Argentina's Economic Problem

I am convinced that Argentina's economy is bleeding out because of a little thing called the moneda (coin). Yes, the chunk change we American's take for granted and only really care about when it comes time to feed the meter. Argentina's moneda condition is the most frustrating thing I have had to deal with while being in South America. Let explain to you why.



There is a serious moneda shortage. Everywhere you go, you see signs that say "no hay monedas" (we don't have coins)... you're wondering what the big deal is. Well, for starters, this city runs on buses- you can take a bus anywhere and everyone does it- rich, poor, etc etc. But the buses ONLY take monedas and so if you want to go to say, class, you need to have 90 cents in change. But you realize you don't have any b/c no one gives you change, so you go down to the local kiosk to buy a bottle of water, so you can get change. Cost: AR$2.25. So you hand over your five peso bill.

Kiosk owner: tenes 25 centavos? (do you have 25 cents?)
Tu: no, no tengo (lie, you might have 25 cents but you're not parting with it!)
Here, the kiosk owner does one of two things.
Option 1: Refuses to sell you the water, b/c he's not going to give you change.
Option 2: Sells you the water, and tells you to owe him 25 cents. Like you'll remember that. I've tried to repay all my IOU's, but I'm fairly certain I owe someone 20 cents.

So now you still have no change and you need it to get to class. What do you do? You go to the next kiosk and try again, this time buying gum (which you don't even like to chew) or a piece of candy (though you're on a diet). And if per chance you get your change, it's only enough for ONE bus ride and so you're left with the same problem after class. Sometimes you rely on the kindess of friends to spot you a moneda, but just like you lied earlier to the man about your 25 cents, odds are that they'll lie to you too about whether or not they have another moneda.

Once, my friend and I were trying to go home at 2 am after salsa dancing and she didn't have a moneda. I only had one so we went on a search. Kiosk after kiosk said they had absolutely no change. So we got desperate and started asking strangers, hoping for kindness. Instead, they informed us that no one had change and told us, as though we were tourists, that no one will have change b/c it's a problem in Argentina. WE KNOW THIS. That's why we don't have any change.

So back to my theory- Argentina's economy is bleeding from the change purse. If I were an expert in econometrics, I would prove that the economy is losing millions a year by having a shortage of coins. Why? Well- by forgiving your 20 cents (or giving you an IOU and you forgetting), or by NOT selling goods because they don't have change to give you. Also by the loss of productivity & opportunity costs while you spend so much of your day looking for chunk change.

Why can't the government just print more monedas? Well, according to them, they made millions more in coins recently. But there's a black market- a moneda mafia!!- that hordes those little coins and sells them to those desperate enough to buy them for a higher price. You want 5 pesos in monedas? We'll sell it to you for 8. Can you believe that? And who is one of the biggest culprits in this ring of chicanery? The bus company!! Though they deny it, the government recently found over AR$5 million in coins at a warehouse owned by the bus company! The government confiscated the money and returned to them the same amount in bills. But that didn't solve the problem and I'm not sure what will. In the meantime, I continue to curse this country every time I need monedas and wait for some much more talented economist to figure out how many millions this shortage is costing the economy per year.

Celeb gossip

A year ago this time, I was obsessed with celebrity gossip. I watched the tmz show, I constantly hit "refresh" on people.com/usmagazine.com/perezhilton.com/tmz.com- you get the idea. In fact, everytime I was bored at work, I went to one of those sites (this was often).

And then one day, my best friend- the girl who sent ME gossip- told me she'd gone cold turkey, like she was battling a bad addiction. I asked her why, wondering who would replace her as my source of barely-heard celeb gossip. She said that she realized she was part of the reason the papparrazzi (sp?) fawned (and arguably contributed to the demise of) people like Britney and Lindsay (who I was completely obsessed with- I mean, she's a cute, freckled redhead who was heading towards disaster).

I immediately realized she was right and was dutifully ashamed of myself. But my life was so boring! And there's wasn't. So I turned to there's to hear what was going on- new party spots, new boy toys, new DUIs. But that day, I, too, went cold turkey on the celeb gossip.

And my life suddently stopped being boring. I had a great boyfriend, grad school, a great summer job, friends a-plenty, Argentina. And now, it's gone back to desperately boring as I study for my impossible final on Friday. I've been holed up in my apartment, leaving only to take my laundry to be done (a half block away) or to buy bread to make a sandwhich. So, when utter boredom/avoidance strikes, I've gotten in the habit of turning back to a few (semi-reputable) sources and check in w/ people.com and usmagazine.com.

Only now I realize, their lives aren't that exciting at all. Why was I ever obsessed with those girls? I mean, sure, they're not stressing about finding jobs or paying off their student loans, but what else do they have going for them? I'm not going to lie- celebs are still alluring, but my almost year away from gossip made me realize that I'm just not that into it. Or maybe I'm just saying that b/c Britney and Lindsay have temporarily gotten their lives back on track? Who knows. But while I had a momentary relapse after nearly a year, I am going cold turkey starting today. Ok, Saturday, after my final/reason for avoidance ends

However, if anything hits the fan- or Brad and Angelina finally decide to adopt a Latino baby, someone shoot me a quick email so I don't miss anything!