Folks.... as an Argentine who knows many people that had their $$$ messed with... this aint no laughing topic. Dont get me wrong... I love acid humour and rough-edged jokes, but this is perhaps a little tooo sensitive a subject to mess around with. Only an idiot like Kristina K comes up with the "Jazz Efect" comment when the US is hit by the financial crisis... so I have to say that in the same line the above laughs (though Im sure they are not ill-intended) are a little toooo much, at least IMHO.

In closing... the black market FX rate for the USD here in Argentina is now over AR$3.60 to the dollar, so things are not exactly looking great down here either. Even if the Argentine financial system is not at all overleveraged, the worldwide economic recession that is here and will stay around for a while is going to hit hard in 2009. Im afraid there is little to party or joke about.