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

Argentina's Currency Black Market

flightfox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 114 posts

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#41

Post by antsar »

rafaelm wrote: post #13
niico wrote: post #5

I've been living in Buenos Aires for over 4 years now. The secret for infinite money basically is selling Bitcoins to USD and then selling the USD to Ar$ Pesos. Right now 1 USD = 10.10 Ar Pesos. Here are some references: 1 Bus ticket from 1.50 to 3 Pesos. 1 Bic Mac about 45 pesos. 1 Coca Cola 8 or 9 pesos. 1 Dinner in a medium to fancy restaurant 150 pesos (200+ if you drink wine). If any hacker is in town, let me kn…

How do you get the $ to buy bit coins? I've been thinking about doing that in Venezuela but we only get $400 per year for online purchases.

Possibly ignorant American here. You have a limit on what you are allowed to spend on online purchases? How is it enforced and by whom?

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#42

Post by patrickaljord »

Danieru wrote: post #33
aqme28 wrote: post #14

I remember this little joke about Argentine inflation: It's cheaper to take a taxi than a bus, because in a taxi you pay at the end of the trip.

That is a funny joke but after I read it outloud to my friends I got confused. How is it cheaper? One would enter the taxi with pesos. These pesos do not go up in value. Instead the cost of the rides go up. Thus you would want to pay sooner rather than later. Of course there is no joke in saying the bus is cheaper. Unless one entered the taxi with US dollars. Yet in theory the exchange rate should match inflation. To…

I guess the joke is that while you're in the taxi, pesos goes down, but the cab driver didn't have the time to adjust his pricing according to the new (lower) value of the pesos. Therefore he'll charge you the old price which is lower than what it should be by the end of the ride.

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#43

Post by wslh »

wslh wrote: post #35
bedhead wrote: post #11

All self-inflicted wounds. Argentinians could have a stable currency and a thriving, functional economy - there's nothing structural that's stopping them. But they choose not to, and have been making this choice for they last 100 years or so. It's a true pity.

No, the problem is structural: bad routes, no security, no mobile infrastructure, no energy (I am not talking about potential energy), bad education, bad transport of goods between cities. And I am not talking about corruption yet... you can bribe anybody in a direct way with witnesses around. You can say that Argentina has all the ingredients to be a first world country but it is just a hope to be at that point. For…

I would love to know who is downvoting a comment based on facts.

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#44

Post by dasil003 »

bedhead wrote: post #27
dasil003 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's self-inflicted in the same way that a mugger stealing your wallet at gunpoint is self-inflicted. After all, you are both citizens of the same country.

Argentina, for years, has chosen an economic policy something akin to a semi-functional alcoholic. I'm not quite sure what about their economic ideologies are somehow forced upon them despite decade after decade of failure.

You don't understand corruption then. High inflation and a low official exchange rate that no one can actually exchange at without insider connections are a way for those with control of the government and currency printing presses to slowly but steadily siphon the wealth of the masses directly to themselves.

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#45

Post by jypepin »

Funny to see this post here, since I'm in Buenos Aires for the week, for vacations. I didn't know about that "blu dolar" rate before coming, so I didn't bring any cash with me; I literally had 50$usd, used to pay the taxi from the airport to my Airbnb when I arrived, and then had my friend become crazy when she saw me use my american VISA to pay for things. "You're crazy, it's almost twice as expensive this way!".

But it was too late, I didn't have any cash, and no way for me to get any USD - nor getting the black market rate through my credit card. (official rate is 5.88ars/usd, the blue dolar is ~10).

Luckily enough, I started to buy bitcoins a few weeks ago, and for the same reasons the "blu dolar" exists here, bitcoin transactions in person/cash are really valued here, because you can guess, it is also really hard/expensive for Argentinians to buy bitcoins online (because of the rate/price of doing bank transfers in USD).

So thanks to that, I was able today to arrange a cash transaction through localbitcoins.com - allowing me to sell a few bitcoins at the market price, in Argentinians Pesos, to the "blu rate"!

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#46

Post by csomar »

nickff wrote: post #40
Danieru wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a funny joke but after I read it outloud to my friends I got confused. How is it cheaper? One would enter the taxi with pesos. These pesos do not go up in value. Instead the cost of the rides go up. Thus you would want to pay sooner rather than later. Of course there is no joke in saying the bus is cheaper. Unless one entered the taxi with US dollars. Yet in theory the exchange rate should match inflation. To…

The idea is that you are billed a nominal value, whose rate is fixed when you contract the service. Since the rate is always agreed to at the beginning of the trip, the time of payment has an impact on its value. This joke is essentially the opposite of debt deflation (theory of recessions), as described by Irving Fisher;[1] the theory states that the debtor loses money during deflation, causing repayment problems. I…

I thought you pay in advance when you take the bus too. At least that was the case in the few countries I visited.

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#47

Post by fennecfoxen »

wslh wrote: post #35
bedhead wrote: post #11

All self-inflicted wounds. Argentinians could have a stable currency and a thriving, functional economy - there's nothing structural that's stopping them. But they choose not to, and have been making this choice for they last 100 years or so. It's a true pity.

No, the problem is structural: bad routes, no security, no mobile infrastructure, no energy (I am not talking about potential energy), bad education, bad transport of goods between cities. And I am not talking about corruption yet... you can bribe anybody in a direct way with witnesses around. You can say that Argentina has all the ingredients to be a first world country but it is just a hope to be at that point. For…

The self-infliction is electing politicians like Kirchner who don't try to spend time and effort improving their infrastructure and stability and attracting investment to build new things. Instead, they prefer to borrow money to deliver handouts to the populace, then when they can't repay the money, default on their debts and take over the local operations of foreign firms. (This is before we even get into the suppression of the media and other overtures of authoritarianism...)

Not that the poorest of Argentinians aren't in great need of some form of aid like those handouts, but sacrificing the argentinian nation's economic future works out to be a BAD PLAN in the end.

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#48

Post by csomar »

jhandl wrote: post #37
MichaelTieso wrote: post #32

Half of my family is from Buenos Aires and I often go back to visit. It's crazier than you think over there. Not too long ago they made it illegal and very difficult for any Argentinean to take out their own money from the ATM. The government is trying really hard to keep everyone inside the country and only spend money within the country. So for anyone visiting Argentina anytime soon, bring as many US dollars as pos…

The disinformation in this one is strong. It's not illegal nor hard to get money from ATMs.

I think he meant international ATMs (outside Arg).

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#49

Post by icebraining »

csomar wrote: post #46
nickff wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea is that you are billed a nominal value, whose rate is fixed when you contract the service. Since the rate is always agreed to at the beginning of the trip, the time of payment has an impact on its value. This joke is essentially the opposite of debt deflation (theory of recessions), as described by Irving Fisher;[1] the theory states that the debtor loses money during deflation, causing repayment problems. I…

I thought you pay in advance when you take the bus too. At least that was the case in the few countries I visited.

No, you only pay in advance when you take the bus. When you take a cab/taxi, you set the rate in advance, but only pay at the end (when the currency is less valuable).

Re: Argentina's Currency Black Market

#50

Post by maxerickson »

antsar wrote: post #41
rafaelm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get the $ to buy bit coins? I've been thinking about doing that in Venezuela but we only get $400 per year for online purchases.

Possibly ignorant American here. You have a limit on what you are allowed to spend on online purchases? How is it enforced and by whom?

Out of country sites likely won't accept Argentinian pesos, so the enforcement can be done at the level of the banks/money changers (by just requiring them to document who for and why they exchanged some dollars or whatever).
Post reply on HN