Argentina’s Default and the Melodramatic Cult of Evita

Eva Duarte de Perón was a brilliant choice for the subject of a musical—earthy, passionate, and ultimately doomed. Don’t Cry for Me Argentina from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita is one of the greatest belt-it-out songs in Broadway history.

But Perón is an awful role model for the president of Argentina. Histrionics that play well onstage are a disaster in government. Unfortunately, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is a devoted disciple of the late Evita. That, in a nutshell, is a key reason Argentina defaulted yesterday on its government debt.