One Country, Nine Defaults: Argentina Is Caught in a Vicious Cycle

At midnight Saturday, after months of histrionics, the clock ran out on Argentina.

It had failed to put up the $500 million it owed foreign bondholders and, in so doing, had fallen into default for the ninth time in its history. It's a staggering number, putting the South American country in an elite league of serial defaulters that includes the likes of Ecuador, Uruguay and Turkey.