Today Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the democratically elected president of Argentina (who happens to be the wife of the previous President of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner…), fired the Argentinean central bank president – for his failure to use the $6.7 billion in the central banks foreign currency reserves to pay down the debt the government owes.
There is a long literature on "central bank independence" and most economists think that the power to manage the money supply should never placed in the hands of the government — it would simply be too tempted for politicians to run the printing presses to pay for fiscal programs. Every episode of high inflation can be traced back to a central bank that is financing a government that is living beyond its means. Lets see what happens in Argentina.
here is part II of the saga. Now, why would a government have to pay 15% to borrow to finance its debt?