If his performance does not improve very soon, his days at this company are numbered.

Its president, Nestor Kirchner, was expected to confirm overnight that about 75% of the country's bondholders had agreed to swap their old debt for new at a loss of up to 70 cents in the dollar—also a record and one that Mr Kirchner has called “the biggest haircut in history” for investors.

Again there is the story of the experience that befell Huang Yüeh, who obtained his chin-shih during the Ch’ien-lung era (1736-96) and rose to become director of the Board of Rites (li-pu shang-shu), equivalent to a minister of education. He went into the compound to take the examination and was sitting in his cell when a girl came flitting down his lane. Her dress was extremely shabby and her hair disheveled, but her face and figure were extraordinarily beautiful.]

To avoid negative publicity, we arrived at an out-of-court settlement.