For
Paula Gandara
Economist. CIO www.ad-cap.com.ar
I have a vivid memory of myself in third grade singing “The Day the Cows Fly and Inflation Goes Down in Argentina” at recess. Just one of those days, as happened to Jorge Luis Borges’ Tadeo Isidoro Cruz in a single night, my destiny was defined: my mother returned home with a box with a radio alarm clock, a complete technological revolution for the time, commenting: “We had some money saved up for a car and that was enough for this”.
My amazement was absolute. I think in that moment I defined my career; I had to figure out how such an atrocity happened in my world of dolls.
Even an 8-year-old knows the difference between a car and a clock radio. From time to time, I still fervently ask my mom for details on where the money was, if there’s a bank statement, or anything to help me figure out what happened.
A layoff occurred a short time later. Horacio, my second father, got some money from closing the factory where he worked, e has been invested in a mutual fund (mutual investment fund). I remember Horacio looking up the value of the fund in the Sunday paper and commenting on the losses.
I remember hearing: “we have lost everything; we have nothing left”. Still, from time to time, I ask all sorts of specific questions about where the money was invested, in which instrument, in which manager. Even if I only get vague financial answers, I have no doubts about the resounding encouragement not to trust the financial system.
Many years had passed since the Southern Plan, and my destiny as an economist dedicated to the markets was already sealed when I met my father-in-law, who managed to put a few dollars aside and bought an apartment. While I tried to convince him After opening an account with a fund manager, I remember him getting up, hitting the walls, and telling me emphatically, “I only invest in green and bricks.”
I have not been able to convince him, not even coining my own phrase: “the common fund does not break the hot water tank”, trying to find superior advantages to their “safe” investment alternatives: like when a desperate tenant calls you because the hot water has run out or it’s raining in the dining room.
Today I have the opportunity to talk to companies and people, and I confirm every day that the hyperinflation and subsequent economic and financial crises that the country has experienced have been reflected in the retinas of many. History has “deconstructed” Argentines financially.
Today, financial education or “reconstruction” must be on the agenda of those who govern us and of us who make the financial market. Because financial education is essential and must affect the Argentines of today and tomorrow. But that alone is not enough: it must be accompanied by governments that use economic programs that lead the country on a path of sustained growth, away from the frequent economic crises.
My son is 8 years old and now in 3rd grade. Like me at his age, he is very clear on the concept of price increases. The other day, using less technical terms, he asked Pérez the mouse for an inflation adjustment to the “value” of his tooth. As for his future, he doesn’t seem interested in the economy yet. At the moment, he seems to be a potential “YouTuber”. Hopefully, though, I can tell your kids a different story than mine.
Source: Clarin
