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Topic: Real Time Socialist Train Wreck (again) Happening Now in Venezuela - page 18. (Read 42657 times)

legendary
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Twitter Inc. said the Venezuelan government blocked users’ online images as opposition groups marched through Caracas for a third day, demonstrating against record shortages and the world’s fastest inflation.

Nu Wexler, a Twitter spokesman, confirmed yesterday in an e-mail that the government was behind the disruption. …

In the absence of information from the government or local television outlets, Venezuelans have turned to foreign reporters and social media for news. Twitter users had been posting their photos of demonstrations that started in provincial towns earlier this month, providing an alternative to state-controlled media. It’s unclear if photos were blocked for users of all Internet providers in Venezuela, Wexler said. …

“We are having a media blackout,” Josefina Blanco, a freelance science journalist and social media user, said in an e-mail from Caracas. Only because of Twitter, NTN24 and radio station RCR 750 “ can we know what is really going on in our streets,” she said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-14/twitter-says-venezuela-blocks-its-images-amid-protest-crackdown.html
hero member
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in defi we trust
Venezuela is doomed , another communist turned socialist piece of crap government going down
legendary
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(Spanish CNN) -  The Venezuelan government issued an order to arrest the opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, for his alleged role in violent incidents on Wednesday during the protest marches that left three dead and dozens injured, according to the website daily El Universal , published a photo of the arrest warrant 007-14.
Judge 16 Control of Caracas, Ralenys Tovar Guillén, accepted the request to make the Attorney General to detain the former mayor of Chacao and ordered the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) apprehend and pave his residence, according to El Universal, citing sources court.
CNN in Spanish were unable to confirm this independently.

http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2014/02/13/ordenan-la-captura-de-leopoldo-lopez-segun-reporte/
legendary
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In the serene private clubs of Caracas, there is no milk, and the hiss of the cappuccino machine has fallen silent. In the slums, the lights go out every few days, or the water stops running. In the grocery stores, both state-run shops and expensive delicatessens, customers barter information: I saw soap here, that store has rice today. The oil engineers have immigrated to Calgary, the soap opera stars fled to Mexico and Colombia. And in the beauty parlours of this nation obsessed with elaborate grooming, women both rich and poor have cut back to just one blow-dry or manicure each week.

Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, is a leading candidate for next collapsed state. …

Inflation is running at over 50 per cent, a raging black market buys dollars at more than 10 times the official rate, domestic industry has all but shut down; there are critical shortages of many consumer staples, including corn flour for arepas, the national breakfast. TV stations – now all state-controlled – are full of ads that alternately denounce capitalism or show square-shouldered actors talking about how they don’t hoard and buy only what they need. Billboards boast of how socialist Venezuela has never been stronger; yet almost no one has toilet paper in their bathrooms.

The apocalypse hasn’t come yet. “The crash never comes because Venezuela has an insurance other countries don’t have – one of the largest oil reserves in the world,” said Jorge Roig, president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce. Venezuela’s economic indicators defy logic, he said, but the international thirst for oil has postponed the day of reckoning.



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/venezuelas-economy-on-the-edge-of-the-apocalypse/article16845406/
legendary
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Armed vigilantes on motorcycles attacked anti-government demonstrators in Venezuela on Wednesday, setting off a stampede by firing into crowds as the biggest protest against President Nicolas Maduro’s year-old administration turned violent. Three people were killed.

Chaos erupted in downtown Caracas when the gang roared up and began shooting at more than 100 protesters who had been sparring with security forces at the tail end of heated but otherwise peaceful protests organized by hard-line members of the opposition. Most of the roughly 10,000 participants in the demonstrations had already gone home.

As people fled in panic, one demonstrator fell to the ground with a bullet wound in his head. Onlookers screamed “assassins” as they rushed the 24-year-old marketing student to a police vehicle. He was later identified by family members as Bassil Da Costa.

Also killed was the leader of a pro-government 23rd of January collective, as militant supporters of Venezuela’s socialist administration call themselves. National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello said the “revolutionary” known by his nickname Juancho was “vilely assassinated by the fascists” but he didn’t provide details.

