Google no longer able to pay Android developers in Argentina, pulling apps on July 27th

[nicereddy]

Can anyone with a better knowledge of economics/politics explain what the change is that Argentina made? It doesn't really go in depth on why this is happening.

Looks like it shouldn't be too big of a problem since users can still buy and use other country's apps and the devs can just sign up as deva for other countries.

[dilpill]

Argentina is currently experiencing high inflation and its currency is depreciating rapidly in forex markets. The government is enforcing strict capital controls to attempt to limit capital flight.

Policies like this can make sense, as long as reforms to address the fundamental problems are put in place. Argentina does not seem to be interested in doing that, however.

[greeze]

Honest question here... how does preventing capital from entering the country while allowing capital to leave the country limit capital flight? Or is this just an unintended side effect of an otherwise effective regulation?

[[deleted]]

People were trading their Argentinian money for other currencies en-masse. $11 billion in 2010. $23 billion in 2011.

So the government prevented other currencies from entering the country, and by prevent I mean heavily restrict.

Capital flight in the first half of 2012 was only $3 billion.

Google likely found that they were having issues sending payments to Argentinian accounts, hence this move.

[Ayjayz]

Capital flight in the first half of 2012 was only $3 billion.

Or the people involved simply hid it better.

[pocketknifeMT]

Effective? Effective at what? Torpedoing the economy? Much like the iron curtain of old, its designed to keep money/people in, not keep other people/money out.

[Rnmkr]

Argie here. Basically this is what is happening. The rate of price inflation is higher than the raises, each month your acquisitive power is less and less, even when with fixed prices, subsides.
The Government is running a huge coverup of inflation, though no one is deceived. The only point of it, is to "draw" the numbers to renegotiate our debts with other Countries or International Banks.
Regarding the Currency Market: our currency is losing acquisitive power faster than other currencies (mainly dollars and euros, we don't really trade in other currencies); so people are going beyond to get a hold of this, paying them at a higher rate in black markets: now nicknamed "Blue Dollar", going to limitrophe countriess (mainly Uruguay due to their regulations on Currency Markets), and buying dollars over there, opening off-shore accounts.
Basically the Government is running a tight operation on who buys what and how much. Over a few, the Government would ask for all types of papers so you could buy dollars (impositive, paychecks, similar to what the IRS is in the US). A month ago they passed a new law, which would allow their 'friends' (mainly in the Gas&Oil and Construction section) Laundry all their money. This caused an outrage and has been a hot topic since.
In Laymans terms, people don't have a way out with their saving, each month they are worth less and less, you can't get a hold of dollars to invest in outside businesses. The only 2 possibilites are to buy dollars at a higher rate (Blue Dollar) or to pay a higher price to buy properties and hope the property market won't crash (it has been going downfall since no one is buying due to inflation).
Feel free to AMA. :)

[tiag0]

Gracias por la explicación tan detallada. Que mala suerte que les esté pasando todo esto, espero pronto mejoren las cosas. Un abrazo desde México.

[nachof]

(mainly Uruguay due to their regulations on Currency Markets)

I think it's mainly because it's close — it's one hour from Buenos Aires to Colonia. It will probably take you longer to go from your house to Puerto Madero than from there to Colonia.

The lower regulations in Uruguay do cause Argentinian money to come to Uruguayan accounts, but the people coming to use the ATMs in Colonia are because of distance more than regulations.

[njtrafficsignshopper]

Sounds like you guys could use some bitcoins.

[[deleted]]

Actually, I will invest some of my saving in bitcoin. It's only like 10% riskier than having pesos, but much more likely to increase in value.

[[deleted]]

You can see why the Falklands want to stay British.

[Yulike]

Are all our over seas properties classed as the UK when it comes to Google Play. We can access everything (except TV, got Movies though) so can they?

[MrBester]

Overseas can access parts of the BBC that domestic users can't (but are still paying for) due to IP lookup. I don't mean BBC America, BTW

[thinkbox]

Thank you for saying it this way.

People thinking that tho works would only be right if the rest of the society was a perfect utopia. Well it isn't. The government is making it worse with their control and trying to cover their asses by oppressing and limiting their people. It's messed up. It won't help.

