It was only the third day of the indefinite bank holiday decreed by the Argentine government, but by Wednesday morning, Gabino Jerez was already down to his last US$100 and wondering what to do next.
The banks were shut, the cash machines were empty, his friends and neighbors had no money to loan him, and now he could not even use a credit card to buy gasoline.
"Argentina has been stopped dead in its tracks, and me with it," complained Jerez, a 59-year-old taxi driver, as he waited forlornly for a fare at a street corner here. "We've lived through a lot of crises in this country, but the anguish of not having cash is something we have never felt before."
This country of 37 million people has been crippled for months by the worst economic crisis in its history.But last Friday afternoon, after banks and many businesses had closed for the weekend, the Argentine economy entered the financial equivalent of the Twilight Zone.
To stop an accelerating flow of money out of bank accounts, President Eduardo Duhalde ordered that all bank transactions simply be halted until further notice.
Since business resumed on Monday, an eerie stillness has prevailed across Argentina, with shops empty as consumers tried to limit their expenditures to the bare necessities.
Workers cannot cash their paychecks. Department stores, newsstands, flower vendors, restaurants, taxicab drivers, and others who deal in what are now seen as frivolous luxuries have seen their sales plummet to almost nothing. Even lottery vendors have been hit.Of course, the hardest hit by the government's measureare ordinary working families on fixed incomes.
"Yesterday we had only half of the business we had last week, and today we had only half the business that we had yesterday," lamented Graciela Montalban, a waitress at a downtown restaurant. "The tips are really skimpy, so if this keeps up, we might as well all stay at home. That way I would at least save the subway fare."
Nelida Vaqueta de Espriel, a 63-year-old retiree with a US$50-a-month pension, said she and her husband "are going to be sunk" if banks don't reopen by next Wednesday. That is when her husband, who is 64 and works at a chemical plant, is due to be paid.
On Friday, Espriel had lent US$700 to a daughter who needed the money in order to pay the rent on her apartment. The daughter wasn't broke, but her bank account was at Quilmes Scotiabank, which the government had just shut down for 30 days because its Canadian headquarters had refused to send money to its Argentine branches to meet reserve requirements.
No bread
Left with less than US$50 in cash on hand after helping her daughter, Espriel and her husband are now trying to stretch their money as far as it can possibly go. She rattled off a long list of products she has stopped buying until the bank holiday is lifted: coffee, soft drinks, toiletries.
"Even bread," she added bitterly. "So much for the Lord's Prayer."
At a neighborhood bakery a few blocks away, Gonzalo Rey was also starting to feel the pinch. His purchases of flour were already down, and his suppliers were beginning to suggest that if the bank holiday is not lifted by the end of the week, they will no longer accept checks.
"When this crazy situation started, I expected that sales of cakes and sweet rolls would fall drastically -- and they have," he said. "But bread purchases are down just as much. People who would buy eight rolls every day are only buying four, and those who bought four are only buying two."
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