Facing Economic Woes in Argentina

When I arrived in this grand old city, with its splendid European architecture, wide avenues, and turbulent political history, I wondered what all the fuss was about. This did not look like a nation in the grip of economic crisis.

Well-dressed Argentines strolled between sidewalk cafés, and tango music floated through outdoor markets, with their artisans, book sellers, and souvenir dealers. The tourist traps were full of photos of Eva Peron, the legendary, glamorous champion of the working classes, still a draw 50 years after her death.

But when I spoke with a street tango dancer, I got the real story. He is dancing twice as many hours than he used to just to get enough coins into his hat to pay the bills. Few people have change to spare.

But, go to the banks at noon several times a week, and you see what people have in great supply. They have anger directed at the banks and at their government.

Angry Argentines bang hammers — and just about anything else they can get their hands on — against the huge bank doors. They shout and scream, and blow whistles, and generally call political leaders and bankers every obscene name they can imagine.

The banks close up just before protest time, and for a couple of hours thousands of middle-class professionals behave like college-age radicals. These architects, teachers, doctors, and other pillars of the middle class have lost most of their life savings and have nowhere else to turn. They are the vast new underclass.

There are seldom any arrests anymore. It's now a ritual, a part of the business day now.

‘We Need Help’

Outside one the banks I met Eltella Calderon, a middle-aged businesswoman who had recently sold her house and put the money in a bank. She thought it would be safe, but then the government froze bank accounts. All she could say to me was, "I don't have my house. I don't have anything. We need help, we need help."

Another victim is Jorge Molina, 22, a highly trained computer analyst. His company is going broke, so he's had to take a pay cut, from the equivalent of $2,000 a month to $200 a month.