Turkey Versus Argentina: A Comparative Analysis with a Long Term Perspective, Spring 2002

The stories of Turkey and Argentina need to be viewed from three different perspectives to better understand the causes and trajectory of the crises experienced by the two countries: 1.The long term development path. 2.The major economic imbalances behind the crises  3.The actions of the policy makers before, during and after the crises. This article focuses on the first point, long term development, and attempts to link it to the other two. Main conclusions are that 1. economic stability in the medium term is dependent on the maintenance of the two major resource flow balances of a country - the fiscal position and the current account position, 2. a credible and rational mechanism must be in place to manage the resource allocation question and 3. when it is time to "pay the bill", delays only increase the damage.