Buying time.(Point Of View)(Foreign investments)(Demonstrations and protests)(Brief Article)

Demonstrators slap "embargoed" signs over a U.S. flag at a Citibank branch in Buenos Aires in February to protest a U.S. judge who reportedly padlocked some of Argentina's military buildings in the United States.

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner's government has offered to pay 25 cents on the dollar for tens of billions of dollars in debt. That offer angered foreign creditors, who later asked the U.S. judge to seize the buildings.

Ordinary Argentines think foreign investors should take their losses and move on. The protestors are missing the point. President Kirchner knows Argentina is shut out of global capital markets, and he doesn't care what banks feel about the country right now. He's a politician first. And he's found the perfect scapegoat in foreign banks.

Yet a Citibank retail office in Buenos Aires has nothing to do with defaulted debt. As long as protestors are kept conveniently distracted. Kirchner gets the political wiggle room he needs to negotiate new money with the International Monetary Fund.

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