MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina names globalization-critic economist as ambassador in France

Aldo Ferrer is an experienced bureaucrat and respected academic

Argentina has appointed economist Aldo Ferrer (84) ambassador to France. The decision was confirmed by the decree 180/2011 which was signed by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, on February 22.

The French government had approved the assent of Ferrer on February 3, the only thing that remained was the confirmation of the Executive Branch.

The newly appointed ambassador will take France on a mission to “extend and consolidate traditional friendships and bilateral agreements with Europe”, informed the Argentine Foreign Ministry.

Ferrer was Minister of Public Works in 1970 and of Economy in 1971 and the head of Buenos Aires provincial bank (1983-1987), and also of the National Commission for Atomic Energy (1999-2001).

Ferrer is a much respected academic and belongs to an economic school of thinking that promotes domestic industrialization, even with protectionism, and is contrary to globalization having written extensively on the issue.

Among his latest books is “A History of Globalization (1996)” where he basically criticizes its dependence on slave labor, and “From Columbus to the Internet: Globalization in Latin America (2000)”.

In the nineties he organized like-minded economists in his new NGO, Grupo Fenix and his latest book “Living within Our Means” is an appeal for alternatives to dependence on foreign investment.

Most of his books have been translated into English by US universities. His first title was “The State and Economic Development (1953)” and following the Falkland Islands conflict he wrote, “The Postwar”, in 1982.