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What it's like to live life not trusting your bank or your money: A disturbing telescope into America's future comes from Argentina.
American Thinker ^ | 03/26/2023 | Monica Showalter

Posted on 03/26/2023 9:39:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Now that we are seeing inflation and serial bank failures in the U.S. with few prospects of any improvement so long as Joe Biden is in the saddle, perhaps a look at what that's like when the experience is extended is worth the trouble.

Emily Stewart, at Vox of all places, has written a brilliant, yes, brilliant, piece describing in minute detail just what the hell that kind of living is like. What is it like for a modern economy and a first world lifestyle to go the way of, well, Argentina? She describes it from a recent trip very, very well.

It all kind of looks the same as here. It's first world. People have kitchens and electricity and flush toilets. They wear shoes, go to school, and speak English. But it's not the same, and the changes creep up in the manner of the boiled frog -- until they become complete lunacy around the issue of money.

The only thing missing, and perhaps it's outside the scope of her piece, but it's very critical, is where that kind of economy came from. Hint: We know it well.

Stewart begins her piece out with this:

For those unfamiliar, the ways people in Argentina navigate the day-to-day economy can sound wild. When you don’t think you can trust the bank, the currency, or anybody in charge, things can get pretty weird pretty fast.

Amid super-high inflation, people can’t bet on the value of the Argentine peso staying stable, so when they’re paid in them, they spend them fast or convert their money to American dollars — it’s unwise to keep your money in pesos for too long.


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: argentina; banks; confidence; socialism; usa
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The government limits how many US dollars people can buy at the official exchange rate, if they’re allotted any at all, and so they buy them at a much higher black market rate, called the “blue” dollar. It’s about double the official rate — at the moment, the official exchange rate is around 200 pesos to a dollar, while the blue rate is around 380 to one.

“The Argentine economy has taught the people here not to trust in institutions in general but also not to trust in one of the central institutions for the functioning of the economy, which is money,” said Santiago Cesteros, a research fellow at the University of Zurich and former consultant at the World Bank.

1 posted on 03/26/2023 9:39:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

In the 19th century was among the wealthiest countries on the planet.

I wonder what happened? Hm.


2 posted on 03/26/2023 9:51:49 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: SeekAndFind

This is the time to ask do we trust God, or cash or the government


3 posted on 03/26/2023 9:57:44 AM PDT by AlbertWang
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To: SeekAndFind

This is the time to ask do we trust God, or cash or the government


4 posted on 03/26/2023 9:57:44 AM PDT by AlbertWang
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To: SeekAndFind

This is the time to ask do we trust God, or cash or the government


5 posted on 03/26/2023 9:57:45 AM PDT by AlbertWang
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To: SeekAndFind

Vox promotes woke socialism and corrupt, bloated government as a matter of course, then writes an article about other places that are living under just such a system


6 posted on 03/26/2023 9:57:56 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: AlbertWang

Three times.


7 posted on 03/26/2023 9:58:24 AM PDT by AlbertWang
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To: SeekAndFind
The official exchange rate is 200 pesos to the U.S. dollar. A year ago, it was 100.

What strikes me is how much time is wasted waiting on line, or taking ferries to Uruguay, or workers going on strike to secure wages that keep up with prices. All this wasted time that could have been put to more productive use. The breakdown of a currency equals a breakdown of society.

8 posted on 03/26/2023 9:58:56 AM PDT by fhayek
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To: Freedom4US
I wonder what happened? Hm.

Eva Duarte.

9 posted on 03/26/2023 9:59:14 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: AlbertWang

In God We Trust.....all others pay cash.


10 posted on 03/26/2023 10:00:22 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: fhayek

Is Uruguay much better?


11 posted on 03/26/2023 10:04:36 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: PGR88

Much better.


12 posted on 03/26/2023 10:05:19 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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If only we can get the super diverse spanish influenced ideals of corruption to our shores


13 posted on 03/26/2023 10:06:41 AM PDT by dsrtsage ( Complexity is just simple lacking imagination)
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To: SeekAndFind
Amid super-high inflation, people can’t bet on the value of the Argentine peso staying stable, so when they’re paid in them, they spend them fast or convert their money to American dollars — it’s unwise to keep your money in pesos for too long.

And, if President Sniffer continues on this path - what currency will Americans be able to convert to? Canadian? Mexican?

14 posted on 03/26/2023 10:07:19 AM PDT by GOPJ (When Morning Joe's sycophants say "My Democracy" it sounds like Gollum saying "my precious")
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To: fhayek

What strikes me is how much time is wasted waiting on line, or taking ferries to Uruguay, or workers going on strike to secure wages that keep up with prices. All this wasted time that could have been put to more productive use. The breakdown of a currency equals a breakdown of society.


Life is choices. Where we spend our time is one of them. We can “let” them choose for us, but what would be better choices?

What should we choose today?


15 posted on 03/26/2023 10:07:24 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Emily stresses to not lose confidence in institutions. How about the institutions quit screwing up?


16 posted on 03/26/2023 10:09:16 AM PDT by griswold3 (Truth, Beauty and Goodness ; Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat)
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To: SeekAndFind

Americans no longer have to face the arduous trek to places like Argentina or Venezuela to experience a culture and society where citizens
cannot trust their government, banking system or currency.

Thanks to our own democrats and other unhinged leftists we now can have the exact same experience right here in our own home towns.


17 posted on 03/26/2023 10:10:13 AM PDT by Iron Munro ( Michael Byrd: "Well, Somebody had to do it - Babbitt wasn't gonna' shoot herself!")
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To: SeekAndFind

It is the lack of Trust in God that is costing this nation our freedom and prosperity.


18 posted on 03/26/2023 10:11:56 AM PDT by G Larry ( "woke" means 'stupid enough to fall for the promotion of every human weakness into a virtue')
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To: dfwgator

I find myself buying tools I don’t need now but will in the future. And of course topping up my preps.


19 posted on 03/26/2023 11:19:52 AM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: GOPJ
And, if President Sniffer continues on this path - what currency will Americans be able to convert to? Canadian? Mexican?

Yuan? Riyals? Rouble?
20 posted on 03/26/2023 11:22:00 AM PDT by Mr Radical (In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.)
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