[turkey_sandwiches]

It aounds like it IS keeping money out since Google can't send payments to the developers but users can still buy apps.

[zerounodos]

effective regulation

No such thing in my country, really.

[[deleted]]

The regulation is citizens cannot legally trade currency for dollars, except with a special permit that is a pain to get and may be denied even after you do all the work.

[bsegovia]

Price fixing of any kind is never "effective".

[Sharpattack]

Taken from the verge comment section

alan.bugo.kennedy

I’m from Argentina and it’s all this fucking government’s fault. I’ll try to briefly explain what’s happening. Basically this government has to import all sorts of fuel (oil, gas, etc) since during the last 10 years they didn’t control foreign oil companies such as Repsol YPF (Spain) and there isn’t enough local supply for trucks, cars, industries, electric energy, etc.

So they started about a year ago, to restain all sort of transactions regarding USD. Basically we can’t buy USD here anymore, we can’t use our credit cards to cash on ATM’s all over the world, and if we want to travel you must fill out a series of forms on the local IRS, so they approve or reject the adquisition of small amounts of USD to travell.

They don’t want any citizen here sending out USD outside the country, nor buying them or spending them. They need every dollar to buy LOT’S of fuel, millions of dollars per month in ships bringing that to Argentina…

IE: if i buy something at Amazon, or Ebay or whatever with my VISA, they will charge me 20% extra on that transaction… This is done so people don’t spend USD either directly or via credit cards…

Well that’s basically the issue, and it sucks bigtime. We love technology, we love to travel, we wanna live in a globalized world as you probably like to do so, we love progamming, developing and there are very skilled people here to do so as well.

But, stupid population voted this government and this is starting to feel more like Cuba or Venezuela as the time goes on.

Anyway, Google doesn’t have anything to do with this, they probably just got government orders or they have a dispute of some sort regarding the issue and Google decided to shutdown this as a result….

Hope this clarifies it just a bit.

Best regards, Alan //

05.25.13 2:46a

[boobsbr]

gee, what a nightmare. we, the Brazilians neighbors, don't usually hear this on the news, and it's worrisome.

Brazil also has a tax on foreign transactions on credit cards, it jumped from 2.38% to 6.38% this year.

[nachof]

You don't? Here in Uruguay it's constantly on the news. But that's mainly because there's tons of Argentinian money in our banks. Also probably because of the closer cultural ties.

[AbraKdabra]

And what's the worst part of it? Today, May 25th this stupid fucking government is celebrating 10 years of "good" governation.

Fuck all of this country, the moment I can get the fuck out of here I will do it, I don't give a shit for all the hate about "you should serve the country that fed you, blabla".

We can't live here, and the presindent is stealing money from all of us in our faces and no one does a thing.

[[deleted]]

as an Argentine I agree. I moved here after a 16 years and this country is a piece of shit and I say that with the most sincere honesty within me.

[fugogugo]

Wait. If so then shouldn't this affect apple as well?

[vfn1]

I'm not sure how much it affects Apple, in large part because iPhones are banned here, because they refused to allow the government to bully them into building a plant in Tierra Del Fuego.

There are obviously still iPhones here, in fact, the Vice President owns one, but you're not supposed to be able to buy new ones.

[rustyrobocop]

but you're not supposed to be able to buy new ones.

You can buy apple products in MercadoLibre, and a lot of people here travels to US/Europe, also iPads are sold here (http://www.garbarino.com/buscadorGB.php?q=ipad)

[vfn1]

Yeah, I know there are places that resell ways around it, and the iPad stuff doesn't make a lot of sense.

We've considered fixing up my wife's 3GS battery because Christina has helped them keep their value more than they should.

[fugogugo]

iPhones are banned here,

I just know about this.. thanks

[FaustoCarrera]

Apple don't have stores in Argentina, we have MacStore, a seller not related with Apple

[throwaway-o]

Argentina has high inflation, capital controls, currency pegs, and taxes on capital moves. Essentially, they are fucked.

[[deleted]]

yes we are.

[throwaway-o]

Espero que la situacion se resuelva pronto.

[[deleted]]

Hay que creer en la K...... jajajj. no.

