The Hemisphere: Something from the Boys

Argentines woke up one morning last week to find that, overnight, second-grade beef had shot up from 5 to 8 pesos a kilo, cigarettes from 1 peso to 1.50 for a pack of ten, cheap rum from 11 to 16 a bottle.* The rocketing prices were the result of a major overhaul of the nation's economy by the members of Argentina's Economic Council, known to Buenos Aires' harried financial community as Los Muchachos (The Boys). While observers both in Argentina and Washington thought the new measures might be sound in principle, Los Muchachos had landed their fellow citizens a hard kick...

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