Javier González Fraga

Javier González Fraga (born May 12, 1948) is an Argentine economist and businessman. He served as President of the Central Bank of Argentina from 1989 to 1991, and was nominated as running-mate by Ricardo Alfonsín for his 2011 campaign for the Presidency.

Life and times González Fraga was born in Buenos Aires as the youngest of four children to Elvira Fraga and N. González Casartelli. He earned a degree in Economics with honors at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, and in 1974, was brought on by La Nación, one of the nation's leading news dailies, as a financial columnist. He later earned a fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, and at the London School of Economics. and continued to write on finance and economics, authoring El Mercado de Capitales (1982) and El Sistema Financiero (1980 and 1985).

Tenure at the Central Bank The election of Justicialist Party candidate Carlos Menem in 1989, and his reliance on the agribusiness conglomerate Bunge & Born for economic policy during the presidential transition, gave the company's Chief Operating Officer, Orlando Ferreres, the power to choose most of the new administration's economic team. He recommended the relatively young González Fraga, who was well known to the local banking sector as a policy consultant, to be the new President of the Central Bank. The nominee informed the President-elect that he had not voted for him (harboring policy differences, as well, with Bunge & Born personnel); González Fraga, nevertheless, was sworn in with the new administration on July 8.

González Fraga leveraged business confidence in the new economic team to stabilize the highly undervalued austral, and despite favoring greater exchange rate flexibility in light of the critical need for foreign exchange reserves (which had declined to around us$120 million, with us$4.5 billion in arrears), These news added to concerns that the us$2 billion in new portfolio investment envisaged in July failed to materialize,

Menem loyalist Antonio Erman González was named President of the Central Bank in March 1990, and González Fraga returned to the institution as its vice president. A reversal of the roles each had in 1989, this partnership continued when in June, he succeeded Erman González, while the latter retained the Economy Ministry. Even as the nation's finances stabilized, his agenda in the ensuing months was topped by difficult repayment negotiations over mounting foreign debt arrears (which had reached us$6 billion by then), as well as by ongoing investigations into securities fraud allegedly committed against the Central Bank by numerous institutions during the crisis. Revelations in January 1991 that Menem Administration officials had solicited bribes from beef processor Swift & Company, as well as a renewed currency crisis, led to the resignation of the entire economic team.

Later life González Fraga in a conversation with (from left) Congressman Ricardo Gil Lavedra, UCR presidential candidate Ricardo Alfonsín, and Miguel Bazze of the Buenos Aires Province UCR during the 2011 elections. González Fraga returned to the private sector. He was named Director of the Argentine Institute of Capital Markets, a think tank associated with the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, and was later named Vice President of the Stock Exchange. La Salamandra's dulce de leche, a traditional Argentine confection, earned first place at the 2000 Fancy Food Show of New York.

He also returned to academia, and was given tenure as Professor of Economics at his alma mater in 1994. González Fraga became known as one of the nation's foremost experts and proponents of Keynesian economics. He would influence a number of future policy makers in Argentina, including Martín Lousteau, with whom he wrote Sin Atajos ("Without Shortcuts") in 2005, He himself, however, never garnered an appointment to the powerful Economy Ministry, despite having been frequently considered for the post.

Close to important figures in both the center-left UCR and the center-right Federal Peronism, González Fraga was entrusted by UCR presidential nominee Ricardo Alfonsín to offer former Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna the vice-presidential slot for the 2011 elections; Lavagna reportedly instead persuaded González Fraga to run with Alfonsín, and on June 2, their UCR ticket was formally announced. They placed third with 11% of the vote.