An individual entered a supermarket.He had 1,500 pesos in his pocket.He wanted to make the purchase of the month, but he only had enough to cover the next three days.After the sad episode, he complains loudly: “There is no shortage of products in this supermarket, but they are out!And that is the problem we have today.It is not that there are no products or that the supermarket suppliers do not bring them to the shelves, but these go elsewhere and do not come to my house!Viewed this way, our frustrated buyer's complaint would seem ridiculous.The problem at hand is simply that either the customer does not have enough money to purchase the groceries he needs, or he mistakenly believes that others should sell him whatever he wants, at the price he arbitrarily came up with.The first thing that Cristina should look at is that, just as there is an “import festival”, exports are also flyingIn no case can this go well.Producers do not give away what they produce.And if they are forced to do so, it won't be long before they leave the market.As much as anyone could realize the absurdity of the complaint, it is neither more nor less than that what Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner thinks about "the problem of dollars" in the country.In her most recent intervention, in fact, she maintained that: “We don't lack dollars, they are out.And that is the problem we have today.The shortage in dollars and the bi-monetary economy.(...) It is not that there are none, or that we are lacking, or that the Argentine economy does not produce.It produces dollars that are evaded in many ways: imports, there is an import festival”.The first thing that Cristina should look at is that, just as there is an “import festival”, exports are also flying.So much so that the accumulated trade surplus in the last 12 months is USD 13.6 billion, a historically high figure.The former president should understand that the dollar is one more product of the economy.And, as such, she complies quite well with economic lawsSecond, the former president should understand that the dollar is one more product of the economy.And, as such, she complies quite well with economic laws.In this sense, she should remember that all good is scarce by definition, but that does not mean that there is a chronic lack of it.It is that when the markets operate freely, a price is established where all the quantity that one wants to buy is equal to all the quantity that is produced and wants to be sold.There is, however, a case where the quantity demanded exceeds the quantity supplied and that is when the government establishes a maximum price.Nothing different from that happens in the official exchange market.The Government established an arbitrary price for the dollar (which at $127 today is 41% below the price on the parallel market), and at that price there are not enough quantities to supply the demand.For this reason, the Central Bank prohibits the purchase of more than USD 200 per month, restricts the transfer of profits from companies, the payment of debts and, also, in conjunction with the Ministry of Production, imports are stopped in a discretionary and little way. transparent.Cristina Fernández is outraged that a company sends dollars abroad at $127 because she believes that in this way the “shortage of foreign currency” is deepening.But foreign exchange is not missing because one or another company buys dollars for whatever reason.They are missing because at the bargain price set by the Central Bank, everyone wants to buy and no one wants to sell.The problem, then, is not that companies are given “too much freedom”, but rather that the government wants the impossible: an abundance of products at ridiculous prices.The same thing that the supermarket customer wanted.The alleged problem that Fernández identifies –and which is partly shared by the rest of the government– has two extreme solutions: one is to completely close the door to the purchase of dollars.No one can acquire dollars, so there is no "leakage" or further "evasion."At least not on the official market.I understand that there is no country in the world that has tried such a thing.Another variant is to eliminate exchange controls and let the price of the dollar float freely, in the same way that so many other products in the national economy do, where no one regrets the lack of products.Obviously, this last proposal is to go to the system that every moderately civilized country on the planet has.However, the Argentine government is far from moving in that direction.The salaries of Argentines measured in dollars are well below what official statistics indicateIt is that, if it did so, in the short term inflation would jump and real wages would fall again, showing a reality that today the stocks, with all their problems, manage to hide.Namely, that the salaries of Argentines measured in dollars are well below what the official statistics mark.That is the paradox that arises: if they do not want to continue "raffling dollars", they should accept their true price.But doing that would also mean accepting that the "workers'" government has pulverized our income.Before that, they will continue with the raffle, but with more controls, which will only aggravate the problem and postpone the day of honesty.A movie that we already lived a thousand times.The latest in economics© EL LIBERAL SA (see mobile version) Editorial Director: Lic. Gustavo Eduardo Ick Santiago del Estero / Argentine Republic