Las crisis monetarias, financieras y cambiarias de los últimos años revelan un proceso común subyacente a la inestabilidad económico financiera de los países periféricos, que efectuaron una liberización de la cuenta de capitales y se sometieron a un proceso de desregulación financiera. Se procura mostrar los límites y contradicciones internas de esta estrategia económica a partir del programa de estabilización argentino. Este ha representado una de las experiencias más radicales de regímenes cambiarios y monetarios, que se volvió insustentable ante la volatilidad de los flujos internacionales de capitales.

The monetary, financial and exchange crises in the second half of the nineties and beginning of the current decade reveal a series of underlying characteristics which the peripheral countries have in common. These nations all introduced a liberalization of capital flows combined with a process of financial deregulation. Instability began with a significant increase in the inflow of capital, followed by an abrupt run against the currency. This article attempts to indicate the limitations and internal contradictions of this economic strategy on the basis of an analysis of the Argentinean stabilization program initiated in April 1991. It is argued that the anti?inflation program represented one of the most radical monetary and exchange regimes and that it became unsustainable as a result of the volatility of international capital flows.