when she first took office, cristina kirchner replaced the previous minister of economy, miguel gustavo peirano, who had been appointed by her husband as former president. peirano was succeeded by martín lousteau in december 2007. he served as the first of several ministers of economy under her presidency. the attempt to increase taxes on agricultural exports caused a conflict with the agricultural sector and protests broke out. as a result, taxes were not increased, and lousteau resigned by april 2008, only a few months after he had been appointed. he was replaced by argentina's tax agency chief carlos rafael fernández. as an alternative to increasing taxes, and facing debt payments the following year, the government nationalized private pension funds, known as ""las administradoras de fondos de jubilaciones y pensiones"" (afjp). the amount of money involved in this operation was nearly 30 billion dollars, and debt obligations were nearly 24 billion dollars. the nationalization was justified by the president as government protectionism during the crisis, and compared with the bank bailouts in europe and the united states. it was criticized as a threat to property rights and the rule of law. fernández resigned after the kirchnerite defeat in the 2009 elections, and was replaced by amado boudou, president of the anses which had worked for that nationalization. although inflation was nearing 25% and on the rise, boudou did not consider it a significant problem. in january 2010, cristina kirchner created the bicentennial fund employing a necessity and urgency decree in order to pay debt obligations with foreign-exchange reserves. martín redrado, president of the central bank, refused to implement it, and was fired by another decree. judge maría josé sarmiento annulled both decrees on the grounds that the central bank was independent. redrado resigned one month later, and was replaced by mercedes marcó del pont.