The sages of the pampas

A tabloid celebrity with an actressECONOMICS is not a profession for the publicity-hungry'except in Argentina. Consider Toms Bulat, who holds three degrees in the subject, hosts a weekly television show about it and has written two best-selling books on it. He boasts over 179,000 followers on Twitter. In comparison, Ricardo Darn, arguably Argentina's most famous actor, has only 41,000; Andrs Calamaro, a well-known rock star, has 34,000. At a recent lunch in the seaside city of Mar del Plata, your correspondent was intrigued to see waiters and diners fawn over Mr Bulat. A neighbouring table invited him to share their calamari and a particularly bold waitress hugged him and took his photograph to show her friends.Other economists are equally feted. Martn Lousteau, a former economy minister and current congressman, has 162,000 Twitter followers and is frequently hounded for autographs. Martn Redrado, a former head of the central bank who now runs a consultancy, has 127,000 Twitter followers. Both have dated a series of stars and appear almost as frequently in tabloids as in the financial press. A few years ago,...Continue reading
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