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Argentina defaults

Talks broke down between Argentina and some of its bondholders, triggering default. Tim Fernholz, reporter for Quartz, explains.

Talks broke down between Argentina and some of its bondholders, triggering its second default in the past 13 years.

Tim Ferholz, reporter for Quartz, explains the situation and Argentina’s past:

The whole reason for Argentina’s 2001 default was the string of currency crises in Asia and South America in the 1990s, with the IMF and other international financial leaders having bungled their responses to a series of problems in developing economies. Between the specter of contagion, local corruption, and an unwise attempt to peg Argentina’s currency to the dollar, foreign investment poured out of Argentina, and the economy slumped. Social unrest rose, and amid a volatile mix of political chaos, bank runs and high unemployment, Argentina defaulted on $100 billion of debt, going from a poster child for the Washington consensus to its biggest victim. 

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