Argentina: Home to ‘The World’s Most Annoying Economic Crisis’
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 12.03.08 | 4:15 PM ET
There’s a coin shortage in Argentina, and it’s driving people in the country bonkers. It’s particularly acute in Buenos Aires. Joe Keohane explains in a story for Slate:
Everywhere you look, there are signs reading, “NO HAY MONEDAS.” As a result, vendors here are more likely to decline to sell you something than 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.
A benefit for some travelers: “Subway employees are occasionally forced to wave commuters through because they are out of coins,” Keohane writes.
Email to friend
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz
Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Ling 12.04.08 | 10:10 AM ET
That story about how much he paid for a taxi had me almost whipping out a calculator to follow along. Guess the best that can be said is that its not as bad as their previous meltdown, which, if I’m not wrong, virtually destroyed the value of their currency.