¡Qué bueno!

Buenos Aires has risen from the economic abyss.

And the party is just beginning.

During his days on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE in the 1980s, Billy Crystal often portrayed an Argentine lothario named Fernando, who lived his life by one simple credo: “It is better to look good than to feel good, darling…and you look mahvelous!”

While Argentina’s recent economic hardships may not have left its citizens feeling good, they have always taken pains to look good, especially those in the cosmopolitan capital of Buenos Aires, where signs of the country’s rapid ascent from an economic abyss are everywhere.

Buenos Aires is literally buzzing these days. Foreign investment is on the rebound. Political order has been (mostly) restored. A favorable exchange rate has boosted exports and brought in record numbers of tourists. The city’s famed around-the-clock nightlife is back in full swing. The economy is expected to grow around 5 percent this year. Indeed, for Buenos Aires, 2005 is looking, well…mahvelous!

Boom to bust

During the 1990s, Argentina experienced unprecedented prosperity. Former President Carlos Menem privatized much of the country’s infrastructure, equipping Argentina with modern technology for the first time. The peso was pegged one-to-one with the dollar, allowing scores of Argentines to leave the country and visit places like Disney World and the Caribbean, returning with suitcases stuffed with laptop computers, camcorders and Gap sweatshirts.

But a decade’s worth of financial and political mismanagement eventually caught up with Argentina. In December 2001, a mandatory freeze was placed on bank accounts to slow capital flight. The government decision infuriated the middle class, who joined the swelling ranks of the unemployed in the streets for noisy protests. Deadly riots and political chaos soon followed. Argentina had five different presidents in two weeks. By the time interim President Eduardo Duhalde had settled into the job in early 2002, the peso had lost more than two-thirds of its value, and crime, poverty and unemployment rates had skyrocketed. Since taking office in May 2003, President Nestor Kirchner has maintained high popularity at home. Argentina is currently engaged in acrimonious negotiations with bondholders and businesses around the globe in an attempt to restructure its more than $100 billion dollars in foreign debt, a sticking point that some analysts fear could curtail the economic comeback Argentina has experienced in the last 18 months.

However, if you’re strolling the streets of Buenos Aires these days, it’s obvious that the Porteños-as the locals are known-are feeling good and looking good once again. The chic cafés that line the European-inspired boulevards bustle with businessmen downing shots of espresso, while surgically enhanced socialites linger over their afternoon tea. Restaurants, bars and nightclubs are packed to the gills every night of the week, and construction is underway all over town. If you’re coming to Buenos Aires to do business, once you close the deal during the day, you’re sure to have a good time at night. What’s more, the three-to-one exchange rate with the dollar now makes Buenos Aires one of the cheapest cities on the globe!

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Brian Byrnes is a freelance journalist who has lived in Buenos Aires since 2001. Email Brian at editor@executivetravelmag.com.

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