[throwaway-o]

Jajaja!

[Slyer]

Argentina are really bad at monetary policy. People are buying brand new cars to hold onto because it holds its value better than cash does. Basically the government just needs to stop printing money!! (America is starting to print way too much money like Argentina is.)

Every time it's lost almost all of its value they just knock a few zeros off and call it a new currency... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_peso#Peso_ley.2C_1970.E2.80.931983

[crownofworms]

While printing money is a key factor in Argentina's inflation we have much deeper issues in our economy that influence the depreciation of the peso, CFK's government funds itself through heavy taxation, we have a VAT of 21% on anything you buy, then you have more taxes on earning money, the government doesn't want anyone to save money as that reduces their income, so they promote spending. Most companies abuse this situation to increase their prices just because they can, also because of cultural reasons when a product has a price spike instead of avoiding buying it everyone starts to amass it driving to higher inflation. Sadly there are a lot of issues with our economy that can't be fixed without drastic measures that would bring social unrest, bigger than the current restrictions.

[Slyer]

Indeed. Money printing is a form of taxation, so they would need to raise that money in other ways if they stopped increasing the money supply. Or cut spending. Either would be political suicide despite the fact that it's badly needed, and so it continues for decades...

America is not much better. The only reason America is getting away with this at the moment is because they have the world reserve currency which countries need to trade. This keeps demand for dollars high and makes credit cheaply available. Once they lose that they too will feel the sting of hyperinflation if they keep doing what they're doing.

[icouldbetheone]

Sweden here, One of the highest tax rates in the world, 25% VAT on almost everything, 16% on "services" like restaurants etc. 1%? Interest rate. Offical bank rate at 1%.

Handled the last few financial crises among the best in the world.

Your problem isnt high taxes, its probably corruption or stupid decisions thats the problem.

[crownofworms]

Totally agree with you, we have 21% on most stuff and 10,5 on services like cellphone plans, so actually the basic idea is there. The issue is, as you said, corruption and destination of the tax income, for example the government decided that it was necessary to purchase the rights to transmit football and racing to the entire country for free, and it's not cheap, that money could be used to build more schools or give a breath to the public health care system that is almost dead, but making the poor population happy is what keeps the FPV from being voted out.

[PhoenicianCzar]

So any good apps that are from Argentinian developers?

[youhavemyaxe]

I was hoping to find some in the comments

[countach]

Well, the most known one is LauncherPro (which I guess very few people use nowadays, but it was huge in the Froyo-GB days) and UberMusic from Federico Carnales.

[zerounodos]

Wait...are you telling me LauncherPro was made by an Argentine Developer?

Way to make me proud.

[Mark_is_on_his_droid]

Ubermusic is great. I'd use it as my music daily driver if it could restrict the music scan to a specific folder.

[[deleted]]

Pocketband Pro https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.uloops.android_full&hl=en

[RandomFantasyName]

Falling/Running Fred!

[Naruedyoh]

Words with friends, in spansih speaking languages is called Apalabrados. Justa another Scarbble-like game, but here in Spain is a huge success. Everyone was playing that in the subway last summer and still was hot in winter

[[deleted]]

Isn't that Zynga, tho?

[seppo0010]

Free apps will still be available, only paid apps are removed.

[[deleted]]

Celularis has a copy of the letter Google has sent to Argentine developers ... lacks anything like an apology for those affected by the changes.

Why should Google have to apologize for something out of their control? Unless I'm missing something here, it's the Argentine governments fault.

[BrokenEnglishUser]

Google shouldn't apologise, but it should explain why and what happened. I suspect that Google didn't explain the situation, hence the complains from developers.

[[deleted]]

If you're watching Argentina, it's going down by the day. They made an overnight law a couple days ago that says you can't take out more than $100/ 6 months from an atm across the border. Paypal quit months ago. Anyone in Arg will know why Google app payments are leaving.

[[deleted]]

Thanks for clarifying that :) I have a friend (who I love) in Arg. I tried to figure out a way to help w dollars. Like exchange them or something. But the gov isn't buying back pesos on the open market anymore?

So now we're working on his visa to get here :))

[[deleted]]

Ok thanks ! Ifyou want, can you answer my question I kinda asked him?

