies, however, and the latter responded by forming anadvocacy group, the United Farmland Movement (MCU); these pressure groups helped lead to the Economy Minister's dismissal in late May.[5]
Ferrer returned to academics and to his work with CLACSO, writing an economic history,The Postwar (1982), andLiving Within Our Means (1983), an appeal for alternatives to dependence onforeign investment.[6] Following afinancial collapse, Argentina'slast dictatorship called forelections in 1983. The winner,Raúl Alfonsín of the centristRadical Civic Union (UCR), appointed Ferrer President of theBank of the Province of Buenos Aires, the public, second-largest bank in Argentina. Limited by a shortfall in confidence in the Argentine banking system (whose deposits were dwarfed by Argentine deposits abroad) and growing differences with Alfonsín's conservative economists, Ferrer resigned in 1987.
Contributing regularly to the Economy section ofClarín, Argentina's most important news daily, he became an increasingly renowned opponent ofglobalization, capturing what he saw as its contradictions inA History of Globalization in 1996, and criticizing its dependence onslave labor inFrom Columbus to the Internet: Globalization in Latin America (2000).[7][8] He organized like-minded economists in his new NGO,Grupo Fénix the same year.
TheMay 2003 election ofPeronistNéstor Kirchner following the worst economic debacle in Argentina since 1930 leftfree market and pro-globalization economists without the friends in Argentine government they had enjoyed for over a decade, leading to increasing state intervention in theArgentine economy. Among the results was the 2004 establishment ofEnarsa, apublic energy company commissioned to increase oil and gas production and to alleviate futureelectricity shortages such as the one Argentina suffered in April of that year. He was appointed to the company's Board of Directors in March 2006.[9]
Ferrer was named editor-in-chief ofBuenos Aires Económico, a local business and current affairs daily, in 2008, and in December 2010, was appointedAmbassador to France by PresidentCristina Kirchner.[10] Popular with embassy staff and the sizable community ofArgentines in France alike, Ferrer's tenure became known for its gala diplomacy and frequentcolloquia of economists. Citing health concerns and a desire to be closer to his daughters in Argentina, he resigned from the post in April 2013 and returned to academia.[11] He died on March 8, 2016.[2]
