Bessent’s Big Gamble on Argentina Has a Narrow Road to Pay Off

For Scott Bessent’s $20 billion bet on Argentina to pay off, a lot of things have to go right – things that in the past, in Argentina, have tended to go wrong.

The Treasury secretary announced a lifeline Thursday that’s designed to pull the country’s financial markets out of deepening turmoil, and a close political ally out of a hole. The US is offering swap arrangements to shore up the peso — and it’s already stepped in directly to buy the currency, a move with few precedents in recent decades.

“It’s not a bailout at ...