One Year After the Foul Expropriation of YPF: Argentina’s Road to Ruin

It is one year ago since the Argentinian President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, introduced the bill that allowed the government to expropriate the 51-percent share in YPF, an energy company, held by the Spanish Repsol Group. The asset grab, done without any compensation to the owner, was sold to the public as a move to boost energy production, and more generally to improve the authority the government command over its deteriorating macroeconomic performance. Predictably, it has nothing but reinforced the spiralling downward trend of Argentina’s economy.