...especially if you write for the Wall Street Journal!It's 34º (94F) right now ...but with only 22% humidity, we'd kill for an afternoon like this in July in Chicago. (Actually, our tradition there is to wait at least until 3am when it's 98F with 98% humidity before taking a life over the weather.)
Yes, friends, the weather here is back to "normal paradise" rather than the last two weeks of unseasonably supernatural springtime. Porteños will tell you when pressed, "Sure, God is everywhere ...but his office is in Buenos Aires." Maybe the Big Guy was in town.
But if you're George Selgin, the sun is always shinin' on your WSJ gig well away from no longer having to regurgitate important fictions about money matters in the financial capital of the USofA...
...if you're George, you can go to Argentina and regurgitate fictional money matters here!
I ask you, whether you're from here or afar, how many times have you heard about Buenos Aires having no small coins in circulation?
How many times have you seen the requisite foto of a kiosco with a sign asking for correct change due to a lack of coins in circulation?
Lexis/Nexis somebody, please. In five years, I've seen more of these stories than actual shortages.
It's a fact that there's not enough small change to allow you to make any goofy transaction you want in Buenos Aires with each and every tiny vendor in town. I don't know what part of NYC Mr. Selgin is from (closer review shows that he's actually from West Virginia!) ...but I once saw a guy try to buy a pack of cigarettes in Manhattan with a $100 bill. The response was a quiet dose of pure Big Apple Brand venom.
Of course, here we sudacas are not allowed that kinda 'tude. "Want change for a five-peso (about $1.70) note? Don't try getting it at a store, unless you plan to buy something" he says ...in what appears to be amazement.
George, ol' pal, try asking for 5 bucks worth of change in "a store" in almost any big US city. Get back to me when you get a chance.
The truth is that there's enough small change for everyone to conduct their normal business.
Sure, you can get caught short and have a problem sometimes ...but that's when you're outside your neighborhood dealing with one of the myriad of tiny vendors that don't know you ...but know that they'll never see you again.
Each one of these kiosqueros has change ...but not for you.
They have coins for their regular, faithful customers in case one of them has nothing more than a medium-sized bill. Those regulars also assist the vendor in at least attempting to pay with coins or exact change.
Earthshaking? Bizarre? I don't think so.
Very much like New York (not so much, Morgantown), this city functions with scads of tiny vendors without which we couldn't live the life we love here. A century of market-feedback has determined exactly how many kioscos can exist (ever see a kiosco go out of business? It's rare!) Every kiosco makes it's living serving its small but densely populated turf ...and occasionally other passers-by. The occasionals pay with exact change when coins get tight.
Some sage told me shortly after my arrival here, "You can't do anything in Baires without a friend." Good advice. So different from Chicago where you can get anything done just waiving around a big bankroll. Here, you need to make friends with your corner shop owner, newsstand, shoeshine, etc. Don't just buy your little stuff all over town, become part of your barrio. Try paying with the smallest bill and as close to exact change as you can. That way, if you pull up lame some time, he'll give you change without hesitation ...no matter what the sign says. "That's the Buenos Aires way" (in my best Sean Connery accent.)
George has a twist to his "no coin" reprise, I'll give him that. He says the government is too much in control of... get this... the currency. Christ almighty. I guess that crap doesn't sell so well up North anymore. Maybe Mr. Selgin is trying to find somewhere far, far away in which to ride out the Obama years.
In his best you-know-what-you-people-need-down-here, he posits that big supermarket chains could avoid shortages by issuing tokens instead of coins. Hell! Where does he think we get all of our coins? I even got 80¢ from the Retiro San Martín railway station today. Some shortage.
He goes onto grumble that his idea wouldn't work because the government wouldn't stand for corporations privately printing currency. There goes that damm gubmint, agin!
My neighborhood supermercado could probably spit out "coupons" worth 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 centavos all day long at a push of a button ...and the government probably couldn't care less. But people would scream! Doesn't sound like the 18th century British coin shortage that he describes so well.
Give it up, George. There's enough coins. If you're here on an expense account, try practicing this old yanqui phrase, "Keep the change." Quedate con el vuelto.
If you're in town longer than a week or two, save your small change for the tiny vendors next to your digs, buy your paper and smokes and breath mints from them, keep some coins for the bus ...and enjoy your day.
It's beautiful outside! Hey, you gonna eat that bon-bon?
11 comments:
Mike
I heard a partial reason for the coin "shortage" is the fact that the metal value in some of the coins is worth more than their monetary value. I've also taken the subway free several times because they didn't have any change, and we once got a free highway toll for the same reason also.
In the US I hated coins, they were extra weight in my pocket and a pain in the neck, here I guard my coins, because without them, forget about taking the bus.
I'm getting better results with my local vendors using your coin strategy...I always pay with the smallest bill and give them the coins I scrounged up elsewhere in the city. I was confrontational with them at 1st (always using big bills, and trying to GET change), now they are my best friend!
