Why did Argentina's economy collapse a few years ago?  I know they defaulted on their bonds?
351415
We follow a neoliberal economy opening our market in such stupid way that most of our industries collapsed.\n\nWe imported lots of cheap stuff from other countries and exported just raw materials\n\nAlso we borrow a lot of money and people form IMF and world bank tried to influence our economy in order to pay them but generating a lot of unemployment.\nWe had a lot of corruption.\n\nWe maintained an unreal value of our money and sustain that 1 peso was equal to 1 dollar.\n\nAnd investor began to take their money away so the whole bank system collapsed. So the government devalued the value of the Argentine peso to 1 peso = 3 dollars
842845
You can't afford Argentina.  Argentina has a GDP of close to $500 billion per year...probably would cost you a lot more than $53 billion to buy.  Probably couldn't buy all the parts of the former Yugoslavia either, although you could probably afford Serbia.
326164
The area of present Argentina was sparsely populated until it was colonized by Europeans. The native people known as Diaguita lived in northwestern Argentina on the edge of the expanding Inca Empire; the Guaraní lived farther east.\n\nEuropeans arrived in 1502. Spain established a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580, and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776. In 1806 and 1807 The British Empire invaded the Viceroyalty, but the creole population managed to repel the invasions. On May 25, 1810, after the confirmation of the rumors about the overthrowing of King Ferdinand VII by Napoleon, the most prominent citizens of Buenos Aires took advantage of the situation and created the First Government Junta. Independence from Spain was declared on July 9, 1816. Centralist and federationist groups were in conflict, until national unity was established and the constitution promulgated in 1853.\n\nForeign investment and immigration from Europe aided the introduction of modern agricultural techniques and integration of Argentina into the world economy in the late 19th century. In the 1880s the "Conquest of the Desert" subdued or exterminated the remaining native tribes throughout Patagonia.\n\nFrom 1880 to 1930 Argentina became one of the six wealthiest nations in the world. Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the Radicals, won control of the government. The military forced Hipólito Yrigoyen from power in 1930 leading to another decade of Conservative rule.\n\nPolitical change led to the presidency of Juan Perón in 1946, who aimed at empowering the working class and greatly expanded the number of unionised workers. The Revolución Libertadora of 1955 deposed him.\n\nIn the 1950s and 1960s, military and civilian administrations traded power. When military governments failed to revive the economy and suppress escalating terrorism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the way was open for Perón's return to the presidency in 1973, with his third wife, María Estela Isabel Martínez de Perón, as Vice President. During this period, extremists on the left and right carried out terrorist acts with a frequency that threatened public order.\n\n \nPerón died in 1974. His wife succeeded him in office, but a military coup removed her from office in 1976, and the armed forces formally exercised power through a junta in charge of the self-appointed National Reorganisation Process, until 1983. The armed forces repressed opposition using harsh illegal measures (the "Dirty War"); thousands of dissidents were "disappeared", while the SIDE cooperated with DINA and other South American intelligence agencies, and allegedly with the CIA in Operation Condor. Many of the military leaders that took part in the Dirty War were trained in the U.S. financed School of the Americas, among them Argentine dictators Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola.\n\nEconomic problems, charges of corruption, public revulsion in the face of human rights abuses and, finally, the country's 1982 defeat in the Falklands War discredited the Argentine military regime.\n\nDemocracy was restored in 1983. Raúl Alfonsín's Radical government took steps intending to account for the "disappeared", establishing civilian control of the armed forces and consolidating democratic institutions. Failure to resolve endemic economic problems and an inability to maintain public confidence caused his early departure.\n\nPresident Carlos Menem imposed peso-dollar fixed exchange rate in 1991 to stop hyperinflation, and adopted far-reaching market-based policies, dismantling protectionist barriers and business regulations, and implementing a privatisation program. These reforms contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s.\n\nThe Menem and de la Rúa administrations faced diminished competitiveness of exports, mass
146902
this will explain the economy.\nhttp://www.philipdru.com/griffin3_stream.html
764003
this is the first time we were trillions in debt, the whole reasons why WAR bonds were sold was to pay for the debt of the war, Back then it just was not thinkable to go into debt, now the Country goes into debt, The Average family of 4 owes about $120,000 to pay back for the war debt and tax cuts debts, (Its called the National Deficit) that out children will have to pay, but unfortunately its a proven fact, the more the country is is debt, the less REAL economic growth there is, what little there is is called (false growth). It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out if a family of 4 has to borrow 120,000 for NOTHING, in other words has NOTHING to show for it, they really are not in goods financial health, could you imaging getting hit with that type of loan, interest growing daily that you will NEED to pay back before you can start saving and be financially sound again?, Many people agree thats why the Country prospered while Clinton was in office because were were gaining a surplus, slowly getting into the black and were spending less then we were taking in.
