Amy, even though these neoliberal economic measures were imposed by the IMF, the Argentina's government was responsible for playing the game. These measures benefited the political elite economically and politically in the early part of 1990s, without mentioning their own pockets. Some of these measures were imposed undemocratically by presidential decrees bypassing Congress.

Jeffery Sacks in a new book claims to have solved the economic problems of Latin America before he moved on to do the same for Eastern Europe and Russia. An opportunity to raise the question with the author would have been useful.

Could the lack of a Tea Party equivalent in Argentina during the time in question have been partly because the economic measures were imposed from outside, by the IMF, rather than by Argentina's gov't.?

I'm a former New Yorker who now lives in Buenos Aires. The piqueteros' blocking of traffic is almost a daily occurrence, done by a variety of groups. I think the average person even notices which group of the day is doing the protesting anymore.

The problem with the government stimulus is that it contributed to horrific inflation, now 25% per year (although the government claims that it's about 11% -- still awful anywhere else in the world)