Brief History of the Emoluments Clause - - - and Argentina

Julie Silverbrook of The Constitutional Sources Project has a worthwhile "brief history" of the Emoluments Clause, including the text and this excerpt from The Federalist No. 22: "Evils of this description ought not to be regarded as imaginary. One of the weak sides of republics, among their numerous advantages, is that they afford too easy an inlet to foreign corruption."  The passage goes on to contrast monarchies with republican governments, the former being less susceptible to corruption because  the hereditary monarch "has so great a personal interest in the government, and in the external glory of the nation, that it is not easy for a foreign power to give him an equivalent for what he would sacrifice by treachery to the State." 

Scholar Zephyr Teachout has also been discussing Emoluments, as we noted here;  And now might be a good time to reread Teachout's 2014 book Corruption in America).  [update: If you don't have the book handy, her 2012 essay, Gifts, Offices, and Corruption is available on ssrn.]

While it has been argued that the Emoluments Clause should not apply to the President as we noted here, its application to a President-Elect is even more uncertain. 

Law professors looking for a class exercise (or perhaps a paper topic) could use any number of examples, although a "hypothetical" based on an Argentina construction project might be useful.  Here is the situation courtesy of a storify of tweets and here is the piece from The Hill.