Subway ticket prices more than doubled today to 2.50 pesos (58 US cents) from 1.10 previously.

The increase comes just days after the federal government turned over management of the subway system to the City of Buenos Aires.

The day-to-day administration of the subway is carried out by Metrovias, a private sector company which has had a concession to run the subway since 1994.

Prices had been frozen for years while the cost of just about everything else in Argentina has soared amid rampant inflation that economists say surpasses 20% annually.

The federal government had kept prices artificially low by dolling out millions of dollars in subsidies every year. But now that the subway is in the city’s hands, the federal government will stop paying for those subsidies entirely in 2013.

This year the federal government and the city will split the cost of paying for the subsidies, which total about $167 million annually.

The subway carries around 300 million passengers every year, according to Metrovias. That’s double what it carried when the company started its concession.

Metrovias has some 3,000 employees, unionized workers whose demands for higher salaries and better working conditions will undoubtedly put political pressure on the city government in the years ahead.

My colleagues, Matt Moffett, Ken Parks and I did a feature for the Wall Street Journal on the topic and the broader issues of utility rates and subsidies, which you can read here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

While cleaning up an old hard drive today, I found some old slang video footage.

So I took a few minutes and edited it into another “Scooping Argentina” lunfardo lesson.

“Hinchapelotas” is a rather crass, negative expression. But it’s also one that’s used fairly frequently on the streets of Buenos Aires.

So it’s worth knowing, even if you don’t use it yourself. It’s not something you’d want to say in a formal setting or with people you don’t know well.

A rough translation would be something like “pain-in-the-ass.” More literally, it would be akin to “ball-breaker.”

If you’re lucky, you’ll never hear anyone apply the expression to you!

Argentina’s Congress on Wednesday moved the country to the forefront of the global fight against cancer by passing a nationwide ban on smoking in indoor public places.

In a rare display of national unity, members of the Lower House of Congress voted almost unanimously to approve the ban, which received the support of virtually all political parties.

Health officials estimate that cigarette-related cancer kills around 40,000 Argentines annually.

Pro party Deputy Paula Bertol, one of the law’s most vocal proponents, said the law’s goal is to reduce smoking and prevent people from taking up the hideous habit in the first place.

The law bans smoking in indoor work spaces, schools, hospitals, museums, clubs and public transportation systems. It also places strict limits on the sale, advertising and promotion of cigarettes in these and other places while forcing tobacco companies to put warning labels on cigarette packages.

The law does allow people to continue smoking on their own private balconies and patios, etc.

“Today is a day to celebrate,” Bertol said in a statement. “After more than 20 years of working on this matter, Congress has finally passed the law that will save lives. Tobaco kills and our objective is to protect those who freely choose not to smoke.”

Bertol said that more than half of the people who smoke will end up dying from a disease related to their consumption of cigarettes. On average, she said, smokers live at least 10 years less than non-smokers.

Argentina has come a long way in recent years. The City of Buenos Aires first banned smoking in 2006. That’s a far cry from the mid 1990s when some Argentines still smoked openly in movie theaters.

Torcuarto Di Tella University’s latest crime “victimization rate” survey indicates that overall criminal activity in Argentina was unchanged in April from the same month a year ago.

The victimization rate refers to the percentage of households which reported that at least one person in that home has been the victim of crime within the past year. This could be any kind of crime, reported or not to the police.

According to the latest survey, which was published Tuesday and polled 1,206 households, 33.2% of the homes said at least one member of the household had been the victim of crime.

That rate is unchanged from a year earlier but up from 29.6% the previous month.

Violent crime accounted for about 60% of the crimes experienced by household members. That is to say, for every 100 homes surveyed, 22 reported experiencing violent crime.

This figure was up from the previous month (March), when it totaled 18. It was also up a tad from a year ago, when it was 21.

Di Tella’s study surveys households in 40 urban centers around the country. The survey was conducted from April 1-12.

The safest place to be in Argentina, according to the survey, is in scarcely populated towns of less than 10,000 people. The victimization rates in these towns is about 21%.

Cities with more than 500,000 residents appear to have the most crime per household, with a victimization rate of about 35%.

In general, the safest place in Argentina is the interior provinces while the most dangerous is Buenos Aires province.

Opinion polls have shown that crime is the top concern among Argentines, surpassing inflation and worries about the economy.

The number of so-called “express kidnappings” reported by local media soared in the first quarter of 2011, according to a new study.

