Asymmetrical Information

Now that's chutzpah

Roberto Lavagna, Argentina's finance minister, certainly has guts. Right now, the government line is that they can't pay their bondholders, because the country's too poor. Now, faced with the prospect that growth might be faster than previously forecast, he's arguing that the primary surplus agreement that he has with the IMF is for a fixed nominal sum--ca. 2.6% of 2003 GDP--not for a percentage of GDP.

That's a pretty neat trick. "We can't pay you if we're poor, because we need the money, and we can't pay you if we're rich, because of our IMF agreement". Think it would work with my student loan officer?