From the article:
"...politicians continued criticizing the scarcity of paper money in Argentina."
Not enough paper money....yep, that's the problem. I'm sure printing tons of money can't have any ill effects, right? From the same article:
"Private economists estimate that inflation was running at 30 percent in Argentina in 2010."
The Argentines have lived through hyperinflation, the latest being in 2001. The banks were locked down so people could not withdraw their pesos and spend them before they rapidly lost value. It seems like Argentines have lost confidence in digital money and are thus demanding physical paper money. Although issuing paper money is indeed slower than adding digital zeros to an account, paper money can still be printed in absolutely amazing quantities.
It would be epically ironic if the US dollar met the same fate where citizens demanded paper money over digital money and the US outsourced the printing of the paper money to China - the largest foreign holder of US dollars. China could just cut out the middle man by printing new dollars and depositing them in their own bank accounts as payment for US bonds. No need to ship them to the US. How efficient.
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