7 years ago, I was almost kicked out of a McDonald& #39;s in Buenos Aires for taking a picture of their menu, posted at the end of the store. Unlike stores outside of Argentina, Big Macs weren& #39;t advertised. This was part of the government& #39;s manipulation of inflation indices. (1/4)

Since the Economist calculates inflation based on the prices of Big Macs over time, the government "convinced" McDonald& #39;s to keep the prices of Big Macs low to convey the idea that inflation was low. Why would the gov& #39;t want to manipulate inflation? (2/4)

Since a lot of their debt was indexed, a higher inflation rate increased the cost of the debt. Manipulating inflation allowed the govt to "default" on part of its debt without ever admitting it. (3/4)

Seven years later, then president Cristina Kirchner is now the VP, and threats about default are as relevant now as they were then. (4/4)