The majority of the population does without daily banking, mortgages, car loans, overdrafts or credit cards, yet the economy is booming.
So is Argentina's cash-based example one we should be following, asks Jack Horgan-Jones from Eire
MIGUEL FELDMAN, a dentist in the wealthy Buenos Aires neighbourhood named for Argentine economist Manuel Belgrano, tells a story about helping his friend move house. He had been enlisted, along with his son, to set up the sound system.
“There was a speaker that didn’t work,” he says. “It worked at a very low volume.”
The pair tried in vain to adjust settings and rewire the speaker, but to no avail. Finally they removed the rear panel to look inside.
“Do you know what we found inside?” Feldman says. “Almost 300,000 US dollars cash.”
Orla Treacy (25) is originally from Limerick but has lived in Buenos Aires for the past two years. She works in the city and says that the banking practices of expats are as erratic as those of Argentinians.
“I am fortunate enough to work in a global company, so everything I do as regards payment and banking is official and on the books,” she says. “But many friends and acquaintances work illegally, or en negro, for local schools, companies, magazines or agencies and affiliates for companies in the United States or Europe. Many employers come to arrangements with their employees whereby they get paid in cash slightly above the going market rate and they keep quiet about how much they get paid and by whom.”
Treacy adds that expat rent and purchases are made in cash and that “there are usually substantial discounts from landlords and shop-owners if dollar cash is on offer, as this allows them to also keep things en negro”.
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So is Argentina's cash-based example one we should be following, asks Jack Horgan-Jones from Eire
MIGUEL FELDMAN, a dentist in the wealthy Buenos Aires neighbourhood named for Argentine economist Manuel Belgrano, tells a story about helping his friend move house. He had been enlisted, along with his son, to set up the sound system.
“There was a speaker that didn’t work,” he says. “It worked at a very low volume.”
The pair tried in vain to adjust settings and rewire the speaker, but to no avail. Finally they removed the rear panel to look inside.
“Do you know what we found inside?” Feldman says. “Almost 300,000 US dollars cash.”
Orla Treacy (25) is originally from Limerick but has lived in Buenos Aires for the past two years. She works in the city and says that the banking practices of expats are as erratic as those of Argentinians.
“I am fortunate enough to work in a global company, so everything I do as regards payment and banking is official and on the books,” she says. “But many friends and acquaintances work illegally, or en negro, for local schools, companies, magazines or agencies and affiliates for companies in the United States or Europe. Many employers come to arrangements with their employees whereby they get paid in cash slightly above the going market rate and they keep quiet about how much they get paid and by whom.”
Treacy adds that expat rent and purchases are made in cash and that “there are usually substantial discounts from landlords and shop-owners if dollar cash is on offer, as this allows them to also keep things en negro”.
...more
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