Alaska, Norway, and Chile recognized the economic and political risks that accompany commodity booms and established sovereign wealth funds to preserve their resource revenues. Argentina’s hydrocarbon- and lithium-rich provinces should learn from their experience.
BUENOS AIRES—Argentinian President Javier Milei has launched a reform program inspired by the free-market economist Friedrich Hayek, at the heart of which is the development of Argentina’s vast energy reserves. Milei and his supporters hope that this will reverse almost a century of economic decline. But while translating natural-resource wealth into long-term prosperity is certainly possible, it is not easy, as the many countries that have fallen victim to the “resource curse” can attest.