It is a sunny day in Buenos Aires, one of the coldest of the year, but in these dark and narrow streets it is hot, very hot. The city of Buenos Aires is a group of buildings, many of them of great architectural value, a couple of minutes walk from the Casa Rosada, which today is more fenced than ever. Getting lost in the recesses of the financial area of the Argentine capital is an experience that evokes Wall Street. Impressive buildings, modern buildings, narrow streets, many men in suits and, in general, many people walking. Forever. And there the similarities end.
Argentina, which has a capital market of insignificant volume even compared to its South American neighbors, lives obsessed with the dollar, and in the winter morning the dollar is, once again, the king.
President Mauricio Macri has just spoken. He asked the Argentines for "forgiveness" for the extreme demands to which he submitted them in his three and a half years of government, also for blaming Monday for the triumph of Kirchnerism in the primary elections of the financial debacle that sank the Argentine actions in Wall Street at record levels and depreciated, in two days, almost 30% the weight. Macri announced salary increases, tax cuts and the freezing of fuel prices, among other measures. Will it be enough to recover part of the disenchanted, survive the generals of October and reach a ballot in November against the exultant Peronism?
-Did you hear it ?, a kiosk asks a municipal policeman next to the Plaza de Mayo
-Yes. Actually, I don't know where we are going. Still not convincing me.
Behind him is Reconquista Street, an artery full of banks, financial and caves, the always dark mahogany offices or cheap furniture to which Argentines historically took their pesos to exchange them for dollars, the best refuge to save before an economy cruel, which always ends up disappointing.
After the census imposed by Cristina Kirchner in the last years of her government - to exchange pesos for dollars, one had to undergo arbitrary authorizations from the Treasury, and many times the answer was no - Macri liberalized the exchange market at the end of 2015. A couple of clicks on the mobile applications of the banks and the pesos were converted into dollars in a bank account parallel to that of pesos.
Those clicks, on Monday morning, led to nothing. It became impossible to buy dollars before a process in which its value jumped from 47.50 to more than 60 pesos in a few hours. When customers went to their bank branches, the argument was often that the system did not work. Anything to avoid offering a product whose price nobody knows today what it is.
The same happened, according to Clarín, with Mercado Pago, a subsidiary of Mercado Libre, one of the Argentine unicorns, pointed out as an example of the new economy. None of that, in this case they behaved as good representatives of the old: «Error in the transaction. Try again in a few minutes. You cannot proceed with the purchase at this time ».
Parallel to Reconquista is San Martín, another street of feverish financial activity, and through the Güemes Gallery, a baroque passage with elegant high ceilings that, enormous distance saved, is inspired by the style of the Milanese Vittorio Emanuelle, you reach Florida, the popular pedestrian street of Buenos Aires. There, in an area free of surnames, the stars are the trees, and this does not speak of vegetation, but of men (never a woman) who mutter: «Dollars, dollars, buy, sell, good price».
Speak "Facha" , which in Argentine jargon means "handsome": "I give you the best possible price at the moment. And watch out for the tickets they give you. Look, since 10, the dollar rose three times ». Three times from ten in the morning. It's 11.15.
Javier (fictitious name), Venezuelan actor, speaks: «I can sell you at 57, but there is another exchange house that asks me not to sell at less than 60. I did well here. And in a year I return to my country, as my country there is nothing ».
Raúl (fictitious name), owner of a cave speaks: «Here nothing moves. People listen to those who say the dollar is going to go down and those who say it is going up. The latter were right, it ended on Wednesday at almost 63.
He speaks, and identifies himself, Facundo Báncora , director of a financial company: «There is no despair, there is bitterness, the deep sadness of living a crisis in which we did not expect to fall again».
The real estate owner speaks: «Nothing moves, nothing in purchases and sales. But my clients already call me telling me that they want to increase the rent by 35% ».
And he speaks, in the conspiratorial tone of the area, another real estate owner. He is sitting in the fluffy armchair of an international chain of coffee shops and seeks to seduce a customer not quite convinced from the mobile: «You will remember in two months and you will thank me. Nothing is sold, you are lucky people, this man has the money, made the reservation and wants to buy. The values will be others in two months. And I tell you, a bomb has already fallen today, in two days there will be another bomb ».
And Alberto Fernández, the Peronist candidate , speaks. Speak to say that he will not talk to the president, because it makes no sense. Hours later he receives a whatsapp from President Mauricio Macri. And they talk, they talk for 15 minutes. Stories of extreme Argentina.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more