Re: Hotel situation

["John Levine" <[e-mail]>]

>AND it is about to get cheaper following the dropping of currency controls
>(and expected subsequent devaluation) that is about to happen under the
>new President of Argentina.

Only for people who pay with credit cards or get cash from their
foreign accounts at ATMs.  At this point, the official rate that banks
use is about 9.5 pesos/USD while the "blue" rate that you get for your
$100 bill on Florida St is 14.5.

When the government drops currency controls, the official rate will
move toward the blue rate.  The blue rate builds in a bit of a risk
premium since it's officially illegal (although you can't walk two
metres on Florida without someone saying "cambio, cambio") so the
future real rate is likely to be not quite as good as the blue rate.

R's,
John