Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Argentina voted no on the Argentinian peso. USD could become its new currency

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 41 posts

Re: Argentina voted no on the Argentinian peso. USD could become its new currency

#2

Post by prepend »

I find it interesting that countries give up on their own currently, with all the power it brings, to use an external currency.

I guess the dollar is the best option as it’s easier to adopt than gold or whatever. Perhaps the euro, but I guess the dollar is more widely used. And the dollar is less manipulated than the Yuan.

I guess the efficiency of not having to run a mint and the giving up on local corruptions and manipulations is a worse harm than being helpless against dollar inflation or whatever.

Re: Argentina voted no on the Argentinian peso. USD could become its new currency

#3

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

prepend wrote: post #2

I find it interesting that countries give up on their own currently, with all the power it brings, to use an external currency. I guess the dollar is the best option as it’s easier to adopt than gold or whatever. Perhaps the euro, but I guess the dollar is more widely used. And the dollar is less manipulated than the Yuan. I guess the efficiency of not having to run a mint and the giving up on local corruptions and m…

> I find it interesting that countries give up on their own currently, with all the power it brings, to use an external currency.

I think the financial reality of many economies limits the usefulness of what you can do with currencies. Just because you have your own currency does not mean you can maintain it without a peg and that peg comes with a cost. And then there is the political will. The British Pound for instance should have allowed the UK to fare much better than the Euro-Zone during the energy crisis, but it really did not.

Re: Argentina voted no on the Argentinian peso. USD could become its new currency

#6

Post by reacharavindh »

After decades of uncontrollable inflation, I can see how relying on a foreign currency (one that is backed by the economically most powerful country) is attractive to the wider population looking for some sense of stability.

But, without the ability to control the value of their own currency, how would it work for the government to manage their domestic affairs? Would they buy a boat load of USD, and circulate it within the country to be traded for goods and services? Are there any downsides to this?

Re: Argentina voted no on the Argentinian peso. USD could become its new currency

#9

Post by ido »

reacharavindh wrote: post #6

After decades of uncontrollable inflation, I can see how relying on a foreign currency (one that is backed by the economically most powerful country) is attractive to the wider population looking for some sense of stability. But, without the ability to control the value of their own currency, how would it work for the government to manage their domestic affairs? Would they buy a boat load of USD, and circulate it wit…

several European countries (e.g. Kosovo) use the Euro as their currency despite not being part of neither the EU nor the Eurozone for exactly the same reason.
Post reply on HN