The media reported 28 of these kidnappings in the province of Buenos Aires in the first three months of the year, according to an analysis by the think tank Centro de Estudios Nueva Mayoria.

That’s up from just one in the same period last year and indicates the first three months of 2011 were the worst since 2004.

The vast bulk of Argentina’s kidnappings occur in the province of Buenos Aires.

Of course, the study reflects only express kidnappings reported by the media. It’s unclear what percentage of overall kidnappings this actually represents, though I suspect the percentage is extremely low.

I was kidnapped briefly in a taxi in 1999. The whole incident lasted only about an hour, making it an express kidnapping. I reported it to police, who didn’t seem to care at all. It never appeared in the media. Meanwhile, I know of two people who were kidnapped for much longer periods of time a few years ago. Their stories never made it into the press.

It can be very hard to get accurate crime data in Latin America, where, according to experts, only about one in 10 crimes are reported.

While this study is alarming, it should not be taken as a definitive statement on the nature of crime or kidnappings in Argentina. Because it is based on media reports, it’s very hard to know how reliable it is because the media can be a fickle beast.

A more accurate overview of crime in general is probably Di Tella University’s monthly crime survey, which I will post on Wednesday.

One of the great joys of living in an older, pedestrian-friendly city like Buenos Aires is the unexpected discovery of hidden gems.

I chanced upon one of these Sunday night while walking my little pug, Buki, around my neighborhood just north of the city. Technically speaking, I don’t even live in Buenos Aires. I live near the border between the neighborhoods of Olivos and La Lucila.

Just as in San Telmo or parts of Recoleta, some parts of these neighborhoods are defined by beautifully cobbled, tree-lined streets. It’s a delightful area to explore by foot.

While walking with Buki I came across this older movie theater, Cine York, which was showing Woody Allen’s latest movie, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

The place looked incredibly cozy, quiet and romantic. I felt fortunate, happy to be out and about and happy to have such a lovely placed so close to my home.

The classy, inviting nature of this little theater couldn’t contrast more with the loud, plastic, cookie-cutter nature of modern shopping centers that have come to dominate the urban landscape of huge swaths of the U.S.

Have you ever wanted something that you just couldn’t find in Argentina?

Ever been jonesing for some pancake mix or syrup or some cool item like an iPad 2, a Zoom microphone or a Canon EF 55mm lens?

The Mule Pool hopes to be your solution.

The Mule Pool is an online exchange that connects buyers with travelers (mules) so you can get what you want. You pay a mule to bring it to you. Or, say you’re traveling and want to make some extra cash. You could mule something back for somebody else. How does it work?

1) You tell The Mule Pool what you want.
2) Mules review open requests and determine how they can help.
3) You (the buyer) put your money into an escrow account. The Mule Pool guards the money until it’s sure your product was delivered.
4) You arrange to meet the mule.
5) Once you confirm to The Mule Pool that transaction has been carried out, the mule gets paid.What’s in it for The Mule Pool? They get a 15% commission, which covers transaction costs, bank and exchange rate fees, etc. The Mule Pool accepts PayPal and is currently exploring other means of payment.

The site is the brainchild of Buenos Aires-based expats Morgan Friedman and Daniel Karlin.I spoke with one of them, Daniel Karlin, and asked him about the site. ”It’s exploding,” he said. Traffic to the site, which is less than three weeks ago, has been growing rapidly thanks to Twitter and word of mouth.

Karlin said the first mules are currently working on completing the site’s first transactions. But those initial transactions could blossom quickly into the thousands if the concept takes off.

And while the initial aim of the site was simply to help people get hard-to-find goods, it could end up leading to much more than that. For example, it’s easy to see how the site might connect people with similar interests and thereby foster new friendships here and abroad.

If you’re an Argentine and you want an unusual kind of tennis racket, it’s entirely possible that the mule bringing it to you might share some kind of interest in tennis. Voila! Instant rapport.

One question that arose on Twitter relates to the legality of the site. Argentines, wary about the $300 customs limit at the EZE airport, wanted to know if paying a mule to bring back, say, an iMac, would be legal.

Well, if you paid the customs tax it would be.

“We strongly recommend that everyone abide by all laws,” said Karlin. “We are total sticklers about ensuring everyone follows all relevant laws and pays all the taxes.”

If you wanted a mule to bring an expensive item into Argentina, you’d have to calculate the value of them item, plus customs fees, into the transaction.

