The 44-year-old journalist is not alone. After the surprise primary victory this month of presidential candidate Javier Milei, a Trump-admiring libertarian economist who has promised to dismantle Argentina's central bank, dollarize the economy and break up the "political caste," a beleaguered citizenry has launched into a wearyingly familiar crisis mode, rushing to spend pesos in anticipation of the inflation to come.

"It's a very Argentine thing to do — something for which you're trained from a very young age," said Fonrouge, who owns a news agency in La Plata. "Whenever you see prices soaring and the peso nosediving, the first thing to do is stock up to the extent that you can."

The action quickly proved shrewd. The day after Milei won 30 percent of the primary vote Aug. 13, pushing Argentina's two major political coalitions to the sidelines, the country's Peronista administration delivered a 22 percent devaluation in the peso.