Cooking oil long ago went up 40 percent. People simply buy less, she said, citing genuine hunger in the region. Everybody talks about it all the time, every day. Yet the talk isn't bad for quite everyone. The cautious rich who stashed money out of the country before the collapse could nearly double their pesos by bringing it back.
Tourists travel happily, the devaluation making Mexico a bargain destination.
Meanwhile, the United States was spared the much-feared flood of illegal immigrants as border controls were firmed up and those who made it to el otro lado , or the other side, found jobs scarce in a cool U.S. economy. As Mexicans move through their second year of economic crisis, most view the future nervously at best. To be sure, the peso has steadied. Foreign investment is returning. Mexicans, however, still feeling the pinch, remain cautious.