ARGENTINA: Comeback's End

A British trade bargainer who had been bested in a deal by Miguel Miranda, Argentina's postwar economic czar, once said of him: "He is a trader, always was a trader, and at the end will try to trade with the Almighty to get himself into heaven." After World War II, when Europe was on its uppers, Miranda won dubious fame for his country by charging hungry European countries skyscraping prices for wheat and meat, and using the profits to finance Juan Perón's first five-year plan. Ousted from power in a feud with Evita Perón about the time the terms of trade finally turned against Argentina, Miranda retired to self-imposed exile in Uruguay. But Perón himself never forgot the old trader he had once hailed as "a man with a magic wand that turns everything to gold." Last December, several months after Evita's death, Miranda flew to Buenos Aires for a conference with the chief. Recently, as Miranda continued to shuttle back & forth between Montevideo and Buenos Aires, Argentines heard that he was about to be recalled to boss Perón's second five-year plan. But Miranda's earthly bargaining was almost over. Last week, at 61, he died of a heart attack in Montevideo.