Well, Argentina had plenty of opportunities to get itself in order (and could still do so), but I'm not sure that the US would let things slide so badly over a

Well, Argentina had plenty of opportunities to get itself in order (and could still do so), but I'm not sure that the US would let things slide so badly over a long period - they (and the rest of the world) would rather take the short term pain. Possibly being a reserve currencies adds an additional burden to US policymakers, so they can't always take the easy way out.