In 1998, the financial times reported that the Argentinian finance minister compared the country's peg to the dollar with a marriage to a pretty Hollywood actress:  Foreign investors often ask Argentine officials if they have an exit route from convertibility, the currency board system that links the peso at par to the dollar. "When you are married to Sharon Stone, you do not require an exit route."

"Plan B" does turn out to be important, in the world of Hollywood divorces as well as in currency markets.  These are important lessons for European nations that are currently contemplating to drop the euro to depreciate (and probably also) deflate their way out of the massive country debt. Bleyer and Levy Yeyati have the story.