The Dollar Is Conquering Venezuela

摘要

U.S. dollars are everywhere in Venezuela, and suddenly that's a problem.The greenback is steadily gaining ground in this inflation-wracked country, where a single dollar buys about 70,000 bolivars on the black market. That's creating challenges for local businesses, because Venezuelan banks are barred from offering foreign currency accounts.For safekeeping, an insurance saleswoman in the western town of San Cristobal tapes stacks of dollars from clients to the inside of a toilet tank in her office bathroom. A general contractor, unable to wire cash into his accounts in the U.S., flew his elderly mother and wife from Caracas to Miami with $9,900 of cash each, just under the limit required for reporting money to U.S. customs authorities.