The real question is, as usual, what's the counterfactual in the case of Argentina? If they hadn't defaulted, would they actually be better off today? It's poss

The real question is, as usual, what's the counterfactual in the case of Argentina? If they hadn't defaulted, would they actually be better off today? It's possible that, had they tried to avoid default at all cost, the lacking fundamentals would have locked them into a downward spiral. Sometimes, a default can be a liberating blow. (I'm not saying that default was right for Argentina back then. The point is that you haven't presented any evidence that it was wrong, either.)