Local currencies keep riding high

Latin Americans learned long ago that they should not put too much trust in their currencies. Since the 1970s, hyperinflation, capital flight and economic collapse have been commonplace and many businesses have realized that holding their assets in US dollars was the only sure way to protect them. Currencies have been more stable in recent years, but even so between 2000 and 2003 they lost about half their value against the US dollar and Argentines still hold billions of dollars in savings abroad.