An early warning was given by the Mexican peso crisis of 1994.

In Mexico, for example, it took 150 pesos in 1990 to buy what one peso could buy in 1980.

The peso has barely budged since the election a clear indication that investors have not lost faith in the country.

Moreover, manipulation of official statistics highlights the problems of an economic model based on peso depreciation and the accumulation of reserves.

Fearing a weaker peso, spooked investors demand dollars. Capital is flowing out of the country, and official reserves are slowly being depleted.

Everyone can bet on a run on the Argentine peso a favorite sport of international financial speculators for a century and a half.

Facing that situation, the currency reform replaced the Peso with the Sol, that would be coined with silver as well as with gold.

The result was the Mexican peso crisis of later that year (which I, as US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, had to help contain).

The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis affected the economy, resulting in a lingering decline of the value of the peso and falls in the stock market.

Finally, after Mexico s 1994 95 peso crisis and the 1997 1998 Asian financial crisis, the US exported its new banking model to the emerging market economies.

Despite the unit s technical sounding name, people in Chile seem to have learned to think in terms of the UF instead of the peso for important contracts.

Its overvaluation began with the Mexican peso crisis of 1994, and was officially enshrined by the strong dollar policy adopted after the East Asian financial crisis of 1997.

In the last 18 months, the peso has appreciated 6 more than the renminbi, eroding Mexico s ability to compete with Chinese exports to the US, by far Mexico s largest export market.

Because actually it's not the dollar. It's actually the peso in Buenos Aires. Very clever Buenos Aires street vendors decided to practice price discrimination to the detriment of any passing gringo tourists.

When a government borrows a euro (or a dollar, pound, peso, or yuan), it commits itself to pay a euro in present value of future interest payments and eventual repayment of principal.

Failure to address these important problems risks a continuing high rate of inflation, now running in excess of 20 per year one of the highest annual rates in the world, and well above the rate at which the Argentine peso is depreciating.

Clearly, the market has reached its own verdict, reflected in the gap between the official exchange rate of 4.6 Argentine pesos to the dollar and the black market rate, which recently reached 6.8, with some economists whispering that an eight peso dollar is likely before too long.