At the turn of the last century Argentina had one of the top 10 economies in the world, number 5 to be exact. But a toxic combination of bad economic policies, made worse by incompetence and a particularly virulent form of populism led to economic disaster. As late as 2014 Argentina was involved in a lawsuit in US Federal court over its eighth default on bonds and the President, Cristina Kirchner could not travel in government planes, risking seizure of the aircraft. Bond holders even tried to seize Argentine naval vessels in an African port, and nearly succeeded.
Fast forward to the present
A new president elected under the banner of economic reform and things are suddenly different. An agreement with American Energy Partners and YPF, the state oil company, to develop Argentina’s shale resource was recently signed. Soon thereafter, the new President Mauricio Macri, lifted prices on retail power prices,...