The president's approval ratings, which were hovering at around 20 percent in July, fell to single digits by October, and a survey of Buenos Aires residents showed that half favored Cavallo's resignation.

This analysis does not mean that cross-border flows of capital should be severely stifled, much less eliminated entirely. But within the category of foreign capital, some types pose greater risks than others, much as certain kinds of cholesterol are beneficial for the heart while others clog the arteries. In the "good cholesterol" capital

Thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets on the scorching day of December 19. In Buenos Aires, they marched on the Casa Rosada; in Córdoba, they destroyed the municipal government building. A televised speech that evening by de la Rúa, vowing to "assure order throughout the republic" and declaring martial law, only evoked more a

The swap's champions proclaimed the deal a triumph when the final results were tallied on June 3, 2001, showing that bondholders owning $29.5 billion worth of securities—considerably more than initially expected—had swapped their bonds on the terms offered. "We have beaten those who were betting against Argentina," Cavallo declared, with

Bond transactions are not usually the stuff of great passion. But the megacanje, or megaswap, as this one would come to be known, ranks among the most infamous deals that Wall Street has ever peddled to a government—and with good reason: For CSFB and a half dozen other Wall Street firms, the megaswap would be a bonanza, earning them more than $90 m

Hard-luck stories abound in all economies, even rich and growing ones, as jobs disappear, industries' fortunes wane, technologies change, and adjustments in government policies inflict pain. What makes the stories of Argentines like the Machado family, Oscar Quinteros, and Silvia D. so depressing is that the forces that ravaged their livelihoods co

Argentines in the mid-1990s—leaders and citizens alike—wanted to hold fast to convertibility for a good while longer, with considerable justification. To that end, they should have squarely faced the fact that their fiscal policy was not sufficiently prudent.

Analysts for their own sake want to be good and make the right calls, of course, but analysts are bankers too. They're in it for the money. If they were in it to be smart, they'd be professors."

the governments of President Eduardo Duhalde, and of his successor Nestor Kirchner, had deferred tackling some tough problems that the country would have to reckon with eventually. Most important, the government became embroiled in confrontations with holders of the nation's defaulted bonds concerning what fractional amount of their value the gover