Egg

Argentina's Road to Ruin: How to Make Nothing Out of Everything

Nice article.

One thing I would note though from a contrarian's perspective is that a country (Argentina) that was once 10th and is now 58th in the world, Argentina offers a very attractive risk/reward investment.

Beneath all the political problems and mismanagement, Argentina is still a very rich country resource-wise and if the political situation improves, the farmers would once again be very productive. That clearly won't happen overnight, but just last month the mid-term elections cost Cristina Kirchner her power grip on the country. Kirchner is still president for 2 more years, but she no longer has absolute authority to do as she (and the Peronists) please. At least not legally.

Like the proverb, Argentina won't turn on a dime, but over the next decade plus there are a lot of potential positive developments that could arise and Argentina might very well start climbing the success charts. And if they don't? What's the downside from 58th?

That being said, I live in America and there are not a lot of options available in order for one to buy into the Argentine economy. The only one I currently own is Cresud. (Although you will be happy to know it has some Brazil assets also.) It's not the safest of stocks, but I still like the possibilities if things go well down there. Or at least don't get any worse.