What's the deal with Argentina?

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Photographer: Diego Levy/Bloomberg

Argentina is the only country in the world that was 'developed’ in 1900 and ‘developing’ in 2000.
...
Once upon a time, Argentina was a very rich country. There is little disagreement that this time was in the period before WWI. Level of per capita income in 1913 in:

• Argentina (USD 3,797 in 1992 US Dollars) compared favorably to that of 
• France      (USD 3,452) and 
• Germany  (USD 3,134).

Extracted and paraphrased from an article on VoxEU dot org by Nauro F Campos 20 December 2014. He goes over a number of factors and theories to that try explain what happened. Near as I can tell they made some bad choices. You'd think they would learn. They've got a new head of the state oil company and he seems to be making some progress. Or not. We shall see how it does.

Some people have been suggesting that El Presidente Cristina Kirchner might be getting a little flakey. 

On one hand I am inclined to believe this: 'Yes! That's the problem! That woman is nuts! Get her out of there and get the right man in there and things will quickly improve!'

But then I realize those suggestions may not have any merit, and they might have been made:

1. just to create a fuss so as to garner more attention for the people making the suggestions and so make them feel important and/or increase their ratings, which leads to increased advertising revenue, or
2. as part of a political attack to further destabilize Argentina, or raise opposition to El Presidente.

Financial contortions seem to be the biggest news coming out of Argentina these days. That and oil, which is basically the same thing.