Word: menem
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...then appointed the selfproclaimed guru of free-market economics in Argentina, Alvaro Alsogaray, to be his leading economic adviser. Ignoring the opposition of the telephone unions, Menem gave Alsogaray's daughter the task of privatizing the state-run telephone company that has for years been ridiculed by Argentines, who have a host of horror stories to tell about how tough it is to make routine local calls...
...Menem also helped restore the battered national psyche by joining world-renowned soccer star Diego Maradona and the top Argentine players in a benefit game to help the poor...
...Menem can successfully implement the necessary economic reforms (privatizing the woefully inefficient state-run enterprises that cause the massive state deficits, allowing the central bank greater autonomy in setting monetary policy and overhauling the primitive system of tax collection that enables economic elites to get a free ride) Argentina will likely recover, though the process will inevitably be very long and painful for the nation...
Unfortunately, Alfonsin's reputation, battered by the haunting spectre of hyperinflation, probably won't. While Menem is now enjoying widespread public adulation, Alfonsin has become a virtual pariah in the Argentine political scene, an unfortunate occurrence that detracts from his substantial achievements and his profound commitment to restoring democracy to the country...
Ironically enough, most of the economic reforms which Menem is now undertaking (and receiving widespread public approval for) were first proposed by Alfonsin, only to be defeated by the Peronists in Parliament. Juan Peron must be laughing in his grave...