Get A Boat

Generali

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/24/us-venezuela-flights-idUSBRE98N0TW20130924

Hugo Chavez, long time darling of the bien pensant Left, has a legacy that lives on:

After a decade of currency controls set up by late socialist leader Hugo Chavez in 2003, the disparity between the official and black-market rates for the local bolivar currency is higher than ever. Greenbacks now sell on the illegal market at about seven times the government price of 6.3 to the dollar.


There are strict limits on the availability of dollars at the 6.3 rate, but Venezuelans are cashing in on a special currency provision for travelers. With a valid airline ticket, Venezuelans may exchange up to $3,000 at the government rate.


Some are not even flying, leaving many planes half empty.


"It is possible to travel abroad for free due to this exchange rate magic," said local economist Angel Garcia Banchs.


Credit cards are used abroad to get a cash advance -- rather than buying merchandise. The dollars are then carried back into Venezuela and sold on the black market for some seven times the original exchange rate.


The large profit margin easily absorbs the cost of flights and accommodation for a trip.

dryhat

Bitcoin users unaffected.

Kennyboy66

I'm already planning to buy huge amounts of domestic gas and sell it overseas as soon as Ed Miliband has his way.

Lovely Jubbly

Loughton_Monkey

The whole thing is Caracas!

ruggedtoast

I sat next to an English guy on a plane once who told me about how in the 80's he'd had to help his uncle liquidate all his assets into dollars and get it out of a South American country that looked like it was about to go t1ts up, and had suspended any wire transfers or large currency movement out of the country.

His uncle had bought a house out there and had a relatively successful business so, when he cashed in it was several hundred thousand dollars. He was in a complete state and on the verge of a nervous breakdown about losing it all.

His nephew decided to take action and flew out there, then stuffed all of this money into a sort of home made money belt that apparently looked like he was wearing an especially bulky bomb vest under his heave jumper that he was wearing in 40 degree heat.

He had to go through security in the country of departure, change in the US, lying about holding that much currency, and again go through customs in Heathrow, he said he was bricking it and couldnt believe none of the security people stopped him because it looked so visible under his shirt.

chewmylegoff

dryhat wrote: »

Bitcoin users unaffected.

True. They still can't buy anything useful with their bitcoins.

Loughton_Monkey

chewmylegoff wrote: »

True. They still can't buy anything useful with their bitcoins.

Nor can I since I don't have any.

I'm waiting until bitcoins come in paper version [the new plastic will do] because I don't like all that weight in my pockets. Then I've heard that the best thing to buy with them is one of those bitcoin robots. They apparently go out and bring back loads more craptocurrency which you can't spend on anything useful.

dryhat

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Nor can I since I don't have any.

I'm waiting until bitcoins come in paper version [the new plastic will do] because I don't like all that weight in my pockets. Then I've heard

Fill yer boots mate ...

http://www.bit-card.de/

https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/#main

ruggedtoast

How much will it cost for me to own one bitcoin?

dryhat

ruggedtoast wrote: »

How much will it cost for me to own one bitcoin?

They're currently trading at about £82 each.

dryhat

chucky wrote: »

I was playing Mario Bros the other day and I have lots of them now,
I'm rich!!

You obviously know nothing about how Bitcoin works (or the revolutionary technology behind it) if you think they are even remotely similar to any gaming "coins"