Google Unable To Keep Paying App Developers In Argentina 169
An anonymous reader writes "Google has sent letters to app developers registered in Argentina saying they won't be able to accept payments on developers' behalf after June 27th. 'The change applies to both paid apps and apps that use in-app purchases. The move appears to be related to new, restrictive regulations the Argentine government has imposed on currency exchanges.' According to the Telegraph, 'The new regulations required anyone wanting to change Argentine pesos into another currency to submit an online request for permission to AFIP, the Argentine equivalent of HM Revenue & Customs. To submit the request, however, you first needed to get a PIN from AFIP, either online or in person. Having finally obtained your number, submitted your online request and printed out your permission slip, you could then present it at the bank or official cambio and buy your dollars. Well, that was the theory. In practice, the result was chaos. ... damming the flood has come at a huge cost to the economy, especially since the currency restrictions were coupled with another set of regulations that effectively imposed a near-total ban on any imported goods.'"
Nicely done Cristina (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nicely done Cristina (Score:5, Informative)
Venezuela has had a similar currency exchange regulation system for 10 years now.
The limits are ridiculous:
- 400$ for traveling abroad, the paperwork has to be submitted 20 days in advance
- 400$ for internet shopping *per year*
- credit card usage abroad has a different limit depending on the destination and duration. On average 100$ per day, the paperwork has to be submitted 30 days in advance
Basically the government wants to control everything, not only for businesses but also individuals, and it does a crappy job at both. The end result is investments going elsewhere and the economy suffers.
The country has never before been in such a bad shape. Since Chavez took office, the Bolivar lost its value by 992%. This is in the country with the second biggest proven oil reserves in the world, and an oil price of more than 100$.
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So... people pay you dollars if you agree to take their bolivars away?
Re:Nicely done Cristina (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, but it implies a very high rate of inflation. And it matters if you are trying to import anything – like toilet paper, where there has been a recent run.
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Ew. That's a bad image to picture in your mind.
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I realize the 992% figure is confusing, but I didn't make up that figure, I read it in an article. The term used is "accumulated devaluation", maybe some economist can make more sense of this.
confusion (Score:1)
It is not the figure given that is confusing, it's the concept.
Start with 1 unit of currencyA equivalent to 2.2 units of currencyB.
After a while currencyB has depreciated by 900%. And what the hell does that mean? Don't ask journalists, ask yourself.
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It's 3000$ a year, depending on the travel location, which may make it less.
We are currently experiencing heavy scarcity on products. I can't find soap, toilet paper or powder milk.
Re:Nicely done Cristina (Score:4, Insightful)
We are currently experiencing heavy scarcity on products. I can't find soap, toilet paper or powder milk.
Welcome to socialism. -- Central Europe here, handing over to you the reins of history.
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We are currently experiencing heavy scarcity on products. I can't find soap, toilet paper or powder milk.
Been there, done that.
That's not heavy scarcity, unfortunately that's just the beginning.
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This is what bitcoin is for. And the adoption rate in Argentina has been spiking quite nicely.
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I think that when any person or entity gets too much power, either in Socialism or Capitalism, it generally leads to abuse. Power, profit, ego.
I was once joking when I thought we should be governed by robots that cannot deviate from their programming to serve and protect citizens. But then I realized that's what the purpose of a Constitution is, any Constitution. A set of relatively static laws meant to protect, serve, and guarantee rights.
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I was once joking when I thought we should be governed by robots that cannot deviate from their programming to serve and protect citizens.
That vaguely reminds me of the society in Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth. The president was a boring administrative position, without opportunities to actually screw things up. The position was filled by means of a bi-annual lottery. The only way you could get exempted from the lottery was by means of having a mental handicap or by having committed a severe felony. (Trying to weasel out after having been drawn to be the next president was a serious felony in itself. :-))
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I think that when any person or entity gets too much power, either in Socialism or Capitalism, it generally leads to abuse.
Two big differences:
1. Socialism requires the concentration of power in one entity. That is what socialism is.
2. In capitalism, even though corporations may become powerful, they don't have the power to arrest or kill you.
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2. In capitalism, even though corporations may become powerful, they don't have the power to arrest or kill you.
Oh really? Why don't you tell it to these people [addictinginfo.org], threatened with arrest, or in fact arrested [democratic...ground.com] for trying to close accounts at Citi and BofA.
