GRINSPUN, BERNARDO

GRINSPUN, BERNARDO (1926– ), Argentinian economist and statesman, specializing in international economic and foreign debt. He belongs to the outstanding Argentinian circle of economists of our time (Aldo Ferrer, Guido Di Tella, etc.) and was linked with the group that controlled economic affairs during the former Radical party's government of President Illia (1963–66) on whose staff Grinspun held the post of secretary of commerce. He is also connected with the enterprise group which led the Federation Economica de Buenos Aires and especially the medium-size entrepreneurs. When democratic rule was restored to Argentina in 1983, Grinspun was appointed minister of finance in the cabinet of President Raul Alfonsin, in which capacity he sought to extract the country from the serious economic plight in which it had been left by the military junta. (José Luis Nachenson and Noemi Hervits de Najenson)