It was a tough time — Argentina's economy had crashed after it defaulted on $13.2 billion of foreign debt it could not pay.
The string of presidents started when Fernando de la Rua resigned in December of 2001. The last of the five, Eduardo Duhalde, was appointed in January 2002 amid major protesting.
Hedge fund manager Paul Singer got a Ghanaian court to impound the 'Libertad,' which was docked in a Ghanaian port, last year. It was stuck there for months.
The country has refused to pay Singer and other investors $1.4 billion in sovereign debt. The legal case has raged for years, with Argentina referring to the hedge fund managers as "vultures."
Singer took the boat as collateral.
In order to avoid another Paul Singer Ghana incident, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner chartered an $880,000 flight to Indonesia earlier this year.
Sometimes neighborhoods close down roads and ask drivers to pay a toll in order to raise money for doll construction.
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) is known for her good looks, so she has to look good, right?
So why not grab 20 pairs of Louboutin shoes (as well as some designer bags from Louis Vuitton and Hermes) in Paris after a meeting with the president of France?
A bottle of bleach will do. Then write your phone number on the car.
Prospective buyers will then call you and inquire about the price.
This could be really fun, actually.
Argentines pride themselves on their looks, and plastic surgery is huge in the country. As a result, ugly people feel they get the short end of the stick big time.
From BBC back in 2007 during the reign of not-so-attractive President Nestor Kirchner, CFK's late husband:
Gonzalo Otalora does not much care what he looks like. He planted himself in front of the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada or Pink House, to harangue President Nestor Kirchner to change the law.
It's not fair, he said. The beautiful people get all the breaks. Beauty is a natural advantage and he wants the good-lookers to be taxed to finance compensation for the ugly people...
"The president for me is a comrade," he explained. "He's a loyal comrade because our childhoods were very similar. He also had thick glasses and spots. They also made fun of him.
For years independant statisticians have put Argentina's inflation rate around 25-30%. The government reports the rate much lower.
Even the IMF put out a report on this and Cristine Legarde, the IMF president, said the country might get a "red card" for its fibs.
The ruling party, Peronist, (as in Evita Peron) started the whole thing, and one of their beers is named after the former first lady.
The Peron Peron bar started the trend when it released its blonde beer, Evita. Now it also offers "Montonero," a dark ale named after the 1970s guerrilla group, and "Double K" in honor of Argentine leader Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her late husband, President Nestor Kirchner.
Across town, the opposition Radical Party has its own brewery, crafting blonde, red and black varieties named after another president, Hipolito Yrigoyen.
The government has blocked the products entirely before. They say it's in order to bolster the economy and curb inflation.
Thousands of teenagers dress like Mick Jagger and worship the band like "Dead Heads" in the U.S.A.
And your application can easily be rejected.
To stem capital flight from the country, the government has placed restrictions on currency exchanges and travel.
Any Argentine wishing to buy dollars to travel abroad must provide their tax-identification number to the tax agency (AFIP) and declare where, when and why they are travel ling. Even after waiting in long queues and filling in stacks of paperwork, would-be travelers are often refused dollars, or granted miserly sums that would hardly cover a souvenir snow-globe. When recently asked to explain how AFIP determines the allotment of dollars, its director bumbled: “It is a formula that is periodically changed that has ingredients from the central bank, AFIP and God. The truth? I can’t explain it because I don’t know exactly how it operates.”
Argentines are afraid their economy may crash again, so to get ready people exchange their dollars for pesos.
But since there are restrictions on currency exchange, anyone who wants dollars sometimes must go underground.
Bitcoins are getting popular in Argentina as well.
Some people make multiple trips a day to Colonia de Sacramento. It's only an hour ferry ride away.
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