Argentina is one of the big players in the South American economy, second only to Brazil. They recently defaulted on a huge group of bond payments and now are trying to figure out what to do with about $2.5 billion in past-due bonds, which the creditors are suing to be paid. The trick is that the bonds were issued through a US bank (to give them legitimacy) and are being arbitrated via the US court system, which is not so sympathetic to the political machinations of the Argentine president.

The reason this issue is important, however, is that it can throw a huge wrench in the international financial markets if it restructures and reissues the debt, basically stealing that money from the bondholders. Argentina has already had problems with economic stability - if the government does stiff these investors, Argentine businesses are likely to see the opportunities for financing get very tight very fast, leading to a credit crunch and severe economic problems which can cascade to that whole region. And all the international market needs right now is another country going under.