[matheusmoreira]

> It beggars belief that either country would retire its national currency given the deflationary shock that would create.

Believe it. Brazil has had more national currencies than I care to remember. If you search "Brazil" on HN, you'll find the top post is about the creation of the real and how the government had to essentially trick the population into believing that this time it wasn't going to turn into worthless paper.

There are other latin american countries that are even worse.