Let’s say you wanted a US $100 distortion pedal for your guitar. You’d have to pay $100 for the pedal, a pre-arranged fee to the mule, and then 15% of the total as a commission to The Mule Pool. You set the fee you’re willing to pay the mule. The higher the fee, the more likely someone will bring it to you.

One last thing. The Mule Pool isn’t just for Argentina. You can use it from anywhere in the world. You live in France and want White Tea only found in China? No problem. Just ask for it on The Mule Pool.

The Mule Pool is a new project and will surely evolve as its founders improve it and receive feedback. Would you use The Mule Pool? Check it out here.

Torcuarto Di Tella University’s latest crime “victimization rate” survey indicates that overall criminal activity fell last month.

The victimization rate refers to the percentage of households which reported that at least one person in that home has been the victim of crime within the past year.

This could be any kind of crime, reported or not to the police.

According to the latest survey, which polled 1,193 households, 28.7% of the homes said at least one member of the household had been the victim of crime.

That rate is down about two percentage points from the previous month and down eight from a year earlier.

Violent crime accounted for about 64% of the crimes experienced by household members. That is to say, for every 100 homes surveyed, 21 reported experiencing violent crime.

This figure rose last month from the previous month (November), when it totaled 18. It is also up slightly from a year ago, when it was 20.

Di Tella’s study surveys households in 40 urban centers around the country. The survey was conducted from December 2-13.

The safest place to be in Argentina, according to the survey, is in scarcely populated towns of less than 10,000 people. The victimization rates in these towns is about 20%.

Cities with more than 500,000 residents appear to have the most crime per household, with a victimization rate of about 30%.

Di Tella also released the results of a separate survey about crime and how people have changed their behavior because of it.

Around 74% of people polled said they have stopped traveling to certain areas because of concern about crime. (The survey didn’t provide any details about these specific areas.)

It also revealed that 65% had installed alarms or security bars in their homes. Another 46% said they had or had obtained a guard dog.

Some 10% said they owned a firearm.

Numerous opinion polls have shown that crime is the top concern among Argentines, surpassing inflation and worries about the economy.

If you’re interested in crime, check out this post about the murder rate in Buenos Aires.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Aerolíneas Argentinas, the country’s perennially troubled flagship airline, has decided to give obese people a free extra seat on regional flights.

The company, which announced the policy Tuesday, has already been offering an extra seat to exceptionally fat people in some cases on flights within the country.

The airline teamed up with Inadi, the national anti-discrimination institute, to develop the policy.

“This way people will be given a more comfortable seat and they will avoid being charged differently for suffering from the disease,” the government, which owns the airline, said in a statement.

The government did not add details to clarify exactly what “the disease” is and the new policy will likely fuel debate about the causes of obesity.As the above video shows, Aerolíneas is not the first airline to tackle the issue.

Aerolíneas has been offering extra seats for obese people on some flights since May 2009, the company said.

As a state-run company, Aerolíneas has to abide by the so-called 1998 Obesity Law, which prevents the government from discriminating against people using public services.

To get the extra seat, passengers must meet two requirements: 1) Reserve the two seats at least 48 hours in advance and 2) show a doctor’s certificate (which presumably certifies that the passenger is obese).

Most airlines follow an international guideline that requires obese passengers to purchase two seats, the government said in its statement.

Reliable obesity statistics are hard to come by for Argentina, where most people – well, women, at least – seem very thin. But such data are widely available in the U.S., where obesity has almost become the norm.

The free extra seat policy might be harder to implement – and much more costly for airlines – in the U.S., where about 27% of the population is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC defines a person as obese if he or she has a body mass index of 30 or higher. To calculate your own BMI, click here.

Though obesity is a massive and rapidly growing problem in the U.S., it is also becoming a serious global epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2015 around 2.3 billion people will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

Oddly enough, at least one set of WHO data indicate that the U.S. is the most obese nation in the world, followed by Argentina. You can see the data in map form here. According to it, about 44% of the U.S. population is obese while 37% of Argentines are obese. But it’s hard to believe this data, which clash with everyday experience in Argentina. I’ll be contacting the WHO for an explanation and will update this post if I get one.

Meanwhile, for a stunning look at how the U.S. has gained weight in recent years, check out this graphic from the CDC. It charts the rise in obesity year by year and state by state. The thinnest state in the U.S., by far, is Colorado.