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Second, in the Citibank case there might be a case of police overstepping their authority (the claim there is that the protesters tried to comply with orders to leave, but were prevented from doing so), but in that case, it is the police doing the overstepping not the business.
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In theory (I won't argue that it's the case in practice), this entity is "the people" which includes everyone.
Private security forces detail and kill people every day, very often with either explicit legal cover, or at least effective immunity because there are no consequences for the perpetrators and/or thei
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I think that when any person or entity gets too much power, either in Socialism or Capitalism, it generally leads to abuse. Power, profit, ego.
A corrupt capitalism still produces things, albeit at less than full capacity or optimum efficiency, whereas a corrupt socialism simply wastes resources to little or no effect because nobody gives a shit individually about the fate of the collective property.
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This is in the country with the second biggest proven oil reserves in the world
Which does you no good if you cannot get it out of the ground. Chavez misappropriated the funds earmarked for repair, replacement and maintenance of oil field equipment and operations and diverted them instead to social programs. The result was a bit like eating your seed corn. Now the oil fields are only producing a fraction of the oil that they should be and no foreign firm wants to touch Venezuela with a ten foot pole because of the recent nationalizations by the Venezuelan government which is still pack
Re:Nicely done Cristina (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes but... look Malvinas!
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Yeah, why don't those dirty imperialist Dutch hand back Aruba to the rightful Venezuelan Heirs!
Oh sorry wrong chatroom...
Another currency? (Score:3)
Re:Another currency? (Score:5, Informative)
Turns out they are sort of doing that. You just have to change which country the account is registered in.
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Couldn't they just have two profile settings, country and currency?
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I was wondering about that as well. Might be they just couldn't add that feature to their system at such short notice. Alternatively it might be they are worried about the legal ramifications of such a change.
Re:Another currency? (Score:4, Interesting)
Or just a field which said "bank account". Currency is not really an important factor.
If you don't get paid in your bank accounts native currency they nickle and dime you on the exchange rate; so it does matter.
I have multiple accounts at the same bank in different currencies. I direct funds based on the currency and do bulk exchanges ONLY if I need to and at a time when the rate is desirable.
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Still better than "sorry we can't give you any money anymore" which seams to be the case here.
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Of course it is. If I am receiving payments made in USD, to a USD account in a bank in Europe, I sure don't want them making any stupid assumptions and sending the money in EUR. That will cost me several percent.
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That would just shift the burden of conversion from Google to the local developers, so that is not really the answer. The point of this is to artificial restrict the transfer for foreign funds into / out of the contry so the government can get a favorable FX rate to pay off it's bills.
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And how exactly do they pay the employees in that office?
Argetina today equals Brazil of 25 years ago (Score:5, Informative)
Here in Brazil we had this kind of policy in the middle '80s. It brought incalculable damage to our economy and to our global competitiveness, together with hyperinflation and other such funny stuff. We finally abandoned this idiocy in the beginning of the '90s and haven't looked back since. Too bad South American countries in general are firm believers in the "But We Are Special!" School of Economics and don't like to do basic stuff such as looking around to see what worked and what didn't to then decide on policies. Argentina is going to suffer a lot in the following years until its government learn the lesson.
For other troubled countries to then disregard, after all, they're special too!
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It's not just South American countries. Every country believes they are something special.
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I'd love to tell you more about the meaning of "kind of"
It starts with "Don't be a pedantic idiot and consider a broader view"
Re:Argetina today equals Brazil of 25 years ago (Score:5, Insightful)
Does that happen now in Brazil?
It happened back when we didn't have a stable currency. Then we adopted policies which created a stable currency and it stopped. Amazingly, the US dollar is a stable currency. See a trend there?
There is no problem for dolar imports, we have no permission to remove dollars from the system not otherwise.
