The Incredible Sinking Argentina
Argentine President Mauricio Macri, center, leaves a news conference at his party’s headquarters during a primary election night rally in Buenos Aires on Aug. 11.
Photographer: Erica Canepa/Bloomberg
Over the last 70 years, Argentina has endured hyperinflation, government collapse, and the world’s largest sovereign debt default. It’s spent a third of that time in recession, a record that almost deserves its own chapter in economic textbooks.
And yet even the embattled Buenos Aires stock exchange had never experienced anything like the 48% plunge it took on Aug. 12, a day after left-wing candidate Alberto Fernández bested the fiscally conservative incumbent Mauricio Macri in the presidential primary by more than 15 points, winning more than 47% of the vote. The primary is meant to winnow the slate of candidates, but in reality it serves as a nationwide poll to preview the official vote for the presidency, still 10 weeks away.