1 imf, World Economic Outlook database, April 2013, at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2013/01/weodata/index.aspx, accessed 4 May 2013.

2 R Peet, ‘Inequality, crisis and austerity in finance capitalism’, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 4, 2011, pp 383–99; and H-J Chang, ‘Britain: a nation in decay’, Guardian, 8 March 2013, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/08/britain-economy-long-term-fix, accessed 4 May 2013.

3 This point is made in more detail in J Mercille, ‘The role of the media in sustaining Ireland’s housing bubble’, New Political Economy, doi: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13563467.2013.779652#.UYVxDaLvuLE.

4 For example, see ibid; A Cibils & R Lo Vuolo, ‘At debt’s door: what can we learn from Argentina’s recent debt crisis and restructuring?’, Seattle Journal of Social Justice, 7(2), 2007, pp 755–795; B Dangl, Dancing with Dynamite, Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2010; and C Wylde, ‘State, society and markets in Argentina: the political economy of neodesarrollismo under Néstor Kirchner, 2003–2007’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 30(4), 2011, pp 436–452.

5 D Baker, ‘Ireland should do an Argentina’, Guardian, 22 November 2010, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/22/ecb-ireland-bailout-argentina, accessed 4 May 2013; P Krugman, ‘Exit and exports’, 14 May 2012, at http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/exit-and-exports/, accessed 3 May 2013; and M Weisbrot, R Ray, JA Montecino & S Kozameh, ‘The Argentine success story and its implications’, Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research (cepr), October 2011.

6 For a survey, see U Panizza, F Sturzenegger & J Zettelmeyer, ‘The economics and law of sovereign debt and default’, Journal of Economic Literature, 47(3), 2009, pp 651–698.

7 E Borensztein & U Panizza, ‘The costs of sovereign default’, imfStaff Papers, 56(4), 2009, p 722.

8 RG Gelos, R Sahay & G Sandleris, ‘Sovereign borrowing by developing countries: what determines market access?’, Journal of International Economics, 83, 2011, p 243.

9 Borensztein & Panizza, ‘The costs of sovereign default’, pp 722–723.

10 F Sturzenegger & J Zettelmeyer, Debt Defaults and Lessons from a Decade of Crises, Cambridge, MA: mit Press, 2006; B De Paoli, G Hoggarth & V Saporta, Output Costs of Sovereign Crises: Some Empirical Estimates, Working Paper No 362, London: Bank of England, 2009.

11 Borensztein & Panizza, ‘The costs of sovereign default’, p 723.

12 E Levy Yeyati & U Panizza, ‘The elusive costs of sovereign defaults’, Journal of Development Economics, 94, 2011, p 103.

13 D Rodrik, ‘The real exchange rate and economic growth’, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Washingron, DC: Brookings Institution, 2008, pp 365–412; B Eichengreen, The Real Exchange Rate and Economic Growth, Working Paper No 4, Commission on Growth and Development, Washingtonm, DC: World Bank, 2008; and R Hausmann, L Pritchett & D Rodrik, ‘Growth accelerations’, Journal of Economic Growth, 10, 2005, pp 303–329.

14 M Rapetti, P Skott & A Razmi, The Real Exchange Rate and Economic Growth: Are Developing Countries Different?, Working Paper 2011-07, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 2011, p 2.

15 A Razmi, M Rapetti & P Skott, The Real Exchange Rate and Economic Development, Working Paper 2011-08, Amherst, MA: Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 2011.

16 R Frenkel & M Rapetti, ‘A concise history of exchange rate regimes in Latin America’, Washington, DC: cepr, April 2010, p 5.

17 See, for example, S Morley, ‘On the effect of devaluation during stabilization programs in ldc’s’, Review of Economics and Statistics, 74(1), 1992, pp 21–27; and P Gupta, D Mishra & R Sahay, ‘Behavior of output during currency crises’, Journal of International Economics, 72, 2007, pp 428–450.

18 M Bussiere, SC Saxena & CE Tovar, ‘Chronicle of currency collapses: re-examining the effects on output’, Journal of International Money and Finance, 31, 2012, p 680.