Yes, because adopting the economic doctrine of the 18th century (mercantilism) is smart. Here's a notion for you: there is no such thing as actually exchanging dollars for pesos. When someone who has dollars wants pesos that's for the sole purpose of purchasing stuff valued in pesos, When someone who has pesos wants dollars that's for the sole purpose of purchasing stuff valued in dollars. This means that the exchange of currencies goes like this: pesos go, meet dollars, and after a while return to Argentina where they belong; dollars go, meet pesos, and after a while return to the US, where they belong; meanwhile, stuff go from the US to Argentina and and stay in their new home, and stuff go from Argentina to the US and stay in their new home. In other words, currencies are tourists, goods are migrants. If you block one half of one side of the equation, you block the other half, and then the whole equation. The exchange of goods, which is what matters, stops both ways, and you're left with whatever exists within your country and no more. Your oligarchs, monopolies and cartels all thank you gladly, your population is left purchasing overpriced trash (but they all can work in exchange for said trash, woohoo!), and after a few years you're technologically broken.
Have fun!
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Money is just not a unit of exchange, it is a store of value, so there is something in the exchange from pesos to US dollars.
Now, currency can't leave the country – but money is a bigger then then currency.
Argentinians may prefer to exchange their goods and invest abroad where returns are higher. (high taxes, inflation, and regulation decreases returns.) Now, yes, those funds have to eventually be returned (unless the person emigrates) but that could be decades from now.
We're from the government, and here to help you (Score:5, Informative)
And imagine the opportunities for bureaucratic mischief as more and more layers are added in between someone who has something to sell, and someone who wants to pay for it.
When people complain about "big government," it's exactly this sort of (somewhat) unintended consequence and life-squashing administrative death by a thousand cuts that is really the concern. Too many byzantine rules and hoops to jump through, with too many low-level, unaccountable functionaries being gatekeepers in their own little fiefdoms. In the US, it looks like the IRS's increasing ugliness (to say nothing of what it will look like when they're policing everyone's individual compliance with ObamaCare requirements).
Domestically, this is what's being referred to as the rise of the Fourth Branch. And it's deadly.
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Re: We're from the government, and here to help yo (Score:1)
Bullshit. They already don't serve the peoples interests. No need to be reserved about judgement.
Re:We're from the government, and here to help you (Score:5, Interesting)
It is even worse in Venezuela,
The government printed money like crazy which caused really high inflation. So how does the government fight inflation? they add price control, which causes scarcity, and currency control which kills imports. Here is a video [youtube.com] showing people that got wind that there was corn meal, chicken and some other products in a supermarket
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Currency control... done (just with higher limits)
Printing money like crazy... done.
Price controls... started with rent, then health care
Looks like Obama has us moving in that direction.
Yes, currency export restrictions greatly preceded Obama but his "brothers in ideology" are behind all the rent control policies.
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The US has no currency controls. There are reporting requirements at various thresholds but no restrictions on how much money can be sent in or out.
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Re:We're from the government, and here to help you (Score:4, Insightful)
Governments exists solely for oppressing people, making sure they are "in line". There is no such thing as government that serves the people, by definition. It's the people which serve and obey the government.
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Yay for protectionist, isolationist, centrally-managed, paternalistic government-crawling-up-your-pant-legs regulatory over-reach! So stimulating to the economy.
There really were big efforts to move the country to a more open economy, almost 25 years of effort that resulted in chaos and riots [wikipedia.org].
In other countries, such as Chile, Uruguay or Ecuador, this process was successful, but Argentina failed to shrink the government role enough to not contract more and more foreign debt. This is the same shitty situation that is now happening in Spain and Greece. If you shrink the role of the government, the government has less income, but if you have a huge foreign debt, th
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The case of Argentina is peculiar. I this case, corruption is not an unintentional consequence... it is pretty intentional.
But it's intentional here (in the US) too. The people who want more and bigger and more intrusive and more involved-in-everything government want it because they're fans of having the people who fill in that growth to have more power and personal influence. The people who most push the expansion of the government in size are those who consider being part of that vast middle-man organization to be a natural fit for their instincts and disposition. There are people who really don't aspire to create or produc
Point of view (Score:2, Funny)
This is good news for us Americans here in the United States.
I don't understand... (Score:1)
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Computers aren't even assembled in Argentina, just packaged. It's a massive scam there.
As for the 30% cut, that can easily happen before Google even deals with the developer, really. The developer just sees the remaining 70% in the transaction, and that means that for regulation purposes only those should count as well. So no, that shouldn't cut Google's bottom line. If anything, only the developer should be affected.
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Google works in dollars, developer's in pesos. Unless Google's local operations are in balance, at some point somebody has to do a conversion.
