New York gets a taste of Argentine smoke'n'mirrors

This is not how Argentina's President will be appearing in New York this week

(and before you ask, yes, it really is her)

The Argentine stock market has had a rough quarter, as any quick glance at the Merval index will confirm.

But just look what the Merval did today. Wowsers, what a pump'n'dump!

Why so? Because the world heard how Klishtina is going to open up the debt held by the vulture funds, a.k.a. the debt paper that was stupid enough not to have submitted to the debt swap way back in 2005 (here's Reuters on the story). The Merval peaked at 1751 (+5.36%) on the news, then started dropping when....well, when the locals couldn't keep a straight face any longer and sold it all to 'Los Janquis'. It finished just 1.7% up at 1690.

What really happened was that Klishtina, in New York for the UN bigmeet right now, was starting to pick up flak from the loathsome vultures at ATFA and decided to counter in finest Argentine style. Out came the portable smoke'n'mirrors set and suddenly Klishtina was presented with a report "written by three banks" that she "was studying" that would lead the way to her sending a bill to the Argentine Senate that would possibly allow the frozen debt to be negotiated.

Oh what fun! My how I laughed! And the funniest thing is that the gringos actually swallowed this story, hook, line and sinker. The result? Klishtina immediately off the hook while on her sojourn to the Big Apple, she can concentrate on shopping and UNning and we all live happily ever after. Let me make this as plain as possible:

THERE IS NO WAY THAT THIS ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATES THAT DEBT.

Welcome to the crazy world of Argentine politics, New York edition.