I love the story about Argentina's mysterious shortage of coins, or monedas. It's a fun little tale about a bizarre trend, complete with quirky subplots; governments fudging inflation data, coin-rich metro bus companies, which only accept payment in coins, supporting a whole moneda black market. In fact, I love it so much I wrote an article on the matter back when I was reporting out of Reuters' Buenos Aires bureau--and battling with just about every cashier in the city to ensure I had enough coins to take the bus home each day. But that was two years ago. Since then, we've heard from Slate (Yes, We Have No Monedas), Global Post (Where Are Argentina's Coins?), Time (Spare Change? There's None In Buenos Aires), the AP (Argentine Inflation Means Daily Scramble for Coins), and The Wall Street Journal (Argentina Is Short of Cash -- Literally), to name a few. Then last week, The New Yorker's James Surowiecki chimed in (Change We Can't Believe In) on the matter.

Basta! I'm calling it: this story has officially jumped the shark. Apparently, Argentina agrees with me. Today, news comes via the Buenos Aires Herald that the government is finally introducing an electronic ticketing system for trains and buses. If all goes according to plan, people will no longer feel compelled to hang onto their coins for dear life (or, for that matter, grumble about the government's absurdly rosy inflation figures, since inflation may play an underlying role in the coin dilemma...). Argentina and its monedas will live happily ever after.

Maybe it'll work, maybe not. It's possible (likely) that inflation and the mint are far more to blame than the bus system. But even if that's the case, this should make enough of a dent to alleviate the worst of the coin fiasco--and thereby eliminate the need for every foreign correspondent to write about it. So at long last, Argentina watchers will have to find some new flap to track. Fortunately for us, there's rarely a dull moment in Argentine economics, where fiscal disputes tend to play themselves out in the streets amid burning tires and clanging pots and pans. My pick would be this: because of President Cristina Kirchner's controversial farm policies, Argentina--a country so cow-obsessed that its grandest high-society event is an annual livestock fair--is now going to have to import beef for the very first time. Ever. Now, that's not just a shortage--that's an identity crisis.