Kirchner want's it done at the official rate, which is favorable to the government, (They have lots of bills from abroad, and want to force the locals to sell dollars cheaply to them.)
Summary is Crap (Score:5, Insightful)
Argentina is a country that is very culturally different to the rest of Latin America, and even the world and likely the right place to look at when you want to see the results of a government being more involved instead of less. By the time of the second world war, Peron [wikipedia.org] did a deep change to the country, created public health, public education (made public university free), public retirement funds, changed labor laws to highly benefit the employees (employeers must pay them many sort of benefits and can't fire them without paying compensation), etc.
Peron tried to made it clear that he wasn't going towards fascism/socialism/communism, but his model was more of creating a capitalism with more social equity through the intervention of the government. Most of the "upper class" did naturally not like this and tried to fight this by financing coup d'etats by the military (It's a little more complex than, but that goes beyond what i'm trying to explain and there's plenty of material to read about dictatorships in Latin America).
My point is that Argentinians are sort of "spoiled" and that has even been transmitted from generation to generation. There is this strange belief that everything that happens is the fault of the government, and that the government should take care of it.
For example, beyond public health, retirement, education, etc. If you are homeless, the government will build you a house. If you are poor and your children can't study, the government will give you money to send them to school. If you are unemployed, you just receive money. Transport is dirt cheap because it's subsidized too, some products are price-fixed to be made more accessible and now the government is even making a line of clothes that is more cheaper and accessible.
The government spends a fortune in social help and taxes are high as the result. But it goes beyond that. The economic model is also designed to ensure that unemployment is really low. They do this by forcing people to spend their money and not keep it, so there is constant inflation and purchasing foreign currency is forbidden. By spending the earned money constantly, the local economy is always very active, restaurants are packed full, and everyone is using credits to buy stuff.
The right wing media opposition to the government is strong and focuses on mainly on corruption and insecurity, to make people feel they are being constantly robbed and freak them out. However, people is employed and is earning decently nowadays so this has a limited effect, which gives place to the saying ("roban pero hacen", translated to "they might steal but they still do for the country") Even the media themselves know they can't mention anything related to a right wing point of view (less state intervention) or people will label them as traitors.
So the big question is if economical stability by this means are worthy. Buenos Aires is a production powerhouse and generates a lot of income, but there is a large part of the population that would not be able to be sustained in a more open economy. As a result, the country is very closed do the rest of the world economy. The rest of the world isn't very healthy economically either.
What's going on with Google is really nothing new. It's extremely hard for Argentinians to be entrepreneurs in this context, so we just open offshore companies in Panama, Delaware or other places and get paid there (otherwise we can't get get paid in us dollars or euros), then transfer our money to the country either illegally (black market price is higher), or legally (needed if you run a company and need to pay your employees). It's not impossible, just harder.
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Summary is not crap.
>So the big question is if economical stability by this means are worthy. Buenos Aires is a production powerhouse and generates a lot of income, but there is a
> large part of the population that would not be able to be sustained in a more open economy. As a result, the country is very closed do the rest of the world > economy. The rest of the world isn't very healthy economically either.
Economical stability ? what ?????? where?? in Argentina? there's 25-30% inflation, Argentina
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Inflation is intended and on purpose.
> Argentina has no US dollars to import energy and other services and so they are taking idiotic measures to obtain those US dollars
That was indeed stupid, and the government should have acted before. But then again, do you realize it's the *government* importing the energy? That is not a common scenario, it's usually just the private sector in charge of that.
> Also,
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So you think life is best lived paycheck to paycheck with no backup in case of an emergency?
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Bollocks on the "rich or the poor".
You immediately know whether they're a saver or a spender.
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It's a nice place with welcoming friendly people.
But their economy went bust around 2001 with the collapse of the peso and is now struggling again with rampant inflation and such currency restrictions.
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"not going towards fascism/socialism/communism" A rose by any other name...
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So, you can't save for the future which means you will have no money when you are too old to work or hard times come. The only choice is to rely on others to take care of you. All personal responsibility is gone and you are a slave to your government. This sort of thing used to happen back in the day in the States but it was private companies running company towns where the company owned everything and made sure you were always in debt to the company. (Your statement about having to buy on credit fits right
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It's still not very much and you still need help by your familiy anyway.
