The taming of prices: Framing and fighting inflation in the second half of the twentieth century in Argentina

Historians agree that bringing inflation under control became a crucial challenge for western governments in the 1970s and opened a space for experimentation to neoliberal policy. But inflation did not appear out of the blue with the oil crises. Widespread price rises were a current and persistent phenomenon since the postwar years. The difference was that interventionist states had managed to keep it contained and considered inflation to be a minor problem compared to growth, employment, and distribution. In contrast, from the 1970s price increases climbed and the battle against inflation became one of the main public and political concerns...