Although we talk about him all the time, little is really known about his origin. First of all, it should be clarified that the blue dollar, that these days is very calm, trading just above $200, it is not a currency in itself, but an informal quotation of the US currency and is seen as an escape route exchange controlsa pipeline of saving for people who do not have access to solidarity or a search for coverage: all that is blue dollar.
No one knows why it is called that (blue in English), although there are several theories. There is a phrase that says “it is more false than celestial dollar” and that’s where the name might come from.
But there are other versions: “It may be related to the actions blue chipwith a high capitalization value and great liquidity”, points out Santiago López Alfaro, from Patente de Valores. While the financial adviser Francisco Di Cristófaro believes that the origin lies in the fact that “governments like to give marketing names to things that don’t sound so good.
What is certain is that came into existence under that name about ten years agoduring the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as a consequence of the stocks to the dollar who applied his management to limit access to currency. That boosted the growth of the parallel and its price was news every day.
The parallel has its origin in the implementation of the exchange trap.
The blue dollar was born before its name
However, the origin of blue dollar its origin dates back long before its name because, as Mario Rapoport, an economist with a doctorate in history from the University of Paris, explains, “there have always been forces tending to devalue the weight“and that led to, in September 1931shortly after it became known that Great Britain was abandoning the gold standard, the government of José Evaristo Uriburu implemented a mechanism of change controlaimed at counteracting the impact of the 1930 crisis on the local economy.
What’s more, created an Exchange Control Commission, which was authorized to establish a minimum and maximum ceiling for the purchase of foreign currency by banks. And then (since 1933), they settled two types of exchangeone seller and one buyer.
Thus, “a kind of legalized black market and no prior permits or documentation were required,” writes Rapoport. And, without a doubt, that first change control is the first origin of our contemporary blue dollar.
History continued its course and, between 1945 and 1973, the golden age of Keynesianism, the exchange controls they were the norm in many parts of the world, a market source reports. Later, that changed and price adjustment gained space along with the development of financial markets.
This is how, during the first presidency of Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1952), multiple exchange rates were established to promote the development of foreign trade and Di Cristófaro points out that, “in 1952, it was the first exchange hecatomb” with a gap between the parallel and the official of 400%.
“Situations like this and phrases like ‘if the market wants dollars, we are going to hit it with the whip’, by José Luis Machinea in 1989, led to the strengthening of the parallel dollar market,” he says.
The stocks restrict access to the dollar and encourage alternative markets.
The blue dollar consolidated in the 70s
For his part, Rapoport comments that, in Argentina, when the parallel dollar It was in the 1970s, after the military dictatorship. “Neoliberal policies deregulated the exchange markets and that brought a casual dollar stronger because there was no trust in the Exchange rates implemented by governments“, describe.
In tune with that description, Di Cristófaro remembers the times in the 1980s, when the entire city center was wired by the “financial caves“, which punctured the wires of news agencies with a pin and a cable to obtain first-hand key data for the market.
“Then cell phones came and everything began to be easier,” he recalls. However, a market source believes that technology further boosted informal markets. This started to happen in the 1990s in less developed countries.
In the government of Mauricio Macri, an attempt was made to lift the stocks, but he had to back down.
Blue dollar: what happened to the parallel in the 2000s?
And so, convertibility and corralito in between, We entered the 21st century with a parallel dollar that even has its own name.
With three years of life for blue, in December 2015, the government of Mauricio Macri announced the return to the free exchange market. There was calm at first, although demand continued to be high and, in April 2018, the currency runs began.
Finally, in August 2019, after the PASO elections, Guido Sandleris was appointed as head of the BCRA. Immediately afterwards, he implemented new restrictions on the foreign exchange market that They hardened over the monthsabove all, after the change of government, since, due to the shortage of foreign currency, the management of Alberto Fernández reinforced the obstacles to access to the dollar on several occasions.
Thus, although the blue market is relatively marginal and highly volatile, it continues to coexist with its brother the green and three others (MEP, counted with liqui and the solidary) and reached unimaginable peaks above $220although today it stabilized around $201.
Today, it became one of the most referenced prices in the market of the dollar because, not being regulated, it is seen as a real mirror of what happens with the currency. And, given the characteristic bimonetary (in fact, not by law) of the national economy, everything suggests that, as López Alfaro anticipates, “the parallel price of dollar and the blue market will never cease to exist“.