85842
Think about The Great Depression and what he did to resolve the economic issues of the country at that time... The banks failed it's customers and companies were abusing its factory workers.
274539
The US economy has a history of cyclical highs and lows.  Most of the others were called 'Financial panics'.  See the bottom of this wikipedia page for more:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1873\n\nThese lows are charecterized by job loss, banking failures, forclosures, loss of property value and bankruptcies.\n\nIn addition, there have been several recessions, which were like mini-depressions.  In the 1980's sections of the country had housing-value crashes and unemployment was high.\n\nSocial Security was put in place because people who are elderly when a economic downturn strikes can see their lifelong savings wiped out when they have no means to earn it back.  The old-fahioned word for retirement during a economic downturn can be found in the census records: pauper.
110249
Gee, where do I start.  Let's see, corrupt government. Incompetent officials.  Brutal police force and military.  Deep religious divide.  Lack of accountability (I guess that goes with the corrupt government).  I would be surprised if it's NOT falling apart.  It has been failing apart for a good part of the past few centuries.
259008
We loan out billions of dollars to other countries and most of them never pay us back...Thus we are in debt..if we can recover some it would help...but we don't seem to enforce it much.
502347
Because people in today's society are too self-absorbed to truly admit to any responsibility. That's why they are so far in dept. And who better to blame than the President? To those of you out there who are in serious debt, watch out. In about the next two years the economy is going to shift in a way this country has never seen. Dump as much debt as you can or lose everything you (the bank and creditors) own.
1141597
The thing I don't like about forex trading is that the previous times when I knew there was an opportunity to make money, it was impossible to obtain the currency I needed.  There was the devaluation of the Argentinian currency that happened a while back.  They had been keeping the currency pegged to the US dollar and there was an enormous amount of speculation that it was going to be devalued (allowed to float), yet I couldn't find anywhere to sell this currency since it never moved more than a few PIP up and down within a day.  Then there was the Chinese currency.  Everyone knew they were keeping the currency undervalued and that it would increase in value upon floating, yet again I could not find anywhere to buy this currency in exchange for USD.  I contacted a bank and they had some ridiculous spread (something like 15%-20%), yet again it was impossible to capitalize on something I knew was going to happen.  Both of these situations were extremely frustrating.  Let me tell you, a $2500 investment in either one of these situations would have made you tens of thousands of dollars.  The Argentinian currency went from 1:1 USD to 3:1 USD in a matter of 2 weeks.  Now that's a devaluation.
665321
I've never seen external stability.  I don't know that their economy is harmed or helped by your issues.
726691
Neither is good or bad. You really need to get away from this shallow method of thinking.\n\nUnless you consider how the debts were incurred, what the economic and geopolitical conditions were, then you'll never have a clue as to understanding national debt.\n\nYou voted Democrat, didn't you? Obvious.
978614
Very risky deal, many americans invested that much and more in Cuba years ago and lost everything, same as investors in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and counting, who knows Latin America is very unstable..☺
914768
They would invest in a variety of markets, not just one, the risk would be hedged and spread among for example, Real Estate, Petroleum, Banking, Forestry, Bonds, Futures, this type of thing, the emerging markets that you mention are all thriving markets now, the volitility has more to do with inflation rather than interest rates. When a market is growing quickly as in the case of China which for 2007 forecasts almost double digit figures and Brazil forcasting 5% to 6% growth, the inflationary forces are what have to be controlled. Brazils elections were recently an eventful occaison but I did notice that the markets ( currency in particular) hardly flickered!  good sign of increased  stability really.
59212
Simply, because the economically condition is different from one country to another. So is the political condition. Those two elements are playing the greatest role in making the currency rates varied.
530788
Because the minute men were a response to a real and present danger, at that time the british. Now we face a different type of real and present danger, millions of poor latin americans coming into our nation and ruining our economy. Its not the fault of these impovershed people, but rather powerful monied interests who wish to create a hemishere wide tradeing bloc, and single currency the Amero similar to Europe and the Euro.