HUGOnomics doing a bang up job!

[HOZ]

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.

[Cowperson]

Predictable . . . . and will occur in Iran as well.

Allan Greenspan referenced this in an oblique manner the other day, talking of the extraordinary period of global growth we are seeing right now with inflation in single digits, even in the developing world . . . . . with centrally planned economies like Zimbabwe, Iran and Venezuela obvious exceptions to these comments:

"This is the first time I remember when we could see a period in which we took all of the developed countries and the major emerging market countries, [except Russia and Turkey] where inflation is all single digit, and interest rates are all single digit," Mr. Greenspan told the audience by video conference from Washington.

But it won't last, he added.

"This is a global phenomenon, and it is quite extraordinary. And I suggest we enjoy it so long as it's going on. I doubt if it's anything permanent, unless human nature has changed."

The era of low rates was brought on by the fall of the Soviet Union, as millions of people shifted out of a centrally planned economy that had no impact on global markets. As Eastern European workers and businesses embraced the rest of the world, they exerted downward pressure on wages as they adjusted to an open economy, Mr. Greenspan said.

"It became very apparent that central planning meant economic ruin."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...uery=greenspan

Que Venezuela, Iran and Zimbabwe . . . .

Cowperson

[Looger]

yep, good old state-run everything...

that said at least chavez is a venezuelan, and he does have local and popular support - his elections aren't any more crooked than america's (ie. pretty crooked!).

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by Looger

yep, good old state-run everything...

that said at least chavez is a venezuelan, and he does have local and popular support - his elections aren't any more crooked than america's (ie. pretty crooked!).

Elections? Isn't he now the Permanent, Super-duper, gerneralissimo, president for life now?

[Looger]

...pretty much!

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Que Venezuela, Iran and Zimbabwe . . . .

Cowperson

Three examples of countries where there has been a big gap between the haves and the have nots and I don't think that anybody argues that the Shau's regime was brutal. It's just too bad that they go from one extreme to another.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

Three examples of countries where there has been a big gap between the haves and the have nots and I don't think that anybody argues that the Shau's regime was brutal. It's just too bad that they go from one extreme to another.

As I said in other threads, right off the hop, I'm sympathetic to these third and second world countries looking for governments that will re-distribute more wealth from the top towards the bottom.

Overdue for sure.

There's no guarantee, however, that the arch-socialists will be any better than the arch-capitalists . . . . . and they're more often worse for everyone, including the poor, in the long run.

Cowperson

[Looger]

venezuela's on a similar twisted path to the soviet union, there's no doubt - the path of stagnation.

what galls me is that people will use this as an excuse to justify 'going in and taking chavez out', which has been DEFINITELY attempted.

the venezuelans are going to have to figure this one out for themselves...

[Cowperson]

More on Venezuela in the NY Times today. Excellent article really:

“It is surreal that we’ve arrived at a point where we are in danger of squandering a major oil boom,” said José Guerra, a former chief of economic research at Venezuela’s central bank, who left Mr. Chavez’s government in 2004. “If the government insists on sticking to policies that are clearly failing, we may be headed down the road of Zimbabwe.”

Public spending grew last year by more than 50 percent and has more than doubled since the start of 2004, as Mr. Chávez has channeled oil revenues into social programs and projects like bridges, highways, trains, subways, museums and, in a departure for a country where baseball reigns supreme, soccer stadiums.

In an indicator of concern with Mr. Chávez’s economic policies, which included nationalizing companies in the telephone and electricity industries, foreign direct investment was negative in the first nine months of 2006. The last year Venezuela had a net investment outflow was in 1986.

Shortages of basic foods have been sporadic since the government strengthened price controls in 2003 after a debilitating strike by oil workers. But in recent weeks, the scarcity of items like meat and chicken has led to a panicked reaction by federal authorities as they try to understand how such shortages could develop in a seemingly flourishing economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/wo...=1&oref=slogin

Cowperson

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

More on Venezuela in the NY Times today. Excellent article really:

“It is surreal that we’ve arrived at a point where we are in danger of squandering a major oil boom,” said José Guerra, a former chief of economic research at Venezuela’s central bank, who left Mr. Chavez’s government in 2004. “If the government insists on sticking to policies that are clearly failing, we may be headed down the road of Zimbabwe.”

Public spending grew last year by more than 50 percent and has more than doubled since the start of 2004, as Mr. Chávez has channeled oil revenues into social programs and projects like bridges, highways, trains, subways, museums and, in a departure for a country where baseball reigns supreme, soccer stadiums.

In an indicator of concern with Mr. Chávez’s economic policies, which included nationalizing companies in the telephone and electricity industries, foreign direct investment was negative in the first nine months of 2006. The last year Venezuela had a net investment outflow was in 1986.

Shortages of basic foods have been sporadic since the government strengthened price controls in 2003 after a debilitating strike by oil workers. But in recent weeks, the scarcity of items like meat and chicken has led to a panicked reaction by federal authorities as they try to understand how such shortages could develop in a seemingly flourishing economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/wo...=1&oref=slogin

Cowperson

I really respect Chevez. I mean he stands up to Bush!

[peter12]

Ahhh I wonder how the delusional socialists will take this one?

"it's not real socialism!!!"

[FlamingLonghorn]

Originally Posted by peter12

Ahhh I wonder how the delusional socialists will take this one?

"it's not real socialism!!!"

Obviously you aren't worth arguing with, but just because I am a socialist doesn't mean I agree with the policies of all socialists. I have in the past pointed out how bad Chavez is on this board. Just because you are a capitalist does it mean that you agree with every capitalist regime on the planet?