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Re:Summary is Crap (Score:5, Interesting)
Corrected version of above:
Argentina is likely the right place to look at when you want to see the results of a government being more involved instead of less. Shocked by the Great Depression, like many other countries Argentina turned to a strongman. Once in power, Peron did a deep change to the country, and Argentina swiftly fell from being one of the wealthiest countries in the world to a basket case. Now, instead of being as rich per capita as the US or Switzerland (like it was in the 1920s), it's in the same economic class as Russia and Botswana.
Despite this abject failure, the media can't point this out, because people will label them as traitors. It's extremely hard for Argentinians to be entrepreneurs in this context of unremediated Peronism, which has wrecked the Argentine economy.
Re:Summary is Crap (Score:5, Informative)
THIS. I own a software company in Argentina. We used to design our own hardware too, and we manufactured overseas. We did some manufacturing and all of the assembling in Argentina. We were steadily moving towards more local manufacturing. The low Shenzhen prices made it hard, but we where making progress in that direction. All of a sudden, getting dollars and sending them overseas was more expensive and harder every month. Then the overreach of non-automatic licenses destroyed us (you have to request permission 90 days in advance to maybe get a limited import quota of certain items). In the meanwhile, the big hardware stores (Garbarino, Fravega, etc.) continued to bring all-chinese products into the country without issues, even those competing with our products. We had to shut down most of our hardware operations. We put more emphasis on our SAS products. We almost went bankrupt several times, in the end, we made it, but it left us weak and in debt. Some of that debt where taxes. They quickly froze our accounts and took their toll. We've paid most of it, and we're growing again. Well, until the government decides to change the rules in favor of the owners of this country again.
I hear people accusing the Kirschner administracion of being socialists. This isn't fucking socialism, this is a systematic plan to destroy what's left of our economy, while spending more and more money every day on free lunches for the unwashed masses that keep voting for this fucking stupid cunt.
I will be very fucking surprised if anything is left after this bastards are done with our country.
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Cristina? Sra. Presidenta, está usted?
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You forgot to mention the middle class. Eva Peron couldn't stand the middle class, and things haven't changed.
I'm sort-of-middleclass, and get the worst of everything. I'm excluded from government house plans, or similar, but it takes 100% of 12 years of salary for me to pay an actual flat near where I live.
I don't use public transportation, either (I walk everywhere), but I end up paying a huge deal of it in taxes.
I also pay a fortune in health care and another fortune in taxes every month, but I don't re
Wait, does this mean....my god.... (Score:1)
.
Sad... (Score:2, Informative)
Im from Argetina, and i can tell u, there is almost no1 that likes this kind of goverment but its dificult for the middle-class people to fight them back. The buy votes and voters... send ppl to kill you or, if u have a store they will break it down and make u pay for thinking an speaking against the goverment.
Almost no1 wants to be like venezuela, we here hated Chavez and we widely hate the venezuela goverment, but sadly enough, we are going to be there... a 2nd venezuela and then, who the fuck knows.... m
My wife is an Argentinian... (Score:2, Interesting)
And we travel every year to visit the family. If you say nobody likes the government, but at the same time I see most of my family support it (yes, we are a very small portion of the population), and Cristina Fernández won the last elections (and the economic measures we are arguing here were already in place) with 58% (against 16% of the second-best candidate)... I find it quite hard to swallow that you say "nobody likes the government". No, there is no suc violence or vote buying as you mention (and
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ive been through many crisis the country has had in the past. trust me. stay in mexico. at least for 3 years.
the cycle usually is: produce - steal - loan - print - crash.
we are now at print.
Pay them in Bitcoin. (Score:4, Interesting)
Problem solved.
Seriously. It is better then having nothing and it is possible the dev could actually cash it in. Bigger devs could have an overseas bank account and get payment into that. Smaller devs could get products delivered to them internationally. It does not solve every problem, but it is better then no payment.
Temporary Solution, Bitcoin Is Deflationary (Score:2)
By design, the number of bitcoins will level out at 21 million, ergo deflationary. End of story (but not the arguments). As a short term salve for Argentine devs, bitcoin payment is better than nothing, but nothing more than yet another ephemeral method of flight from the peso.
Ultimately, Argentina's monetary problems will continue their traditional cycles until its social spending is ramped down to something its economy's surplus value can sustain. Given that the financing machinations haven't yet hit a wa
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Actually, I store all my savings in bitcoins since I can't legally buy dollars.