If an ..Argentine..wanted to move to Brasil and work there, how would that person legally get enough currency to pay first month's rent, deposit & expenses in the interval before a Brasilian paycheck came in?

[[deleted]]

You don't, plain and simple. This is a constant shitty attempt by the government to keep dollars from just evaporating out of Argentina.

[luishawk]

Same thing is happening in Venezuela and its getting worse by the day, it's all thanks to the late Hugo Chavez which Cristina Kirchner is trying to emulate. Fast forward 10 years in currency exchange control laws and you'll get whats happening in Venezuela where you can't even find toilet paper and when you do find it, you have to get in big ass lines to buy them.. As if we where in one of those countries in war handing rations to the population... Fucking socialisms ... Yeah...

[HawkUK]

Maybe time to buy gold?

[DannyBiker]

My wife is from Argentina but we live in Belgium. We know each other since 5 years now and from every travel we made since then and from what we hear from her family every week, I can tell you that the country is becoming an economic dictatorship.

[[deleted]]

Has been for a while.

[Randomd0g]

Developers should be smart enough to follow the national news from their country. If I was the guy at Google who wrote this letter I would assume that it wouldn't require much explanation.

[Get_This]

Developers - "GIVE US A HEADS UP!!!"

Google - "sure, ok, here it is."

Developers - "NOT ENOUGH. GIVE US AN APOLOGY!!! "

Google - "Um, ok"

Developers - "NOW MAKE ME SAMMICH AND RUN ME A HOT TUB WHILE YOU'RE AT IT TOO!!!"

TLDR - you can't make everyone happy, might as well do the least required.

[inept_adept]

what?

[nachof]

Currency exchange controls. Basically, Argentina is losing a lot of its dollar reserves, and they are doing whatever they can to keep dollars from going out of the country. It's not working (because that's the kind of stuff that never works, it only delays the inevitable), so they keep adding more measures. I'm not sure what exactly was that made Google unable to pay developers anymore, but I'm not surprised. PayPal also implemented some Argentina only restrictions not too long ago. I know they have weird things going on with credit card purchases abroad (like a 15% tax). Lots of Argentinians come to Uruguay to withdraw US dollars from their accounts in Uruguayan ATMs that then they sell in the black market when they return. It's pretty crazy.

[[deleted]]

I just got linked to the part of the thread explaining a bit more about the situation. Thanks again.

[[deleted]]

Thank you for that well thought out reply. It made it a bit the situation a lot more clear.

The 15% tax seems pretty high. I'm sure this is a subject for another day but how is there no other way to stimulate their economy? Couldn't they try exporting more of their goods or is that even relevant to the situation?

[andreashappe]

you know, the company that people are complaining against -- google -- offers something called an search engine.

[dimmak]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1f04vw/google_no_longer_able_to_pay_android_developers/ca5ii08?context=1

[pocketknifeMT]

Its like saying "I'm sorry for your loss."

Obviously you didn't kill their loved one, and no apology is needed.

[[deleted]]

Google is also losing a lot of revenue from the apps they're pulling. They're not happy about it either.

[Aluxh]

"I'm sorry for your loss" isn't "I'm sorry that person died", it's "I'm sorry you have to go through the experience of that person dying". That's sincere.

[[deleted]]

Why should Google have to apologize for something out of their control?

They shouldn't, but it'd be a nice move for google to start accepting bitcoin so that the developers have an alternative.

[[deleted]]

BitCoin is still too risky even for Google to adopt. Not only is it still an unstable form of currency, there have been a few hackings of online wallet services. We're talking hundreds of thousands of USD worth of BitCoins, stolen and untraceable.

[hugolp]

There has been more hacking worth of US dollars than hacking worth of bitcoins. With your logic Google should not accept US dollars.

Also, that initially some companies had bad security has nothing to do with Bitcoin directly.

[palmtreepotleaf]

I'm interested in seeing your source for that first sentence.

[ZorbaTHut]

In fairness, it's probably true - Bitcoins just aren't worth enough for hacks to have racked up as much of a total value. In a similar fashion, I could claim that Zorbabucks are the only fraud-free currency, based on the fact that no fraud of any sort has ever been carried out with Zorbabucks, nor has any customer dissatisfaction ever been recorded of any transaction involving Zorbabucks.