The troubles moved eastward to the wealthier neighborhood of Chacao after nightfall, leaving another unidentified demonstrator dead from a bullet wound, district Mayor Ramon Muchacho said via Twitter. Calm returned as midnight approached, leaving smoldering trash cans strewn along several blocks where demonstrators threw rocks at government buildings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/2-killed-as-venezuelan-protests-turn-violent/2014/02/12/12182678-9445-11e3-9e13-770265cf4962_story.html
hero member
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 It turns out that the US is spending $114 to extract a barrel of oil (blame it on shale) - whilst the Venezualans can knock it out at $20 a barrel  Shocked

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-08/unforseen-u-s-oil-boom-upends-world-markets-as-drilling-spreads.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/oil-s-5-trillion-permian-boom-threatened-by-70-crude.html

As the OPEC production is destroyed by war and socialism, the oil price averages over $96, the USA domestic production increases.

So let's just let Venezuela continue to follow Hitler's economic model and fall right into the plan of the banksters Wink

Btw, Venezuela's oil infrastructure is falling apart due to lack of capitalistic investments. We will see all the low cost oil production destroyed for the next 20 years and the USA will rise. This is why the majors have been building new refineries and export terminals in for example Louisiana.

You can also see (if you dig for information) that the revolutions in the Middle East (and Chavez) were planted by the elite who run this world. This is all moving forward according to the master plan for world government (with a strong US military and economy controlled by the elite to force these changes on the world) and world currency.

hero member
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 It turns out that the US is spending $114 to extract a barrel of oil (blame it on shale) - whilst the Venezualans can knock it out at $20 a barrel  Shocked

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-08/unforseen-u-s-oil-boom-upends-world-markets-as-drilling-spreads.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/oil-s-5-trillion-permian-boom-threatened-by-70-crude.html

As the OPEC production is destroyed by war and socialism, the oil price averages over $96, the USA domestic production increases.

So let's just let Venezuela continue to follow Hitler's economic model and fall right into the plan of the banksters Wink

Btw, Venezuela's oil infrastructure is falling apart due to lack of capitalistic investments. We will see all the low cost oil production destroyed for the next 20 years and the USA will rise. This is why the majors have been building new refineries and export terminals in for example Louisiana.

You can also see (if you dig for information) that the revolutions in the Middle East (and Chavez) were planted by the elite who run this world. This is all moving forward according to the master plan for world government (with a strong US military and economy controlled by the elite to force these changes on the world) and world currency.
hero member
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  It turns out that the US is spending $114 to extract a barrel of oil (blame it on shale) - whilst the Venezualans can knock it out at $20 a barrel  Shocked

   According to Sanford C. Bernstein (Wall Street) “Net income margins in the sector (US oil extraction) are now at the lowest in a decade - This is not sustainable. Either prices must rise or costs must fall,”     [we must agree also that Bernstein don't give a shit about the politics, they are only interested in the dollar - and so in this respect I'd cite them as a reliable source here].
       [ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ec3bb622-c794-11e2-9c52-00144feab7de.html#axzz2sN5MfMfp]

    At this rate the US will be having to subsidise domestic oil extraction from the public purse and so be in danger of getting in hock to the Chinese for another trillion dollars - oh, wait a minute, it seems they effectively already are subsidising it http://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/oil-tax-break.asp.    http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/.

    As much as I admire the average Americans willingness to transfer their hard earned dollar directly to the coffers of BP, Exxon, Chevron, Shell and ConocoPhillips , all in all the outlook doesn't look too promising does it ? - and there you have right on the doorstep, not a stones throw away, those horrible Commi Venezualans sat on the worlds largest reserves of crude - at $20 a barrel to extract Tongue , selling the stuff cheap to the fuckin Cubans and using the income to help their own poor and disadvantaged.

   I mean, its good that the US can cut its reliance on (Venezualan) oil imports (thereby causing short term problems for the Venezualans) - but at what cost to the US economy also ? Its a little bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face.


 I'd say either the US needs to find a way of convincing the US population that the Venezualans are a nation of drug addicted child abusers so as to be able to justify sending in the Marines Corps/ExxonMobil [this could be problematic given China's burgeoning relations with Venezuela]
         - or, as I've said previously, start showing them a little respect  Wink.
hero member
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Money = Capital, or didn't you know that?

Incorrect. You are very ignorant about money and economics.

Money is medium-of-exchange, and possibly a store-of-value.

There are many forms of capital most of which money can't buy, such as human capital (which is increasingly human knowledge which can't be financed), social capital, etc..
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Hilter achieved similar improvements initially by commandeering resources[/u][/url], but such top-down destruction of the free market always ends disastrously.

