Food shortages and line-ups. Price controls and what looks like a burgeoning black market.
Soviet Socialist Republic of Venezuela!
No food
Shortages have sporadically appeared with items such as milk and coffee since early 2003, when Chavez began regulating prices for 400 basic products as a way to counter inflation and protect the poor.
Yet inflation has soared to an accumulated 78 percent during the past four years in an economy awash in petrodollars, and food prices have increased particularly swiftly, creating a widening discrepancy between official prices and the true cost of getting goods to market in Venezuela.
Seized Food
Many privately-owned supermarkets have suspended sales of beef, milk and sugar after one chain was temporarily closed for pricing meat above allowed levels. The government has already seized goods that it says are being hoarded to drive up prices.