(MONEY Magazine) – Earlier this year, El Salvador adopted the U.S. dollar as its official currency, joining a growing band of Latin American nations that are "dollarizing" to fight inflation and attract foreign investors. With Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras also contemplating the move, some economists predict the dollar could soon be the common currency of Latin America. So far, however, dollarization has proved a mixed blessing.

--ARAVIND ADIGA

ARGENTINA (peso)

PROS Linking the peso to the dollar put an end to the days of hyperinflation, when the price of an espresso doubled between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

CONS Argentinians can no longer set their own interest rates--so Alan Greenspan effectively determines mortgage costs in Buenos Aires.

EL SALVADOR (colon)

PROS No one trusted the old currency.

CONS Schools had to schedule special U.S. history classes so kids would know about the gringos on the new money.

ECUADOR (sucre)

PROS The country's president, Jamil Mahuad, pushed dollarization as a way of saving his country's floundering economy--and his own job.

CONS A military coup deposed mahuad two weeks after he announced the measure.