You just broke Godwins Law - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law



With the midwest oil bonanza over the past years, USA is approaching being an oil and natural gas exporter and the largest producer in the world ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.

You are gonna have to provide sources for such a wild claim - preferably from a reputable and independant economic research unit - and not a right winger fanatic on the payroll.
    Even though the US's dependance on oil imports has diminished in recent years it is still a long long way from the position you describe.
  In the meantime it ought to show Venezuala the respect it deserves IMHO



I'll read the rest of your extensive post later - possibly - off to work just now
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Even a broken clock can be correct two times per day.

The average Venezuelan eats eat more and better than they did before Chavez took power in 1999.

One of the most applauded achievements of his 14-year rule was to make food affordable through price controls and subsidized grocery stores, a triumph recognized in 2013 by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Since 1990, Venezuela achieved a 50 percent reduction in the number of citizens facing hunger, the U.N. said - two years ahead of a global target date for reaching that goal."

Hilter achieved similar improvements initially by commandeering resources, but such top-down destruction of the free market always ends disastrously.


considering also that the US is dependent on oil imports for around 40% of its (massive) annual consumption, I'd say that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

With the midwest oil bonanza over the past years, USA is approaching being an oil and natural gas exporter and the largest producer in the world ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.


My email comments on that Hilter link above which were written October 2012:

Quote
Also the comments at the wakeupfromyourslumber.com link on that article are very interesting and in line with my view of how the energy has been suppressed by the cartels.

What we really have going on is always a mix of people trying to fight for freedom and the banksters exploiting human nature to their ends.

Hitler's experimentation into state-socialism failed. We can claim that Germany was more prosperous for a few years by printing its own money, just as we can claim China is more prosperous now by printing its own Yuan and directing it top-down to infrastucture.

But we see how it always ends, because such activity is not economic. The bankers bided their time while Hitler created a social liability, then when the time was right, they used their leverage over oil to force Hitler into aggression, because Hitler had to keep the socialism apparatus funded with cheap energy. Yeah okay we can say that Stalin had threatened Poland, but in reality these states were competing for resources, because they had promised socialism.

It is always the result that social, e.g. universal healthcare, results in war and failure.

We can say that Hitler was fighting the bankers, but he could only win the hearts of the people, by promising them more than the bankers were. So he increased the socialism and misallocation of capital. Remember my recent article, wherein I explained the math that top-down systems always fail.

Of course in the early stages, misallocation via top-down control appears to be prosperous. It is only in the latter stages (e.g. what China is approaching now) where the failure sets in.

Perhaps Hitler's hand was forced sooner than it would have been otherwise, if Germany hadn't been so dependent on external oil. But even if he had oil internally, the socialism would have eventually imploded on him any way.

So I still stick with that universal health care created the mindset that the weak are to blame for not being able to give away for free, that which is not free.

Excellent article! I learned a lot. Hilter was definitely a meglo-manaic, but he thought he had a better way. Of course, socialism is always failure, not matter what the intentions.

Quote
Quote
> I believe you are misjudging it. In my view most money they spent was spent productively.

Never is top-down spent money the most productive, but it often takes a long time for this to become clear.

In 5 years or less, we can talk about what happened to China after it is proven because they have collapsed.

The vital infrastructure typically is the least wasteful, e.g. the autobahn. But it is more wasteful than what a free market would have done with the same human capital. The politics and type of economy we see today in Germany was molded and shifted course somewhat by those infrastructure in Weimer era. And Germany is a failed state right now (depend on China and PIIGS imports).

This will all be more proven in a few more years.

It is silly for us to argue about it. We will know the outcome in a few years at most. Let's just wait to see.

Quote
> It was not the healthcare that killed them but
> the war effort.

Agreed, but the healthcare socialism (and its economic failure)
contributed to the development of the mindset for purging the weak.

When we promise healthcare to all, we socially get concerned about the cost of the weak.

It fits into the German psychology that men can improve and perfect the world. The German philosophers all exhibited this trait, and I can even see it in the Germans I meet here, they think they are better than everyone else. And Germans are known to write down an inventory of every item they buy for their household. I remember there was a time in the 1980s (when my WordUp software was published in Germany) when Germans did not want to adopt color computer screens for publishing, because they felt the B&W was more purely focused on the content and the essence of the layout.

