Tuesday, September 18, 2007

"¡No HAY monedas!"


I knew we were all in trouble again when I saw the way that my kiosquero drooled at my coins.

It comes and goes. Nobody knows why ...although this video is terrific in the way it shows the problem and asks yer reglar José and María what they think and what they've heard as to the possible reasons.

The expat's favorite, The Hundy (100 peso note) will draw grins or grimaces depending on where we all are in the re-occurring cycle. Cigarettes with a 100 ...don't even think about it. (A pack of smokes costs about 3.20)

A hundred for smokes ... that would never fly in Yanquilandia, either.

If you're "plugged-into" your barrio, however, it's a much more of a minor nuisance: you ALWAYS break your big bills at a big supermercado ...and you ALWAYS try to buy little things like coffee, cigarettes, gum, etc from your local merchants, and you ALWAYS pay THEM with the smallest combo of bills and coins you can come up with.

That way, when the next down cycle in bills/coins comes along ...they'll cut you some slack if you're caught without (?) and have to pay with a larger bill because you don't have anything smaller.

Of course, you'll get all that small stuff by hoarding small billetes/monedas for the bus, cigs, coffee, etc. ...which doesn't do the gov any favors when they're trying to plan for what we all need. But if my stash gets too big, I just vomit it all on my local kiosquero.

It'll all get back into into circulation tout de suite.

2 comments:

tangocherie said...

Hey Mike, you don't think someone's melting them down to make all that fake African gold jewelry for sale on street corners, do you?

yanqui mike said...

Sheesh! Who knows where all that stuff is coming from!