Depreciated currency

I'm flying home today from Argentina, where I took part in the TTS2022 international transplant conference.   I had to change dollars to pesos, which is made more complicated by the fact that Argentina has experienced persistently very high inflation.  But I feel on much more solid ground than if I had been in Venezuela, where inflation has wreaked havoc.

 David Klinowski recently finished a postdoc at Stanford and moved to Pitt. As a souvenir, he gave us this peacock, made by an artist from depreciated Venezuelan currency, which happens to have pictures of birds.  Persistent inflation has made this one of the high value uses of these old bills.

Here's a snippet of inflation data from the IMF: 

Venezuela: Inflation rate from 2012 to 2022 (compared to the previous year)

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In contrast to Venezuela, inflation in Argentina could be worse--it's less than 100% a year--double digits rather than 5 digits--although it's still among the highest in the world:

Argentina: Inflation rate from 2004 to 2027(compared to the previous year), with 2014-16 missing (and estimated going forward)

Transplantation is one of the casualties of Venezuela's economic crisis

The Pulitzer Center reports:

The Waiting List: Organ Transplants in Venezuela

"The government-managed organ procurement system that facilitated organ donations for transplant patients stopped working in 2017, leaving thousands of patients with no option to receive a transplant.

"The country has seen the number of kidney transplants from deceased donors performed every year drop from a record of 240 in 2012,to only nine in 2017. Government funding for transplant activity has also been curtailed, making it harder for low-income patients to obtain a transplant. This procedure has now become a luxury only the wealthiest patients can afford. "