Gay Americans in Argentina: How The Looming Risk Of Financial Default Affects Argentina

Monday, August 4, 2014

How The Looming Risk Of Financial Default Affects Argentina

Some of you may have heard about the vulture funds and the so called “DEFAULT” situation that Argentina is facing. Unfortunately, there are plenty of news reports and websites out there, each offering their own version of what’s the truth and what’s a lie... but they seem to have no idea what they're talking about.

What I will talk about is the fact that while the popular world news media continue to report the situation as dire; Argentina does not appear to be collapsing economically. You won’t find riots or mass suicides on the streets or any of the nonsense that people might report due to the supposed looming threat of the “DEFAULT”.

People continue to go about their day, children go to school, and grown-ups go to work, or go shopping.

As far as the province of Cordoba is concerned, businesses are still making money. People are still going to malls to buy clothes, DVDs, books, perfume. They also spend cash on a nice meal at restaurants and food courts with their families or friends.

Economists were predicting that the value of the dollar would rise in Argentina, but I’ve been monitoring the rate by which the U.S. dollar has climbed and the amount is negligible. Over the last few days, it’s gone from 8.09 Argentine pesos to 8.23 Argentine pesos per 1 USD as of August 4^th. Now I’m not saying that won’t change. It may very well change, but for the time being there are no signs of a major collapse or chaos.

In addition, Argentine president Christina Fernandez Kirchner has once again increased the monthly benefits that the retired elderly receive from 2,700 to 3,200 Argentine pesos. From what I've observed of the last two years, growing old here seems like a pretty sweet deal.

For those fortunate enough to find legal work here, the minimum wage is about to jump once again.

I did some price checking on three items that I took photos of a year ago, and then again this year to see if there have been any changes, and there have been, but it’s definitely not as crazy as you would expect… well except maybe for the bag of Doritos.