It is perhaps a testament to Peron's brilliance, to his understanding of the working man, and the continuing success of the Justicialist Five Year Plan, that over the last 3 years Argentina's real wages have risen by, now, 22%. Peron's program has certainly helped shift Argentina's overall economy from its traditional agrarianism to a more modern industrial economy: the construction of now active and thrumming factories in Buenos Aires, Cordoba, among many other cities have helped provide jobs for the unemployed from the Great Depression and, alongside Justicialist welfare and social security reform, the Argentine working classes have seen an unprecedented rise in quality of life. The President, accompanied by the Minister for the Treasury and-as always-his beloved wife Evita, have decided to hold a gala in celebration of the success of his economic program.

-12th August, 1949 Issue of El Tribuno Newspaper

Peron's newspapers excitedly exclaim the President's successes.They herald his Constitution, his reforms, the very air he breathes, as an exultation. For many, Peron is becoming a name connected with Argentina's other great liberators: Jose de San Martin and Justo Jose de Urquiza. But there is, beneath the surface, a darker reality.

Since 1948, US trade limitations with Argentina have hampered prices for essential national trade goods, beef in particular, and Argentine economists are fearing the possibility of negative effects on overall local prices. What was once a $100 million trade surplus has been ballooning into an ever greater deficit: reaching $300 million earlier this year. A counterbalance attempt by the Ministry of the Treasury and the Central Bank of Argentina yielded the nationalization of the Port of Buenos Aires, which has mildly alleviated the deficit, and the CBA has been quietly devaluing the peso. To the observant economist, and to all those inside the Treasury Department, a recession was soon coming. Markets are fickle creatures.

Of course, all of this is not general knowledge. The President believes that such things are the matters of state and can be quickly resolved without need of involving the citizenry.

At the gala, Treasury Minister Ramon Cereijo takes a deep drink, joining a toast. In the back of his mind, he knows that this prosperity is unsustainable. He admires the President-he participated in the protests that freed Peron from the Rodriguez Junta's prisons-but he cannot help but wonder, if perhaps, they've made a mistake: moved too much too quickly.

He will always stand behind His President, but he fears that, in the way of President Yrigoyen some 30 years ago, Peron might be overthrown by malcontents fueled with foreign money and an unstable domestic economy. The military has been a friend of the President since after his release from prison, but nothing lasts forever.

Cereijo takes another drink.

"To Peron!" he exclaims, "To Argentina!" and pushes away the thoughts dogging his mind. All will be well, because Juan Domingo Peron is at the helm. Because he is the hero the nation needs.

If not he thought Then God punish us for our vanity.