# I fear I'm about to lose my country **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 22, 2023, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926 "2023-10-22T16:48:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 45
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/881 "2025-10-17T12:36:55Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > The Old Ones are mortally afraid of the Peso, they may be horrors beyond al comprehension from beyond the doors of reality but they have their _limits_ Ia! Ia! Peso ftagn! ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/882 "2025-10-17T12:46:57Z")
> [@Paul Krugman October 17 2025](#): > > some U.S. hedge-fund billionaires, [personally close to Bessent](https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/bailing-out-bessents-buddies-bets), bet big on Milei and bought Argentine bonds. The bailout package almost surely won’t succeed in turning Argentina’s economy around and probably won’t rescue Milei politically. But it may buy enough time for Bessent’s buddies to get much of their money out before the bottom falls out of the Argentine economy. > [@Frodo December 13 2023 talking about Caputo's previous term as minister of economy](#): > > he took the debt so his financial cronies could change all their pesos into dollars and take them out of the country at reasonable rates of exchange. > [@Bersuit Vergarabat's 'El tiempo no para'](#): > > Yo veo al futuro repetir el pasado > Veo un museo de grandes novedades > ( > I see the future repeat the past > I see museum of great novelty > ) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4hXDDzig90M/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-BIAC4AOKAgwIABABGBMgFSh_MA8=&rs=AOn4CLDM6NQ2DA6Rev-SdFqMtav2XBncgA "Bersuit vergarabat - El tiempo no para (con letra)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hXDDzig90M&t=41/) ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/883 "2025-10-17T12:58:12Z")
In a local Argentinian context is the Dollar the “outside eldritch incontrollable force” entire governments have crashed and sunk trying to control it. But once the U.S. treasury enters the fray… is more like the whole “Peso/Dollar” interaction is cursed. The basic problem is that we have no faith in our currency and have fetishized the Dollar to the level of a Lovecraftian God. When the Dollar raises, the price of EVERYTHING raises the next day, not necessarily because of rational motives (say, because they contain imported parts) but because it’s an article of faith that if the Dollar raises the prices do so too. (And if , somehow, the Dollar loses some ground, the prices stay raised). Everybody is desperate to get them greenbacks (specially the “Cara grande” ones, the ones with the big Ben Franklin face, the older ones in which Ben’s face is smaller are considered of less value for some reason). Thus unless the treasury is prepared to buy the entire surplus money of every Argentinian citizen each month in pesos for the foreseeable future, the Dollar _will_ continue to raise. And since it’s obvious that that is not the case, the peso is doomed to take at least a 50% devaluation sooner than later, which makes everyone even more desperate to buy Dollars… ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/884 "2025-10-17T14:34:39Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > the older ones in which Ben’s face is smaller are considered of less value for some reason At a guess, I’d say perhaps because the older design bills are more vulnerable to being counterfeited, and quite a few entities made counterfeits of them for a while, many of which are likely still in circulation. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/885 "2025-10-17T15:03:46Z")
That’s the excuse, but the hysteria is not justified, there have been no cases of counterfeiting that I’m aware of. When I bought my house last year, I had to verify one by one each Benjamin to check that they were “Cara Grande” (“Did you buy your house in cash?” I hear you ask, oh sweet summer child…) ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/886 "2025-10-17T15:27:49Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > That’s the excuse, but the hysteria is not justified, there have been no cases of counterfeiting that I’m aware of. Here in the U.S. local media will occasionally put out alerts about counterfeit bills in circulation, so it does happen from time to time. I wonder if there’s a tendency for bogus bucks to migrate overseas, or be passed there, where they might be less likely to run through a bank that would check them for validity. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/887 "2025-10-17T15:45:32Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > (And if , somehow, the Dollar loses some ground, the prices stay raised). That’s the economic theory of wheat and bread. Wheat goes up, bread goes up. Wheat falls, bread stays up. > [@Frodo](#): > > When I bought my house last year, I had to verify one by one each Benjamin to check that they were “Cara Grande” (“Did you buy your house in cash?” I hear you ask, oh sweet summer child…) When I was a slot mechanic for a while the law in Nevada was that if a machine took cash – and all of them did 25 years ago – any jackpot had to be paid in cash.\* As a mechanic I had to verify the jackpot was valid and witness the payout. The largest I personally saw was $13,000 but once when I came on shift they were still working on a $50,000+ payout. \*An exception was made for the wide area progressive machines where a payout could be over $10-million. Then a representative of the company running it would come out to verify and be photographed with one of those giant ceremonial checks. I never saw a hit on those in my seven years as a mechanic. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/888 "2025-10-17T16:40:51Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > When I bought my house last year, I had to verify one by one each Benjamin to check that they were “Cara Grande” (“Did you buy your house in cash?” I hear you ask, oh sweet summer child…) I’m sorry, are you saying you bought your house in US currency? In Argentina? ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/889 "2025-10-17T16:47:39Z")
