breaking tradition, the outgoing president, christina kirshner refused to attend the swearing in. had been a charismatic leader in the style of the popular eva peron who shared the spotlight with her husband, president juan peron whose legend went all the way to broadway. ♪ don't cry for me argentina >> the party has dominated politics on and off for the last 70 years. kirshner was a peronist whose policies, subsidies on electricity, high taxes on agricultural exports, burdensome regulations, a bloated bureaucracy, and currency controls, all in combination cripple the argentina economy. >> she left an economy that has not been growing for four years now. a stagnant economy. >> alfonzo pratt guy is the minister of finance. >> high inflation. eight years in a row, more than 25% inflations. fiscal deficit. running out of reserves. >> reporter: what you walked into? >> absolutely. >> making matters worse, the government bureau of statistics indec had been minimizing the problems. >> national statistics institute, an institute that was basically look to us and to the rest of the world.