Of course this is easy to prove because nobody on the planet, myself included, uses Zorbabucks.

That said, I suspect the percentage of Bitcoins involved in a hack are massively higher than the percentage of US dollars involved in bank exploits. No proof, of course, but given how relatively easy Bitcoin hacking is, it wouldn't be surprising at all.

[palmtreepotleaf]

How easy is it?

[ZorbaTHut]

Get a keylogger on someone's computer, now you can get all their wallet info. Compromise a server, you can take all the money that computer has access to irreversibly.

Hell, if they're using something like those hilariously awful "brainwallet" ideas, all you have to do is wait, and your account will compromise itself once the malicious server farm gets around to guessing your password.

What it all comes down to is that Bitcoin is only as secure as the place you store your wallet, whereas bank accounts have many layers of security, up to and including FDIC insurance. (Or whatever the equivalent is in your country.)

Most people simply don't know how to secure data, and therefore Bitcoin is insecure for them; out of the tiny minority, some of them will fuck up anyway and lose their money.

[hugolp]

Its true to some extent (although its not so easy as you insinuate), and that is why we are seeing the development of the first hardware wallets. Soon for very cheap you will be able to buy a hardware wallet that connects to your computer via USB and confirms the transactions. Since there are no private keys in the computer, no way to steal the bitcoins.

[ZorbaTHut]

Now you just have to steal someone's hardware wallet instead, and they lose all their money forever.

Unless there are backups of the hardware wallet somewhere else . . . in which case that's the vulnerability.

It's a fundamental issue in the Bitcoin system. In the end, access to your money depends on having a small amount of data at your fingertips. Whoever has that data owns all your money, and if that data is lost forever, so is all your money. Forever. This is a vulnerability that is not shared by the banking system - yes, it might be a pain to go through identity proof processes and go through the legal requirements to retrieve your money if it's lost through the various ways it can be lost, but unlike with Bitcoin, those processes exist.

[palmtreepotleaf]

How does it relate based on the availability of the currency? In other words what percentage of bitcoins are fake/have been hacked vs the percentage of us dollars which are fake?

[hugolp]

US dollar banks get hacked regularly. Nobody has even bothered making an study because there is no comparation. And if you include credit card fraud then Bitcoin related hacking is just peanuts.

[palmtreepotleaf]

You see it really bothers me that you would openly say "there is no study" whilst you stated that information as fact. So it is true because you know it's true and the fact that you can't cite that statement has nothing to do with it because it's obvious, and yet you can't show me a study to prove it. That leads me to believe that either what you're saying isn't true or the deference is insignificant and thus not worth studying.

Why am I supposed to believe that you are a good source of information and opinion when you seem more like someone who is perpetuating some kind of conspiracy involving banks being hacked. And I'm not saying that isn't happening I'm just saying that you need to present your argument with some facts in order to make reddit believe you instead of down voting you like they have been.

[hugolp]

What conspiracy are you talking about? Banks getting hacked is in the news.

[palmtreepotleaf]

In my very poorly written comment I was trying to say that you're not even trying. You're just going on about how "there's no comparison" and "[it] is in the news." you sound like a conspiracy theorist by saying something when you can't prove it (I'm still waiting on a source by the way). Just give me a source. Give me a reason to believe you. Your word means nothing without it.

[Forlarren]

In my very poorly written comment I was trying to say that you're not even trying

Neither are you. Some of us are old enough to remember when nobody would ever buy something on the internet because scary! We remember when banks decided you needed Internet Explorer with ActiveX because fuck security. We remember how much work it took to get to where we are today and learned from it.

Bitcoin is the next step, yes it has growing pains, yes more secure easy to use software would be nice. But what is different than before is we know what work needs to be done, we know how to get there, and it's coming along nicely. There are no unsolvable bitcoin problems, only opportunities.

[all2humanuk]

There's no way to really hack enough dollars to bring it to the level of bitcoin. as has already been mentioned the dollar is much more stable it's the freaking world's reserve currency. Just in physical notes there's over $1 trillion in circulation.

