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In reply to the discussion: Now Venezuela is running out of toilet paper [View all]Tarheel_Dem
(31,235 posts)77. I predicted he wouldn't serve out his term. This election was too close. I agree that pure.....
socialism is as reckless as runaway capitalism, and who the hell wants to invest in a country where the government could arbitrarily seize your family business for the "national interest"? Moises Naim is a regular guest on NPR, and I find he's pretty evenhanded when it comes to reporting, and I found this article fascinating.
January 8, 2013, 3:12 PM
by Moises Naim, Scholar, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
"Last month, Jorge Botti, the head of Fedecámaras, Venezuela's business federation, explained that unless the government supplies more dollars to pay for imports, shortages -- from food to medicine -- would be inevitable. "What we will give Fedecámaras is not more dollars but more headaches," replied acting president Nicolas Maduro, the heir apparent to the Chavista regime (and Hugo Chávez's vice president).
Maduro is correct. Crushing headaches will soon be inevitable across the country, including within the private sector but especially among the poor. President Chávez has bequeathed the nation an economic crisis of historic proportions.
The crisis includes a fiscal deficit approaching 20 percent of the economy (in the cliff-panicking United States it is 7 percent), a black market where a U.S. dollar costs four times more than the government-determined exchange rate, one of the world's highest inflation rates, a swollen number of public sector jobs, debt 10 times larger than it was in 2003, a fragile banking system and the free fall of the state-controlled oil industry, the country's main source of revenue."
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/03/venezuela-post-chavez/chavez-will-leave-behind-an-economic-crisis
In a country where the leader has unprecedented unilateral powers, I find the deteriorating conditions in Venezuela quite shocking. Unlike here, Congressional or Parliamentary interference is fairly nonexistent, and yet the president's leftist critics revere Chavez, and abhor Pres. Obama.
Another Socialist leader, Francois Hollande, finds himself in pretty much the same predicament, and he was only elected a year ago. I predict that once Venezuelans stop blaming the US for everything from deliberately infecting Chavez with cancer to the shortage of toilet paper, they will turn their sights to their own leadership, and Maduro will be forced out.
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It's amazing the kind of pressure the elite corporate capitalists can put on a country
fasttense
May 2013
#1
Yes, indeed. The government has touched bottom (pun intended) with this latest circumstance.
MADem
May 2013
#147
This is one of the more deluded or misguided posts I've read in a long time. nt
TeamPooka
May 2013
#165
IDK all that, but most paper goods manufacturing is owned by the Koch brothers, isn't it?
freshwest
May 2013
#84
Interesting analysis, except that Venezuela's economy has been growing at 5+%...
Peace Patriot
May 2013
#62
With rampant inflation, declining oil production and a skyrocketing murder rate.
hack89
May 2013
#117
Cost per barrel plummeted in the Bush Junta-induced worldwide depression,
Peace Patriot
Jun 2013
#174
First off: I'm for nationalizing things. Here, elsewhere. Example, our oil industry vs. Norway's.
freshwest
May 2013
#171
Toilet paper and paper products are the Koch brothers biggest selling products people!
xtraxritical
May 2013
#32
The Vzla. Govt. is the ONLY entity allowed to IMPORT Into Vzla. the dictator controls everything.
Bo
May 2013
#82
I'll have you know, the "Hawaiian" pizza (ham and pineapple) is more popular in California
KamaAina
May 2013
#111
yep, it always starts with limiting TP production and then the shit really hits the fan
Bacchus4.0
May 2013
#29
its quite embarrasing since Venezuela has been a fairly developed country for decades
Bacchus4.0
May 2013
#27
I predicted he wouldn't serve out his term. This election was too close. I agree that pure.....
Tarheel_Dem
May 2013
#77
I've never seen anyone say anything like that. You have quite an imagination, congrats. nt.
polly7
May 2013
#67
To many DUers, nationalizing major industries, declaring class warfare and destroying foreign trade
Nye Bevan
May 2013
#101
I know of at least one DUer who lives in an elite community in Latin America.
joshcryer
May 2013
#138
Well, I read the links and it doesn't look good for you so far. Looks like slander to me, unless you
idwiyo
May 2013
#156
I love Venezuela. Its a beautiful country with wonderful people. Too bad the government
Bacchus4.0
May 2013
#53
Yep, now its just 30-100 per weekend in Caracas and 20,000 + murders per year
Bacchus4.0
May 2013
#119
now the chavistas are trying to blame Capriles and former Colombian president Uribe
Bacchus4.0
May 2013
#126
The only thing more fragile than a box of puppies is the Venezuelan economy, apparently
Dreamer Tatum
May 2013
#127
you'd think with all those oil dollars coming in they'd be able to provide food and TP for
Bacchus4.0
May 2013
#68
Looks like the "Make the economy scream" people are back in the saddle in DC again.
leveymg
May 2013
#78
I would have thought this discussion would have completely unrolled by now
brooklynite
May 2013
#122
Capriles and Uribe sued over plot to wreck Venezuela's trade with Colombia
Peace Patriot
May 2013
#133
Blaming the opposition there is like blaming the republicans here for our do nothing congress
Exultant Democracy
May 2013
#134
Agree 100%. That's why I am so shocked that some DUers openly support Venezuelan opposition.
idwiyo
May 2013
#135
Yet you behave like it is. Otherwise you wouldn't be advocating for RW coalition who are hell bent
idwiyo
May 2013
#148
I'll answer your post later. Can you please provide a link that supports your claim that Cuban
idwiyo
May 2013
#154
Chicken, too. The economy is a mess and the ruling regime has only themselves to blame. nt
MADem
May 2013
#146
I thought Johnny Carson was dead, but his statement on the Toilet paper shortages I see lives on.
happyslug
May 2013
#158
How is 100k rolls of toilet paper going to help a country of 30 million? You ignored the math
msanthrope
May 2013
#164
No--it wouldn't be logical at all. Why? Becasue you've assumed a premise wholly without
msanthrope
May 2013
#169