19 See also M Weisbrot & R Ray, ‘Latvia’s internal devaluation: a success story?’, Washington, DC: cepr, December 2011.

20 C Reinhart & K Rogoff, ‘Growth in a time of debt’, American Economic Review, 100(2), 2010, pp 573–578.

21 T Herndon, M Ash & R Pollin, ‘Does high public debt consistently stifle economic growth? A critique of Reinhart and Rogoff’, 15 April 2013, at http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/31e2ff374b6377b2ddec04deaa6388b1/publication/566, accessed 1 May 2013.

22 A Alesina & S Ardagna, ‘Large changes in fiscal policy: taxes versus spending’, TaxPolicy and the Economy, 24, 2010, pp 35–68; and A Alesina & R Perotti, ‘Fiscal expansions and adjustments in oecd countries’, Economic Policy, 21, 1995, pp 207–247.

23 A Jayadev & M Konczal, ‘The boom not the slump: the right time for austerity’, Roosevelt Institute, 2010, at http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/sites/all/files/not_the_time_for_austerity.pdf, accessed 15 April 2013.

24 L King, M Kitson, S Konzelmann & F Wilkinson, ‘Making the same mistake again—or is this time different?’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 36(1), 2012, pp 1–15; R Pollin, ‘US government deficits and debt amid the great recession: what the evidence shows’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 36(1), 2012, pp 161–187; M Sawyer, ‘The tragedy of UK fiscal policy in the aftermath of the financial crisis’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 36(1), 2012, pp 205–221; and C Lapavitsas, Crisis in the Eurozone, London: Verso, 2012.

25 J Guajardo, D Leigh & A Pescatori, Expansionary Austerity: New International Evidence, imf Working Paper WP/11/158, Washington, DC: imf, July 2011; and O Blanchard & D Leigh, Growth Forecast Errors and Fiscal Multipliers, imf Working Paper WP/13/1, Washington, DC: imf, January 2013, p 1.

26 R McChesney, The Problem of the Media: US Communication Politics in the 21st Century, New York: Monthly Review, 2004. See also E Herman & N Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, New York: Pantheon, 2002.

27 McChesney, The Problem of the Media.

28 I would like to thank Yannick Treige for help with the translation of German newspaper articles.

29 Cibils & Lo Vuolo, ‘At debt’s door’.

30 M Damill, R Frenkel & R Maurizio, Argentina: A Decade of Currency Board—An Analysis of Growth, Employment and Income Distribution, Employment Paper 2002/42, Geneva: International Labour Office, 2002.

31 Cibils & Lo Vuolo, ‘At debt’s door’; and P Blustein, And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out), New York: PublicAffairs, 2005.

32 imf, World Economic Outlook database, April 2013.

33 W Baer, D Margot & G Montes-Rojas, ‘Argentina’s default and the lack of dire consequences’, Discussion Papers series 10/09, Department of Economics, City University, London, 2009.

34 Weisbrot et al, ‘The Argentine success story and its implications’.

35 Estimates vary: see ibid, pp 1, 8-9; and M Damill, R Frenkel & R Maurizio, Macroeconomic Policy for Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All: An Analysis of the Argentine Experience, Employment Working Paper No 109, Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2011, p 67.

36 Baer et al, ‘Argentina’s default and the lack of dire consequences’; Cibils & Lo Vuolo, ‘At debt’s door’; Weisbrot et al, ‘The Argentine success story and its implications’; and M Weisbrot & L Sandoval, ‘Argentina’s economic recovery: policy choices and implications’, Washington, DC: cepr, October 2007.

37 R Frenkel & M Rapetti, ‘Argentina’s monetary and exchange rate policies after the convertibility regime collapse’, Washington, DC and Amherst MA: cepr/peri, April 2007.

38 C Gatinois & C Legrand, ‘Le miracle argentin était en trompe-l’œil’, lm, 24 June 2012.

39 C Hoffmann, ‘Was passiert, wenn ein Land pleite geht?’, sz, 13 September 2011; A Hagelüken, ‘Lehren aus Argentinien’, sz, 2 December 2009; Hagelüken, ‘CONTRA’, sz, 18 February 2012; and P Burghardt & S Boehringer, ‘Alptraum Argentinien’, sz, 29 April 2010.

40 Weisbrot & Sandoval, ‘Argentina’s economic recovery’, p 14.

41 E Helleiner, ‘The strange story of Bush and the Argentine debt crisis’, Third World Quaterly, 26(6), 2005, pp 951–969.

