Wow, you must be confused with Venezuela. While Argentina has oil, its production is very low and it never was a driver of the economy. And about the comment

Wow, you must be confused with Venezuela. While Argentina has oil, its production is very low and it never was a driver of the economy. And about the comment of “its professional class gradually became an entrenched bureaucracy”, I don’t know where you get that conclusion, but is far from the historical facts. Argentina had a good economic situation at the beginning of the 20 century. But it also had a lot of inequality. That inequality created a lot of political instability. That instability led to violence: when the people that was “out” of the elite took the power, people at the elite did strike back... it continued for years in cycles of stability and violence, and a cruel dictatorship (google for Dirty War). Related to the Malvinas/Falklands war... that war was the last resort from the military dictatorship to gain popularity, but they were very stupid and blind... and sent many young unprepared soldiers to die. A good outcome from the war, was the debilitation of the dictatorship and the return of democracy in 82. So what this has to do with the economy? After these cycles the country ended with tons of debt. Also our economy relies a lot in the agricultural export. During the turmoil of the 60s/70s many industries (and scientific research) died and the recovery took years. Since the return of the democracy we went through two big crises (89 and 2001). Our economy still relies in agricultural exports. The professional and worker class pays the debt every day in the form of high inflation, high interest rates, and low credit availability.