Argentina went from robust to bust in a matter of months, leaving investors scratching their heads. Among the mysteries: why the country’s record hoard of currency reserves—often seen as shield against foreign-exchange volatility—did so little to stem the crisis.
The lesson seems to be that loads of dollar reserves alone can’t make up for weakness in a country’s economic underpinnings. Foreign investors who had been burned by Argentina’s repeated defaults over the years, reassured by the country’s rising reserve bulwark, edged... ...