ALTHOUGH OLD enough to feel nostalgic about classic video games, But-tonwood was never a fan of Pac-Man. Yes, eating pellets and eluding colourful ghosts made a change from shooting waves of space invaders. But the game never grabbed him. And its name made no sense. The original, "Puck Man", was apparently altered to stop arcade vandals changing the P to an F.Emerging-market investors may share those cool feelings. To them, "Pac-Man" is the name for a divide-and-rule strategy pursued by governments seeking to puck their bondholders. Fear of the tactic haunted Argentina's $65bn-debt talks, which have eventually come to a deal that most bondholders looked likely to accept by August 28th, after The Economist went to press.
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