The paper comprises five short essays written during the political, economic and social agony of the last two years. The first one, on imported institutions, claims that A rgentina b ecame a civiliz ed country when, at the end of the 19 th century, managed to get into a great club and imported from it her b asic political, monetary and commercial institutions, and that the country went b ack to political anarchy and economic decline when, around1930, repudiated that club . W e try to show that a partnership with the great power of our time and the import of b asic economic institutions from it will help again in civiliz ing the country. G ood ex amples of imported institutions are dollariz ation, offshore-b ank ing and the agreement of free trade in the A mericas. The second essay argues that a highly volatile velocity of circulation of money mak es a floating ex change-rate based stabilization a very likely failure for a country with a recent history of hyperinflation. The third essay is a defense of dollariz ation and offshore-b ank ing as the most convenient institutions to secure an irreversib le arrangement in these fields. The fourth essay deals with the importance of such free-trade agreement for argentine ex ports and the long-term reduction of argentine-risk . The fifth essay is a proposal for complete tax decentraliz ation in order to promote fiscal correspondence and effective political federalism in the provinces.