The acceleration of inflation produced in recent times has once again and with greater force put on stage one of the worst economic and social dramas that can affect a society, especially the most vulnerable sectors, which is why it has been characterized as the worst tax because it is imposed in fact, without any law authorizing it and it is highly regressive.
The phenomenon of inflation was traditionally denied by the Kirchner governments, since it was not even mentioned in the speeches of the officials, always trying to deny or disguise it.
The denialism reached the extreme of not printing bills of greater value, despite the problems, including the greater expense and inconvenience, produced by the handling of bills of lower value, which is precisely happening today.
Another way of denying it was at the time, the crude alteration of the numbers when INDEC intervened in 2007, giving false statistics on inflation and omitting poverty rates under the pretext that it was "stigmatizing".
Only in recent times the Kirchner government was forced to admit the serious problem involved in inflation, when it transpired that it is the one that most punishes the population, especially the poorest sectors, whose meager incomes are exceeded by an uncontrolled increase in prices, which prevents them from meeting their fundamental needs.
Most worryingly, the government does not have a serious plan to contain inflation, nor does it have an economic program. It insists on the old recipe of price controls that has failed every time it was adopted. The officials limit themselves to explaining the phenomenon, saying that it is multicausal, but they still do not take the effective economic measures, which have to go far beyond the control of the gondolas.
The excessive issuance of banknotes to meet the unnecessary and growing expenses of the state bureaucracy, added to the large losses produced by nationalized companies and that increase the fiscal deficit, are some of the causes that produce inflation.
Statist fanaticism has produced as an effect the creation of an elephantine state, voluminous, ineffective in solving the problems that distress the people, in which offices and distributions are created with extravagant names, nothing more than to occupy the supporters of the government.
By the way, in our country there were periods of inflation and hyperinflation such as that produced during the last year of the government of President Alfonsin, which had reached 4,923.6%, generating economic and social chaos that led to his resignation 6 months before the end of his term, as a result of which President Menem had to assume early in July 1989. during which inflation reached 209%.
The State reforms adopted by the new administration and the effects of the convertibility law passed in 1991 made it possible to contain inflation, to the point that by the end of that government it had disappeared.
The success obtained by convertibility led Alliance candidate Fernando de la Rua in his electoral campaign to maintain it in the 1999 elections, while Justicialist candidate Eduardo Duhalde proclaimed that it had been successful but that it had to be changed.
The people voted overwhelmingly for the Alliance's proposal, evidencing their agreement with the economic situation generated by the convertibility and reform of the State that made it possible to defeat inflation and achieve the country's growth.
The political collapse and weakness of the Alliance government, which began with the premature resignation of Vice President Carlos Alvarez, also dragged down the economy, creating a situation that forced the resignation of President de la Rua.
Some political and media sectors attributed the failure of the Alliance mainly to convertibility, ignoring the fact that, due to the exclusive electoral purpose with which it was built, it would be difficult for it to sustain any economic system.
The exit from convertibility and the asymmetric pesification carried out by the Duhalde government and the counter-reform carried out by Kirchnerism, set in motion again the inflation that we endure today.
When the law repealing convertibility was discussed in the Senate, I expressed my concern because we had an inflationary culture and argued that it was necessary to anchor the value of the currency to certain stable parameters, such as the dollar, to have greater predictability, adding that with inflation the same thing happened as with an alcoholic person who after several years of abstention tries alcohol again and falls again. in that addiction.
The demonization of President Menem's government generated a current contrary to the economic model he had followed, which they pejoratively described as "neoliberal." But beyond that label, the important thing is that, thanks to it, inflation was defeated and made possible the growth of 48% of GDP and GDP per capita that was 31%, the third highest in our history, only surpassed in the decades of 1880-1890 and 1910-1920.
It is very important that in the next presidential elections the candidate who presents a concrete, serious and duly substantiated proposal of the measures that he will promote to eliminate this terrible scourge that has placed our country in the first places of the nations that suffer this real calamity is elected, taking into account that all the actions adopted since 2002 (price controls, price controls, etc.). leghold traps, multiple exchange rates, etc.) They ended in total failure, aggravated in recent times by the ineptitude, ideology and arrogance of the current rulers, who have placed the Argentine people and republican institutions on the edge of the abyss.
Eduardo Menem is a former national senator. He was provisional president of the Senate.