1 Global News Post 2
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Brach, Sebastián López. (2022). [Grocery store in Argentina]. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/06/business/inflation-argentina.html
The article details how average people are secretly mobilizing in Argentina in an attempt to make their situations more livable and hold food places and grocery stores accountable. In an attempt to combat extreme inflation, the left-wing federal government in Argentina has instituted price caps on (especially essential) goods to ensure that they do not become too expensive for regular people. The price cap is at a 3.2% increase per month for essential goods; people in the country, however, do not simply take companies and grocery stores at their word and believe that they will continue to put their own profit above everything else. As a result, the article shows how many people volunteer to look through stores and their products to ensure that these stores are following the government’s price caps and goods remain (for the most part) affordable for the average person.
The article is very important considering the context it has been written in. In recent years, Argentina and its economy have been subjected to rampant inflation–in 2022, the recorded inflation rate was 94.8 percent, one of the highest in the world and the highest in the country since 1991. It is one of the biggest changes happening in the country, and it has been in the double digits consistently for over a decade. For evidence, the article used interviews with people doing the price checks in stores directly, as well as elites in the economic sector with proposed solutions, and commentary on, the inflation. The article was interesting because it included a variety of different perspectives and opinions on the issue–from the lower-class people merely trying to buy their groceries, to elite economists blaming the government and its policies for the inflation, the article included a few different views on the issue and, as a whole, was pretty well-rounded in its depiction.