Argentina: Ruining a Good Thing

“There's an old expression in my family, in every Argentine family,” my guide Maria told us as we zipped down a new freeway heading out of Buenos Aires to a town called Tortugas. “Buy the bricks . . . always buy the bricks.”

In that little nugget lies the key to successful investing in Argentina, or anywhere, for that matter, where holding cash for any significant length of time is problematic.

The Argentines have learned the hard way. In 2002, the peso was on par with the dollar, one for one. Today, that exchange rate is closer to four pesos for $1. Put another way, the peso has lost about 75 percent of its value against the dollar in 10 years.

If you had money in the bank denominated in Argentine pesos, such as a certificate of deposit, a bank account or other paper assets, you lost big.