Man, it's such a tangled mess, it's difficult to tell. There's many reasons to inflation down here...a big one was many presidents would print more money to pay for projects (something politicians here have been regularly doing since the 1940s). The government has devalued the peso at various points, but usually by 10 or 20 percent. Small amounts that could be stomached. This last one was massive. The government is telling people it's temporary...but whether it is or not is hard to tell. And even if it is, with poverty numbers likely to shoot past 60% in the coming weeks, the bigger question is how long locals can afford to survive. And you're right about the government subsidies to lower income people. Almost all of that has been abandoned. Utility subsidies have been pulled, as has the cost of using the metro/buses (and they want to do away with many of the free healthcare services). Perhaps all of this works in the end for business/the government, but to what end if the people can't survive it? It's a very troubling situation and I don't think anyone actually knows what the outcome will be.