When is the Next Crisis?

[Joe]

Look on the bright side:

The poor handling of the economy, the inflation, the nepotism, the corruption is bad for the people of Argentina, most would agree.

However the mismanagement and corruption keeps wages low and the keeps the cost of living low for expats. When you look at corruption indices, the places with the least corruption have the highest cost of living, e.g. Singapore is very expensive compared to its neighboring countries. Of course this makes sense in that dealing with corruption is a great drain on productivity - money going to your local policemen or politicians is money not going into investment.

Yes now I must admit BA is getting expensive with the inflation. I probably will be heading to Peru and Asia for awhile.

But when and if the crisis comes and given that investment is flowing elsewhere in South America, Buenos Aires will return to being a relatively inexpensive place to live.

I hope Argentina gets its act together but it seems they have been on the same downward path for a 100 years, it ain't going to change - and that's good for expats ...
or at least those NOT trying to make a living here.

 

[steveinbsas]

Look on the bright side:..when and if the crisis comes and given that investment is flowing elsewhere in South America, Buenos Aires will return to being a relatively inexpensive place to live.

This may only be wishful thinking, but I like it.

 

[davonz]

However the mismanagement and corruption keeps wages low and the keeps the cost of living low for expats. When you look at corruption indices, the places with the least corruption have the highest cost of living, e.g. Singapore is very expensive compared to its neighboring countries.

Not true.. New Zealand is always near the top of the least corrupt countries, and it is way cheaper than argentina to live now.. Even alot of europe is cheaper than Arg now for daily living..

 

[Hache]

Thanks everyone for making this such an interesting thread.


From my empirical life experience, for what it's worth, crisis will be official when we start seeing hordes of people buying dollars to the beat of cacerolas. The craving for dollars may begin earlier, but the pounding of metallic objects will start only after the sh*t hit the fan. Sorry if my answer is only of cynical value, and I truly hope we don't get to that point (again).

 

[Joe]

I agree that things are really expensive here now. But after the last crisis Argentina was quite a bargain for 5 years or so.

The government is printing up a lot of prosperity now (in the form of 100 peso notes), but that can never last...

(BTW, Is it true that the governments presses didn't have the capacity to print all the 100 peso notes and they had to get Brazil's help printing money?!?!?!)

 

[French jurist]

(BTW, Is it true that the governments presses didn't have the capacity to print all the 100 peso notes and they had to get Brazil's help printing money?!?!?!)

--> True but if I recall, the official explanation is that one printing machine broke in Argentina.