8/12/2019 Monedas Argentinas 1
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F O R E I G N E R S
Yes, We Have No Monedas !Inside the world's most annoying
economic crisis.
By Joe KeohanePosted Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008, at 6:58 AM ET
It was no surprise that the cab driver tried to rip us off.We're
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after all, and we'dmade the rookie
error of requesting a vague destinationinstead of giving a precise
addressnaturally heinterpreted this as a license to take us from La
Boca tothe Plaza de Mayo by way of southern Nicaragua. What we
hadn't expected was the predicament thedriver found himself in when
it came time to pay. The fare had come to 14 pesos and 6 centavos.
I
proffered a 20-peso note (worth about $6.70), and he handed back
50 centavos, suggesting that I wasgoing to be shorted 44 centavos.
Then he realized that continuing on this course would require him
to giveme two 2-peso notes and a 1-peso coin. He sighed
dramatically and gave me three 2-peso notes instead.Factoring in
the 50 centavos he had already handed over, this effectively
reduced the fare to 13.50 pesos,which, for reasons I'll get to in a
moment, is actually more than 14.50 pesos.
Welcome to the world's strangest economic crisis. Argentina in
generaland Buenos Aires in particularis presently in the grip of a
moneda , or coin, shortage. Everywhere you look, there are
signsreading, " NO HAY MONEDAS ." As a result, vendors here are
more likely to decline to sell you somethingthan to cough up any of
their increasingly precious coins in change. I've tried to buy a
2-peso candy bar with a 5-peso note only to be refused, suggesting
that the 2-peso sale is worth less to the vendor than the
1-peso coin he would be forced to give me in change. When my
wife went to buy a 10-trip subway pass,which retails for 9 pesos,
she offered a 20-peso note and received 12 pesos in bills as
change. This iscommonplacea daily, if not hourly, occurrence. It's
taken for granted that the peso coin is more valuablethan the
2-peso note.
No one can say what's causing this absurd situation. The
government accuses Argentines of hoardingcoins, which is true, at
least to some extent. When even the most insignificant purchase
requires the sameorder of planning and precision as a long-range
missile strike, you can hardly blame people for keeping a
jar of monedas safe at home. The people, in turn, fault the
government for not minting enough coins. Infact, the nation's
central bank has produced a record number of monedas this year, and
the problem hasgotten even worse. Everyone blames the bus
companies, whose buses accept only monedas . (Buenos
Aires' 140-plus bus routes are run by a number of separate,
private companies.) These companies,exploiting a loophole in the
law, run side businesses that will exchange clients' bills for
monedas for a 3 percent service fee. This is legal, but the
business community also routinely complains of being forced intothe
clutches of a thriving moneda black marketrun by the local mob, or
the bus companies, or bothinwhich coins sell for a premium of
between 5 percent and 10 percent. The bus companies steadfastly
denyany involvement in this racket, but their claims were undercut
by the discovery of a hoard of 13 millioncoins, amounting to 5
million pesos, in one company's warehouse this October.
Those coins were confiscated, but the 5 million pesos were
returned to the companyin billswhichcould be seen as a fine of
sorts. The government has also passed laws requiring banks to
provide customerswith 100 pesos' worth of change on demand. (The
banks ignored this because, they said, their precious
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![Las monedas. Curso 08 - 09[1] · •Pega las monedas que correspondan estos monederos. No puedes utilizar las monedas de 1 y 2 euros 25 centimos 60 centimos 1 euro y 40 centimos 70](https://img.pdfslide.es/doc/110x75/5f34486b02aa49733c1590a8/las-monedas-curso-08-091-apega-las-monedas-que-correspondan-estos-monederos.jpg)