Have read today’s **[Krugman substack](https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/america-first-no-billionaire-buddies?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=277517&post_id=176358237&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=203721&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email)** you already quoted, where he states that he only knows one Argentinian band (he usually finishes his posts with a link to a video he deems fitting to his current subject). He clearly needs your help. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/890 "2025-10-17T16:49:41Z")
There’s no other way to buy a house. As I said, nobody has faith in our currency, furthermore nobody has faith in _banks_ after what happened in 2001. So, to buy my house what I did was painstakingly buy dollars each month, take them out of the bank, stuff them under my mattress (well, not really there but that’s the traditional hiding site) until I had enough to buy the house. Then I went to a notary public with the seller, gave her the dollars and signed a few papers. You can get a loan to buy a house too (I fortunately was able to avoid doing that, since the loans are either in dollars (and thus susceptible to multiply the debt manyfold once the dollar shoots up) or have ginormous interest rates)) but if you do you use the loan to buy cash dollars to pay for your house. If I had saved pesos instead of dollars I would’ve never be able to reach the amount necessary since the peso severely devaluated between when I started to save and when I bought the house. And for the same reason the house selling price was always published in dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/891 "2025-10-17T16:52:00Z")
Thanks for elaborating. That is something. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/892 "2025-10-17T16:55:58Z")
I tried to log in to the comment section to fix that inadmissible state of affairs but I couldn’t. Knowing Argentinians though, I’m sure there are now several comments recommending Soda Stereo, Los Redonditos de Ricota, Seru Giran, etc, etc, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/893 "2025-10-17T17:01:34Z")
I knew you would try! 🙂 > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Thanks for elaborating. For further elaboration I would read the wikiarticle on **[currency substitution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_substitution)**, also called dollarización in Argentina and Perú. Note that the map on that article is wrong: Argentina is depicted in white, where it should be green, as **Frodo** has described. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/894 "2025-10-17T17:01:57Z")
I’m always more than happy to talk about myself and my country 😃 Also I left out something, in an effort to keep the dollar at bay without selling our reserves, at various points while I was saving for my house it was actually illegal for banks to sell dollars to particulars. So I had to resort to buying them from shady characters who deal in the “blue dollar” outside banks and paying them about 20 to 50% more than the “official” exchange rate. You haven’t lived until you are taking a cab in front of a bank in downtown Buenos Aires with 10 million pesos (in 100 peso bills!) in a bag to go to the house of somebody you never met, to exchange them for about 8 thousand dollars and _then_ have to return to your home in the suburbs with about 4 month of wages in dollars burning a hole in your pocket… ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/895 "2025-10-17T17:04:00Z")
I am trying to put myself in the shoes of somebody for whom overpaying to the tune of 20 to 50% is a rational economic strategy. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/896 "2025-10-17T17:05:27Z")
It can be argued that it was not really “overpaying” as the official dollar was a fiction and the real dollar was the unofficial one. However it was not so cut and dried, for importers for example the official dollar was obtainable, just not for particulars. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/897 "2025-10-17T17:54:29Z")
Remember this? > [@Frodo](#): > > The U.S. treasury is trying to stabilize the Peso… but the Peso is indomitable, even with Bessent selling Dollars from a firehose the Dollar went from less than 1400 Pesos this morning to more than 1430. > The dark humourists in social media are having a field day “These poor yanquis have no idea of the eldritch forces they are messing with” Today the treasury continued to sell dollars but the dollar went up to 1485 pesos… And the memes continue to appear at even faster rates “Don’t take all the dollars mister!” [![](https://i.imgur.com/fwbn9SB.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/fwbn9SB.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/OQlJo0O.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/OQlJo0O.jpeg) I imagine Bessent like this at this moment: [![](https://www.meme-arsenal.com/memes/5ddf784bb88315024ead75054e4c2950.jpg) ](https://www.meme-arsenal.com/memes/5ddf784bb88315024ead75054e4c2950.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2025, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/898 "2025-10-18T05:12:52Z")
I saw a meme with a picture of Milei looking directly at the camera with a sour or tough look, instead of the smile I’ve seen in other photos. My snap reaction was that he looks like the old-school working-class leader of a rough-and-tumble semi-corrupt detective squad in a gritty 1970s British police drama. His hairdo is at Trumpian levels of “he thinks it looks good but It. Does. Not.” ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2025, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/899 "2025-10-18T10:12:45Z")
A post was split to a new topic: [Return troll, same story as last time](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-troll-same-story-as-last-time/1024074) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926/900 "2025-10-18T15:08:01Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > For further elaboration I would read the wikiarticle on **[currency substitution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_substitution)**, also called dollarización in Argentina and Perú. Note that the map on that article is wrong: Argentina is depicted in white, where it should be green, as **Frodo** has described. Fascinating. Of course, the challenge now is I’m not entirely convinced the dollar is all that stable anymore. Or won’t be for long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926.md?page=44) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-fear-im-about-to-lose-my-country/991926.md?page=46)