42 Cibils & Lo Vuolo, ‘At debt’s door’, p 776; and M Damill, R Frenkel & R Maurizio, ‘Macroeconomic policy changes in Argentina at the turn of the century’, in M Novick et al (eds), In the Wake of the Crisis: Argentina’s New Economic and Labour Policy Directions and their Impact, Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2007, p 85.

43 Damill et al, ‘Macroeconomic policy changes in Argentina at the turn of the century’, p 81; MA Cohen, Argentina’s Economic Growth and Recovery, Abingdon: Routledge, 2012.

44 Cibils & Lo Vuolo, ‘At debt’s door’, p 777.

45 Ibid, pp 778–780.

46 Cibils & Lo Vuolo, ‘At debt’s door’; and Cohen, Argentina’s Economic Growth and Recovery.

47 M Hutchinson, ‘Les matières premières ont assuré le succès des Kirchner en Argentine’, lm, 30 October 2010; and Gatinois & Legrand, ‘Le miracle argentin était en trompe-l’œil’.

48 Weisbrot et al, ‘The Argentine success story and its implications’, p 7.

49 World Bank, Country Assistance Strategy for the Argentine Republic 2006–2008, Report No 34015-AR, Washington, DC: World Bank, May 2006, p 17.

50 indec database, Cuentas Nacionales, Producto Interno Bruto (pib), spreadsheet, ‘Oferta y demanda globales, en milliones de pesos a precios de 1993’, at http://www.indec.mecon.ar/, accessed 2 May 2013; Weisbrot et al, ‘The Argentine success story and its implications’, p 6; and Frenkel & Rapetti, ‘Argentina’s monetary and exchange rate policies’, p 11.

51 Damill et al, ‘Macroeconomic policy changes in Argentina at the turn of the century’.

52 Ibid.

53 Damill et al, Macroeconomic Policy for Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All, p 30.

54 Ibid, pp 47, 54.

55 Cibils & Lo Vuolo, ‘At debt’s door’, p 786.

56 Damill et al, Macroeconomic Policy for Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All, p 24.

57 Ibid, p 62; and J Grugel & MP Riggirozzi, ‘The return of the state in Argentina’, International Affairs, 83(1), 2007, pp 87–107.

58 Weisbrot et al, ‘The Argentine success story and its implications’, pp 10–11; and S Levitsky & MV Murillo, ‘Argentina: from Kirchner to Kirchner’, Journal of Democracy, 19(2), 2008, pp 16–30.

59 Damill et al, Macroeconomic Policy for Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All, p 27.

60 A Busch, ‘Lügen, täuschen und behindern’, dz, 4 February 2010.

61 M Weisbrot, ‘Argentina’s critics are wrong again about renationalising oil’, Guardian, 18 April 2012, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/18/argentina-critics-oil-nationalise, accessed 4 May 2013.

62 J Oehrlein, ‘Die Rückkehr der Caudillos’, faz, 2 November 2007; H Stausberg, ‘Wirtschaftsdirigismus: Cristina Kirchner treibt Argentinien in den Abgrund’, dw, 16 October 2012; H Stausberg, ‘Zwei Nachbarn, zwei Linksregierungen’, dw, 14 April 2012; H Stausberg, ‘Kirchners Argentinien’, dw, 19 April 2012; and C Moses, ‘Argentiniens Weg in die Planwirtschaft’, faz, 25 September 2012.

63 A Palacio, ‘L’Argentine et l’état de droit’, lf, 25 April 2012; and M Hutchinson, ‘La kleptocratie ruine l’Argentine’, lm, 25 October 2008.

64 P Damour, ‘Décès de Néstor Kirchner, l’homme fort d’Argentine’, lf, 28 October 2010; and Damour, ‘Cristina Kirchner, veuve à poigne’, lm, 24 October 2011 (quoting lawyer Daniel Sabsay).

65 J Oehrlein, ‘Hinter tausend Nullen kein Wert’, fz, 5 July 2012; and C Moses, ‘Argentiniens Sparer sind ständig auf der Flucht’, faz, 20 August 2009.

66 Damour, ‘Cristina Kirchner, veuve à poigne’.

67 Weisbrot et al, ‘The Argentine success story and its implications’.

68 Damill et al, Macroeconomic Policy for Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All, p 32.

69 Weisbrot et al, ‘The Argentine success story and its implications’.