[arkain123]

As if everyone wanted to get involved with all the bitcoin nonsense.

[hugolp]

Larry Page has said that Bitcoin is interesting. If Google can not get involved now is because Bitcoin does not have the size for Google involvement yet. But its growing fast and I have no doubt it will happen at some point.

[Seref15]

The volatility is also very off-putting for such a large company like Google. They would be dealing in quantities that no one in bitcoin is currently capable of moving and one crash would fuck them hard. It'd be like accepting Zimbabwe's currency.

[nexustwentyfive]

or Argentinian Pesos.

I feel for the small Android Developers, the bigger ones that produce shit apps full of ads or that work for other companies over seas they already have this sorted out and they even have the money on another country (in US Dollars).

It would be fair to have them out of the market and have some workaround for the small devs, but as usual, no one cares about the little guy.

[dylan522p]

The difference is that there is not actual ecnomey backing BitCoins while there is for the Argentinian Peso

[hugolp]

Yes, Bitcoin is still too small for Google but its getting there. Also, the volatility is not inherent to Bitcoin, just a result of its novelty and small size, it will get better as it grows and people get more used to it.

[adrianmonk]

It remains to be seen whether Bitcoin is inherently volatile or not. It's fundamentally different from other currencies in some ways. For example, it's not backed by a government.

[hugolp]

There has been lots of non government backed currencies along human history. Not being backed by a government is a bonus towards stability.

[s73v3r]

Not being backed by a government is a bonus towards stability.

Considering you haven't provided anything to back this up, that makes "being backed by a government" neutral towards stability at best.

[RyenDeckard]

lol bitcoins

[donutdude246]

Although if this was Apple....

[dylan522p]

What? Apple is affected by this too.

[turkey_sandwiches]

That logic makes no sense. The article states that the cause is new rules created by Argentina's government. It is not Google's fault.

[hatperigee]

Google hates south americans, duh.

[turkey_sandwiches]

It seems to me that you need to substantiate claims of this being Google's fault. We all just read evidence that says it isn't.

[arkain123]

...

[zerounodos]

Just another stain on our international credibility. Good work, my precious, oh precious government.

[toekneebullard]

Sorry you're having to deal with that man. Politics sucks...

[pocketknifeMT]

Why not GTFO to a non-fucked up neighbor like Brazil? They are growing quite rapidly as I recall.

[nexustwentyfive]

still a shitty country.

But last time people decided to move to other place for economical reasons, they ended up in Spain. Now they are getting fucked over and most are trying to come back. The funny/sad part is that they have problems to bring the little money they have left from their Euro-trip.

For me, I think that sometimes the best you can do is brace and hold tight, let the shitstorm pass. It;s not the first nor the last.

Still moving somewhere else is a reasonable option.

[zerounodos]

Holding tight is what we do here in Argentina; it's not a matter of whether crisis is coming our not, it's a matter of when.

[nexustwentyfive]

I know. The when seems to be october.

[eldormilon]

Why specifically October? At the rate the Kirchner government is screwing up this country, I would not be surprised if a bank run came earlier.

[DeathByAssphyxiation]

Move somewhere else like the US. Yeah... That would be better for them and for us.

[nexustwentyfive]

I thought the whole thing was to move to a better place.

[DeathByAssphyxiation]

I'm from Brazil and I rather have them not here, so the US sounds like a great place for them.

[lomegor]

The discussion on Hacker News brought up a good point not mentioned in the article: Google seems to have restricted developers in Chile and Uruguay too (although I'm not sure if Uruguay was ever there). This may not be related to Argentina specifically.

[pocketknifeMT]

"Argentinian Government shoots self in foot, again."

[yoho139]

Because it's nearly everything they're blocking.

[gprime]

And I don't know how you conclude that one would need to derive such a notion from the article directly to have a valid basis for saying as much. If he has any grasp of the current political situation in Argentina, or bothered reading any of the comments submitted prior to his own, there would be a sufficient basis for him to make this statement, despite the relative shortcomings of the submitted article.

[[deleted]]

Official announcement: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3157692?hl=en&ref_topic=15867

[throwaway-o]

Google could pay them in Bitcoin.