I've also waited plenty at the banks, Banco Frances limited me to 5, and HSBC to only 2! Banco Provincia was the best at 10.
So strange to not be able to get change at a bank.
Fred
Democratic Freedom Caucus
I've heard the "melt value" theory before, too ...and from some good sources ...but I don't know that I believe it. The bi-metal peso coin was supposed to thwart the melters.
If the theory is true, then our troubles are over! The value of scrap metal has plummeted.
There's a shortage of change in BA, and has been for years, period, full stop. Anyone who thinks otherwise must be smoking something. The simple obvious answer would be for the government to print more damn coins, but it mismanages this task, like so many others.
As a former Catholic schoolboy, perhaps I'm too comfortable with a mystery.
The shortages are real ...otherwise the signs on the kioscos would be a permanent fixture.
Whether or not the shortages actually interfere with daily commerce has yet to be demonstrated to me, however.
Not getting a "dime" back from my $3.90 purchase of a pack of smokes doesn't rile me. Maybe I've lost my sense of entitlement to even the most minuscule thing. (Full disclosure: I don't care anymore if a stupid meeting ...that I don't want to attend anyway... starts 15 minutes late, either.) Hats off to the Lincoln Penny! Long may she wave.
It's important to remember that the "dime" I mentioned is worth less than 3 US cents.
I do, however, recognize/remember how "foreign!" not getting everything you want out of some poor bastard (no matter what it does to the rest of his day) can feel.
The government mints coins all the time. I've got a pocket full of change right now and there's every date in the book. You can notice the shiny new ones (well, at least I can) with regularity during the year.
Where do all the coins go? They always come back. But why do they all disappear with such regularity?
Scrap melters? Maybe. But there's got to be something more scrapable than coins for which you have to pay face value. And since there's a shortage ...doesn't that seem like an unlikely revenue stream?
I also remember when $5 peso notes disappeared almost completely. No scrap value there.
I think it's psychological. I think it's hoarding.
Because I live here and I know how valuable coins are to a daily life outside of creditcards, taxicabs, and remises, I know that I've got to have a stash of small change to get by.
You have to have coins for the bus. You can get your "dime" back from a peso coin without any problem. But you can't get on board without monedas. You run into situations where somebody won't give you change. You can't let that stop your day... you gotta pay.
I can't bring myself to give much exact change outside of my local merchants ...although sometimes I have to.
Every self-respecting Porteño has a stash of l'argent de poche so he doesn't come to a screeching halt in his daily life in this very busy city.
I admit that sometimes my stash gets embarrassingly big. It is then that I fill my pocket from my desk or nightstand ...and buy "my stuff" from "my guys" in all small coins.
Why do I hoard? It's small scale ..but, I admit, it's hoarding. I guess because it works!
Maybe 15 million other people feel the same way. I doubt that the gubmint could mint its way out of that situation.
It's fascinating.
Besides being an advocate of private mints, Dr. Selgin also supports the idea that private banks rather than central banks should issue paper currency and of “free banking” (banking without government regulations).
Mike,
I also "conserve" my coins (Mostly for the bus, but what I can't understand is why the banks won't give coins, like HSBC. HSBC told me
"nobody knows where the coins are"
And with proper planning, there is no problem with the coin "shortage" in daily life, if you plan right.
Fred
One great thing about the coin shortage, is that taxi drivers, and even the occasional maxi-kiosk worker, will round DOWN your bill, rather than have to make change.
I have travelled around the world, and NOWHERE else does this happen- a taxi driver saying, "you keep the change"? Never seen it except in BsAs.
My local Kiosk, sometimes will just take 2 pesos for a $2.50 drink, if he doesnt have change.
Again, try that at a 7-11 in Los Angeles.
Yeah, it's impressive. I've never been anywhere else where taxi don't expect tips, either.
There's actually a law that says if the merchant doesn't have change ...he has to round down to the next coin he has available.
My theory is that the bus companies hoard the coins and then sell them for a profit. Kiosqueros have to buy coins at a 5% markup. A friend of mine has to do that every weekend. So yes, I get my 5 or 10 cents change, because without it, I might have to take a taxi instead of a bus. And it's difficult to plan well if you have to take 2 or 3 buses per day. I can only imagine how hard that is for a family of 4 who all take at least 2 buses per day!
I just had to take a taxi home after seeing 4 buses pass by that stop one block from my house, direct line. Because in pleno Callao y Cordoba NONE of the 4 (!!) Kiosks that I tried to by a bottle of water from with a 5 peso bill had ONE FUCKING PESO COIN. Yep, no shortage, no problem.
...believe me
...they got 'em
...just not for you.
Supermarkets are the best place not to be refused for coins. Cafés are probably next.
Pain in the ass, I agree. Hoard, my friend. No self-respecting porteño leaves the house without coinage to get there and back.
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