American dreams in Argentina: Making financial self-help global

Financial success books produced in the United States have become increasingly popular throughout the world. Today, almost all financial self-help resources are produced in the United States and exported to other countries. My presentation analyzes the social uses of these popular American resources (including the board game Cashflow) under the starkly different conditions of stability of the Argentine economy and financial system. I argue that the local work of adapting foreign advice to domestic conditions is what makes these products exportable to different economic contexts.

Users in Argentina are aware of the American character of financial self-help products and most are initially suspicious. Recurrent devastating crises (such as the 2001 crash) have taught Argentinians not to trust financial institutions. But they do not give up and use the advice from gurus by disentangling the theories from the concrete applications. In fact, for many users a scenario of financial instability not only makes the advice from the books more relevant. According to them, recurrent crises also provide excellent opportunities for those with the right ‘financial intelligence.’ Financial self-help groups are crucial in this quest, because readers discover a world of thousands who are trying to apply American ideas to the Argentine context. These social networks are as important as the products themselves, because by trying to solve the problem of adaptability, they make the products globalizable.

Collectively, users actively engage with the financial advice emerging from these products to make them fit the Argentine context. For example, Cashflow players contrast game with reality and try to figure out what the game is telling them and what they can make of it, regardless of its dubious realism. This engagement is what makes American products work in a different national context. This local translation is what makes it global.