Sure, bitcoin's future is uncertain. Buy I prefer the uncertanity of BTC, instead of the certain devaluation of ARS:
Oh dear.... (Score:2)
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distract british people with another Falklands/Malvinas war...
I do hope you're not suggesting that Argentina did NOT invade the Falklands in the 1980s.
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What does currency exchange have to do with this? (Score:2)
While I love bashing the govenment and their stupid monetary policy as much as the next guy (I honestly don't think the president understands how money works), currency exchange policies have nothing to do with this particular situation. Google pays the local developers in local currency, and there's no restrictions to exchange USD to Pesos, you can just walk into any bank with foreign currency, and they'll exchange it for you (at a shitty rate, but again, that's not Google's problem, they're just paying th
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So, basically, if you want to host the files yourself, and do the e-commerce yourself and get the shitty exchange rate yourself, then the government is totally OK with that. But if you want to pay Google to do the e-commerce and currency exchange and file hosting by taking a cut of your profit, then the government will make that very hard. One of the benefits of the international market is discoverability. I don't have to get folks to come to my website to buy my product, they can buy it in the world wi
Could somebody please explain? (Score:2)
I don't see the connection. How can a law designed to strengthen the peso (by prohibiting ARS -> USD conversion) be a problem for developers selling apps priced in USD? (This would imply USD -> ARS conversion, which is what the Argentine goverment wants.)
Kirchner's neo Peronist Regime wins again (Score:2)
I'm in the outsourcing business and we're fleeing Argentina ASAP. They seem bent on some kind of fascist autarky.
Simple solution (Score:2)
Just pay through secret Swiss bank accounts.
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Actually, I was going to reply something extremely similar.
Just open a bank account in Uruguay. A ferry costs ~500ARS (~100USD for those unfamiliar with local currency).
Have google pay you in UY, and keep your money there. UY is like the latinamerican Switzerland, they love to keep you money, and ask little questions.
Not always corruption... (Score:3)
Other variations [wikipedia.org] are available.
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Argentina tried pegging its currency to the US dollar. It was a disaster, because the US dollar rose in relation to other currencies at the time (late 1990s) and so did the Argentine peso. As a result, Argentine goods became expensive to the outside world and imports were cheap to Argentines, and this led to economic collapse. The effects were really bad as it gave a bad name to the economic liberalism which was being introduced at the time.
The country is now totally fucked and will probably invade the Falk
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It really is sad that our two countries can be dragged into war over an island full of not much other than sheep. It's even a little bit comical that a country the size of Argentina would consider that an 'invasion'. We think of it more along the lines of 'punching a baby in the face'
In the second world war, we gave up the channel islands for a bit, Guernsey, Jersey, and so on. Then we went suicidally against the strongest, proudest country in Europe, with the most awe inspiring and powerful army the world
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"Probably invade the Falkland Islands within the next five years."
Bring it on. We're ready.
The politicians of the UK might not want a(nother) war, but the public and the press wouldn't give them much choice in the matter.
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Nonsense, the Americans would not get involved in Argentina, the NATO operation in Libya was commanded by a Canadian and even with half the world begging them they're not touching Syria with a barge pole.
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You went crazy if you think that Argentina is able to move any of it's rusted ship, planes to even try to invade Punta del Este in Uruguay. Really, get ride of you CNN, FoxNews and anothers delirant journalist.
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We invade punta del este every year, but we do it with the white, fat, rich cocksuckers that exploit Argentina until the last fucking dime.
Taking the Malvinas back by force is fucking propaganda, and every government has used them for that purpose. Only Galtieri was insane (and drunk) enough to actually do it.
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"will probably invade the Falkland Islands within the next five years".
Have you ever seen the state of our army? It is a bad joke. Even Bolivia could invade us if they wish to.
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Oh, what a great idea! Menem did almost that for a decade. Wanna know how it went?
The US keeps going to war and threatening countries to keep the dollar as the worldwide currency. What a great idea! Use this fiat currency everywhere, and we'll keep the printers right here!. We're subsidizing your lifestyle.
It won't last very long. The oil market is steadily moving towards the Euro, and bombs won't help the US this time.
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Look at the European Union and the Euro.
Then look at Greece.
That is how Argentina would look if they started using the dollar.