After a morale-boosting start, Mr Cavallo then confused markets with an ill-timed proposal to amend the currency board so that the peso might in future be pegged half to the dollar and half to the euro.
In December less than half the number of companies announced new stock buybacks, less than half the dollar amount of new cash takeovers of already public companies were announced and insiders are also buying less than half as much as during all of 2011.