There are four kinds of countries in the world: developed countries, undeveloped countries, Japan and Argentina

Apparently Simon Kuznets seems to have said these wonderful quote. I mean the quote is so good that one has to keep remembering it and repeating it. He meant nothing really changes with respect to these countries. Though Japan really pushed itself out of the quote developing really fast till the 1990 crisis. But Argentina remains in the list perennially.

The economist has this superb article ( Ht MR Blog) on woes of Argentina from a historical perspective:

In the 43 years leading up to 1914, GDP had grown at an annual rate of 6%, the fastest recorded in the world. The country was a magnet for European immigrants, who flocked to find work on the fertile pampas, where crops and cattle were propelling Argentina’s expansion. In 1914 half of Buenos Aires’s population was foreign-born.

The country ranked among the ten richest in the world, after the likes of Australia, Britain and the United States, but ahead of France, Germany and Italy. Its income per head was 92% of the average of 16 rich economies. From this vantage point, it looked down its nose at its neighbours: Brazil’s population was less than a quarter as well-off.

It never got better than this. Although Argentina has had periods of robust growth in the past century—not least during the commodity boom of the past ten years—and its people remain wealthier than most Latin Americans, its standing as one of the world’s most vibrant economies is a distant memory (see chart 1). Its income per head is now 43% of those same 16 rich economies; it trails Chile and Uruguay in its own back yard.

The political symptoms of decline are also clear. If Argentina appeared to enjoy stability in the pre-war era, its history since then has been marked by a succession of military coups. The first came in 1930; others followed in 1943, 1955, 1962, 1966 and 1976. The election of 1989 marked the first time in more than 60 years that a civilian president had handed power to an elected successor.

It goes on to say how Argentina keeps making mistakes and never learns. I mean despite all this reading one fails to figure why it is a place full of ideas that dont’ work? As Tyler Cowen says:

Yes of course there was bad policy, but how did the country get into such a bad idea trap to begin with?

The same mistakes over and over again. Political economy of the country does not allow the country to rise..

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