South American economic crisis of 2002

The South American economic crisis of 2002 was when some countries in South America (like Argentina and Brazil) had a lot of money problems. They were unable to pay back the money they had borrowed from other countries, and their currencies weren't worth very much. This made it really hard for people to buy food and other basic things, and the economy went downhill. Governments had to do things to try and make it better, like lowering taxes and printing more money, but it didn't always work. After a while things got better, but it took a long time.