Is It Time To Close The Blue Market?

[Joe]

Florida street, where it always was.

That's true but up until 2012, the rate they gave wasn't much different from the rate I got at the ATM - now there's a big difference.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

That's true but up until 2012, the rate they gave wasn't much different from the rate I got at the ATM - now there's a big difference.

Agree, but there is always going to be a black market for dirty money.

 

[John.St]

Florida street, where it always was.

Why would there be a U$S black market in 1999 when you could get all the U$S you wanted in a bank, from your cousin, a taxidriver, etc.?

You obviously don't know, but then the U$S was close to become the currency in Argentina.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Why would there be a U$S black market in 1999 when you could get all the U$S you wanted in a bank, from your cousin, a taxidriver, etc.?

You obviously don't know, but then the U$S was close to become the currency in Argentina.

Because people don t pay taxes.

 

[John.St]

Because people don t pay taxes.

Oh, I get it.

The taxi driver or your cousin refused to give you U$S because you showed them your non-income declaration?

Stop making things up as you go. During the period when you could get U$S on par for AR$ in every taxi, bar, cafe, restaurant, night club, etc. etc.etc. there wasn't a basis for a black market. Also, there were no reason to exchange, because if you had a dollar, you had a peso, if you had a peso, you had a dollar. ECO001.

 

[sleazemerchant]

Wake up! There was always a usd black market in Argentina.

If you have dirty money you can t buy usd at the bank.

This is absolutely correct. "Someone" I know has always used the black market to buy USD even when anyone could walk into any exchange house or your own bank and buy as many USD as they wanted at the official rate. Until the dreaded "cepo cambiario" came into effect in 2011 the black market rate was typically 5-15 basis points more expensive than the official rate. Those extra 5-15 basis points bought anonymity; if you are exchanging large sums of undeclared cash it's obviously better not to have any records.

 

[sleazemerchant]

Oh, I get it.

The taxi driver or your cousin refused to give you U$S because you showed them your non-income declaration?

Stop making things up as you go. During the period when you could get U$S on par for AR$ in every taxi, bar, cafe, restaurant, night club, etc. etc.etc. there wasn't a basis for a black market. Also, there were no reason to exchange, because if you had a dollar, you had a peso, if you had a peso, you had a dollar. ECO001.

You are either extremely naive or not being serious. Smart people earning lots of undeclared cash are not going to use official channels requiring identification to exchange their local currency for USD. Even more importantly, do you really believe that the smart money in the 90's kept their money in AR pesos instead of USD? The serious players exchanged those AR peso earnings at 1:1 for USD as quick as they could and sent it to foreign bank accounts.

 

[John.St]

You are either extremely naive or not being serious. Smart people earning lots of undeclared cash are not going to use official channels requiring identification to exchange their local currency for USD. Even more importantly, do you really believe that the smart money in the 90's kept their money in AR pesos instead of USD? The serious players exchanged those AR peso earnings at 1:1 for USD as quick as they could and sent it to foreign bank accounts.

How many opinions do you have on this subject?

A night club, bar or one of the several other channels I mentioned were official channels? ("Smart people earning lots of undeclared cash are not going to use official channels")

If there were a black market in e.g. 1999 why would the racketeers sell U$S 1:1 - that's not what is called a black market. On the black market there is a noticeable span to the official exchange rate, that's the whole bloody idea ("the serious players exchanged those AR peso earnings at 1:1 for USD").

I remember from 2001 that some, perhaps not so smart, people had large U$S accounts in Argentine Banks. I worked as a consultant in BsAs in 2002, and smart and not so smart people told me their experiences.