In another raft of measures designed to counter Argentina's inflation (currently, about 12% annually), Argentina's Minister of Economy, Roberto Lavagna, announced that the government was slashing the compensation businesses would have to pay workers when they sacked them from 180% to 150% (the percentages refer to, I believe, a month-per-year-worked severance formula, i.e. before this a fired employee with 10 years service got 10 x 180% = 18 months of pay). This program was instituted after the 2001/2 financial crisis in order to dissuade companies from cutting costs by first cutting workers and, at the start, was 200%; with this announcement, the government says that it hopes to eventually eliminate the program. Like so much of Argentine economics (and life), it is heavy-handed government intervention designed with noble ends.

Superficially an economics curiosity--something one might toss around while discussing Argentine business competitiveness--it also goes personal: in part because of this law, we passed on an apartment. In August we fell in love with an apartment on Pasaje Bollini, a langorous cobblestone alley made famous in a Borges poem ("La cortada de Bollini"). A lovely but imperfect place (not quite an oportunidad but not impecable either) bathed in waves of light, it sat in the midst of a sycamore's crown like a child's treehouse. But it--or rather its real estate agents at Toselli & Fuentes--did not love us back. Our repeated calls went unanswered, our attempts to negotiate were rebuffed and the agents were slippery at best--during a written offer we made, they "accidentally" tried to raise their commission from 3% to 4%--and eventually, stuck at a $1,000 difference, we decided to spike the deal. One nail in the coffin: the building, with only six apartments, has a live in super. With so few shares, the monthly maintenance is a high (considering the lack of lobby or services) 320 pesos, a number destined to go up with inflation. At one point we asked what would happen if, in an inflationary spiral, the tenants decided to take over the super's duties. The answer: it would cost his number of years served x double his monthly salary in a one-time unemployment payout. The number we came up with boggled.

So will Lavagna's announcement help sell the apartment (which we note is still on the market)? Who knows.