Argentina’s Economics of the Surreal December 4, 2008
Posted by Jehuda in Uncategorized.Tags: Economics, Money, News
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Argentina’s penchant for economic suicide always stuns me. But this new economic crisis they have created for themselves makes me scratch my head:
The 2-peso note is thrown around with a contemptuous disregard usually reserved for metal money, at least in countries where less money isn’t occasionally worth more than more money. But 5s and 10s are harder to come by, because they’re actually worth something. In many cases, they’re more worth more than 20s, because you can buy things with them, which isn’t always true with a 20. In some cases, 5s and 10s are effectively worth more than 100s—which, unless you want to take out the equivalent of $20 at a time, are pretty much the only bills ATMs here dispense. Save for large purchases, 100-peso notes are functionally useless—imagine trying to trade a bar of platinum bullion for a sandwich and a coffee. In several instances, I’ve found myself buying an expensive lunch, costing, say, 60 pesos, just to break a 100 into more useful constituent parts so I can buy something I need, like beer.
Brutal. Give it a read. It’s the world’s most annoying economic crisis.
(Via a reader’s tip)
