The blue dollar as a “public issue” in post-convertibility Argentina (2011-2015)

Abstract

The purpose of this text is to analyze the process of the increasing circulation of the blue dollar —a dollar illegally traded on the Argentine foreign exchange market— in the public sphere since 2011. It does so on the basis of the hypothesis that this process can be understood in terms of the reproduction of a “public number”. In other words, it is an indicator that goes beyond the specialized field in which it was created (the financial market), not only acquiring broad visibility but also becoming a category of perception of economic reality and local politics (and even of the production of practical repertoires).