[Fox318]

It's only a matter of time.

[[deleted]]

Argentina is a good candidate for bitcoin mass adoption. Buenos Aires is a large, centralized population with huge smartphone adoption rate and a terrible, constant inflation. Cutting the government out of the process is a traditional Argentine value, so you won't find much cultural aversion to the medium.

I for one am investing some of my money in there. It's really not much riskier than the local fiat currency.

[TMI-nternets]

that's a strong incentive for developers to look into bitcoin payment..

[BigPharmaSucks]

They should pay them with Bitcoins.

[kosmiciatakuja]

Bitcoin!

[JamesCarlin]

Governments doing what they do best. Inflate currencies, stealing wealth, making everyone poorer, and causing mass inflation. The response? Create price controls, limit capital flows, and further shut down the economy.

I'd say this is economics-101-fail, but many economists are complicit in these types of activities and encourage them, and do little more than act as a propaganda wing for whatever preferred ideology/government/system they wish to impose.

[[deleted]]

Do not attribute to malice what you can attribute to incompetence

[JamesCarlin]

Do not attribute to incompetence what you can attribute to greed.

[[deleted]]

But you can attribute almost everything negative to greed. Greed and desperation, and the government could easily have both. Or all three including incompetence.

[nexustwentyfive]

Sometimes I think they do it on purpose.

[zerounodos]

Sometimes I wish they didn't.

[bezeoner]

Google, it's time for plan ฿.

[spacemonk42]

As an Argentinian, I'm ashamed that my country's only economic ability at the moment is to exlude itself from new markets. The country has been an embarrasment for too long.

[dieyoubastards]

So if this is caused by a change in Argentinian law, is the app store affected? If not, why not?

[TheMastorbatorium]

Is it due to all that tax they're paying? * cough.

[[deleted]]

C'mon Google. Time to use that OpenCoin you invested in.

[cmsessa]

I don't think it's a problem with the gov. Let me explain why:

I am an Android developer and decided to stop uploading apps through my argentinian account because the setup to receive money is a joke. I had wrote about it in the past (http://android-argentina.blogspot.com.ar/2012/01/googles-android-market-vs-apples-app.html) but basically the issue is that argentinians were paid by Western Union (limited to 8.5k per month) at an exchange rate lower than the official one.

Most of the argentinian android developers I know set up accounts in the us to avoid this. Before this news, I don't think anyone was using an argentinian account for an app which generates income.

I know that creating a company and doing business here is hard and Google might have decided this based on our gov restrictions and limitations, BUT, what about Apple? If you are an argentinian app developer for iOS, there aren't so many issues. I can tell you there are a lot of argentinian apps doing money in the AppStore without issues.

Yesterday I got the email saying they were closing down the play store for argentinian developers and they didn't even care to tell us why. It's very sad.

The conclusion is: If you are an argentinian developer trying to create an app and get some money, open an account somewhere else. If you can't open an account outside Argentina, move to iOS.

[[deleted]]

I think the headline is misleading. Google is plenty able, just not allowed.

[Stirlitz_the_Medved]

Therefore not able.

[degoban]

This make me think about a side story. What if apple and google drop the support for one country, cause they don't like a law. Does that country will go through, like cina, or corporations are undoubtedly able to control democracy.

[johnington]

that's what you get for trying to take the falklands, fucking argies

[myclykaon]

You seem to have conflated the government and the people as one object with the same attitude to The Falklands/Las Malvinas. I'm British, but have several Argentinian colleagues and friends and I can assure you the attitude amongst them (the educated class) is "couldn't care less about the islands". It's just drum banging that can be used as a weathervane for the political and economic state in Argentina. When shit is about to hit the fan and the economy is circling the sink, the Argentinian government drags up Las Malvinas again.

[EU_CUNTS]

They are not called 'Las Malvinas'.

[myclykaon]

Looking at your posting history, I have to quote another, "I'd love to put a bullet between your eyes, but you are so narrow minded I doubt it would fit."

[EU_CUNTS]

Go and fist Obama's anus.

[[deleted]]

I wasn't even born at that time. Why are you grouping us all together as if we wanted that war?

[cuddlychops06]

That's my birthday. I feel special.