Argentine Health Minister Juan Manzur warned Friday that the mosquito transmitted illness dengue could become a serious problem for the country this summer.

“We’re facing a situation that is much graver in magnitude than it was a year ago because of the presence of dengue in countries on our border,” Manzur said at a meeting of provincial health ministers. “The dengue situation is really worrisome.”

Manzur, who said “health has no borders,” has been working in the triple frontier region in a bid to prevent the spread of mosquitos that transmit the illness to people in Argentina.

Given the presence of dengue in neighboring countries the most important thing we can do is prevent the spread of mosquitos that transmit the infection to people.

As of September 9, Brazil had about 942,000 cases of dengue, including 367 deaths, Argentina’s Health Ministry said, citing data from the Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO.

In Paraguay, the cases totaled almost 8,300 with 15 deaths. In Argentina, the number of cases by the same date was 1,059 with no deaths.

According to the PAHO:

“Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection that causes a severe flu-like illness, and sometimes a potentially lethal complication called dengue hemorrhagic fever. Global incidence of dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades. Dengue is found in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas. There is no specific treatment for dengue, but appropriate medical care frequently saves the lives of patients with the more serious dengue haemorrhagic fever. The only way to prevent dengue virus transmission is to combat the disease-carrying mosquitoes.”

The World Health Organization estimates that the world has around 50 million dengue cases every year. The infection is now endemic is 100 countries.

The number of people visiting Argentina soared in August.

Around 233,000 people flew into Argentina in August. That’s up almost 71% from the same month a year ago, when the global economy was mired in a deep financial crisis.

That’s good news for hotels, restaurants, milongas and tango shows that cater to tourists. It’s good news in general for the entire economy.

While here, tourists spent around $287 million, up almost 82% from a year ago, the national statistics agency, INDEC, reported Friday.

The average tourist spent almost $103 day, up 36% from the previous year.

Brazilians spent the most per day ($192) while other Latin Americans spent $105. Chileans spent about $175 a day while Americans shelled out $98.

On average tourists stayed almost 12 days in Argentina. Brazilians remained here an average of almost six days while Europeans were here for almost 25.

Four out of 10 visitors to Argentina in August were Brazilian.

The number of Argentines who traveled outside the country rose 19% in August, indicating people may have more money to travel – or at least are more willing to spend it – than a year ago.

INDEC’s measurement is based on the number of non-resident visitors who arrive to the country via Ezeiza and Aeroparque airports.

The murder rate in the City of Buenos Aires is quite low compared with many other major world cities, according to the latest data from Argentina’s Justice Ministry.

Last year 4.92 people were murdered for every 100,000 people in the city. That’s lower than a broad range of major cities (see graph above) except for Toronto, where the rate was just 2.47.

It also means it was safer to live in Buenos Aires last year than in New York City, which had its lowest murder rate on record in 2009.

This should dispel some of the exaggerated claims that Buenos Aires is one of the more dangerous cities in Latin America or in the world. Still, the number is up from 2008, when it was 4.6.

That means the murder rate rose about 7% in just one year. Moreover, while the murder rate rose in Buenos Aires, it either declined or remained stable in the other cities compared.

This should give weight to the widely published claims that the city has become more dangerous or, literally, more deadly.

The Ministry released the data shortly after Justice Minister Julio Alak told members of Congress that overall crime had declined since 2002. But Alak failed to mention that it rose again in 2008.

The Ministry confirmed this just days after Alak testified before Congress, leading critics to say that Alak had lied or misled the public.

In recent years Argentine officials have dismissed claims that crime is getting worse, saying instead that people are simply experiencing “the sensation” that things are getting worse.

Government officials have used the same term to refer to the perception that inflation exists and is worsening. Not only do government officials deny that inflation exists, Economy Ministry Amado Boudou recently said that it “cannot exist” given other macroeconomic conditions.

Whatever the case, at the national level, the latest murder data are from 2008. That year Argentina was safer than just about any other Latin American country except for Chile, though Chile’s data that year offered contradictory numbers, making it hard to know which were accurate.

In any case, apart from Canada and the U.S., where the murder rates were 1.8 and 5.4, respectively, Argentina was the safest country in the hemisphere, according to the Ministry. Argentina’s murder rate in 2008 was 5.8 per 100,000 people.

The rate was almost five times higher in Brazil (26.6 using data from 2006) and about 10 times higher in Venezuela (52) and Honduras (57.9).

Recent polls indicate crime is the issue that most worries Argentines.