I have German blood. I know that is where the perfectionist in me comes from. It is genetic. I have it more so than my father's side of the family, which is Welch and southern French.

I also got this native Cherokee blood, which gives me a bit of emotional and harmony with nature side, like the filipinos.

Hitler was an artist. He was dreaming of a perfect world where the superior race can do art and be prosperous. His dream was not all that far from my dream with an Inverse Commons where we can focus on knowledge creation and art. (software is an art).

The difference I hope is that I am not a megalomania in extremis. If ever I find I am top-down controlling my creation, I am likely to be repulsed and conflicted.

Quote
> War is always unproductive, even destructive and it
> was that that did them in financially in the later years.

Oh I agree. But they would have ended up a failed state any way, because Hitler fundamentally did not understand nature and economics. Top-down planning always ends up economically failed. Always. And you can try to rationalize that there has never been a test-case without the bankers meddling, but mathematically I am sure that is a strawman or red-herring.

I have explained it in my last two papers:

http://www.coolpage.com/commentary/economic/shelby/Understand%20Everything%20Fundamentally.html

http://www.coolpage.com/commentary/economic/shelby/Demise%20of%20Finance,%20Rise%20of%20Knowledge.html

I don't expect you to agree with me, because you really want to believe that if we could wipe out the bankers, that we could reach some nirvana.

For some reasons, the Germanic cultures think that nirvana is possible with man.

It violates entropy. It is mathematically false. I would have to try to explain this mathematically better than I have. But for now, I have no time to do that.

Erik Verlinde is proving that everything in nature is emergent from entropy:

I find Erik's explanation in the following video makes it easier to understand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk_Yy6TqgJs#t=675s

Quote
> Of course the Jews will deny that forever, because Hitler's financial model cannot be allowed to make school, then and now.

Bill Still of the Money Masters via fame, along with Karl Denninger, are promoting this "if the state can print its own money" school of thought.

The USA did during the Civil War apparently (the notes ended up worthless, but that is besides the point).

Any way, it will fail economically, because it is more top-down management of the economy.

There is no solution about money. And the reason is because money
represents passive capital and not active knowledge.

And thus I work on making knowledge a tradeable fungible unit in the Inverse Commons.


Quote
> Where would the
> money printers end up if each country started to print its own money?

They would wait for the economic failure of top-down money printing, and then they would be right back in business.

Quote
> Everything Hitler did must be demonized.

The bankers were probably helping him too, because they are smart enough to know that his model was doomed.

It is not as B&W as one might want to think.

Quote
> Of course, in the end his model was wrong too, because a government doesn't have any business printing money.

Bravo!

Happy we could agree on that!

I was worried you were going to idolized centralized solutions.

Quote
> Money is produced by the
> people in the form of products and services. If counterfeit money is printed, whether by Rothschild assholes or governments, it's still counterfeiting and theft.

Wow. We agree on a lot then.

Karl Denninger and I got in a very nasty argument in email, because he believes government printing its own money is a solution.
legendary
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/28/us-venezuela-restaurants-idUSBREA0R0R020140128

Quote - "Venezuela's food shortages are nowhere near as bad as the situation painted by opposition critics, who revel in the idea that government incompetence has created Soviet-style dearth in the country with the world's largest oil reserves.

Restaurants remain packed despite a rise of about 70 percent in the cost of eating out last year and the waiters' mantra: "Sorry, we don't have that."

The average Venezuelan eats eat more and better than they did before Chavez took power in 1999.

One of the most applauded achievements of his 14-year rule was to make food affordable through price controls and subsidized grocery stores, a triumph recognized in 2013 by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Since 1990, Venezuela achieved a 50 percent reduction in the number of citizens facing hunger, the U.N. said - two years ahead of a global target date for reaching that goal."

Venezuela is Heaven on Earth.


I know that the US loves to knock Venezuala - I suspect this may have something to do with Chavez having taken his countries oil wealth (reserves as large as Saudi Arabia's)  back into the hands of the Venezualan people and out of the hands of the "Seven Sisters" - but try to have a sense of proportionaliy here gentlemen  Wink. They have, after all, used the oil revenues to try to help some of the most needy citizens of the Venezualan population.

     http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hugo-chavez-proves-you-can-lead-a-progressive-popular-government-that-says-no-to-neoliberalism-8202738.html
    {quote - "Even opponents of Chavez told me that he is the first Venezuelan president to care about the poor. Since his landslide victory in 1998, extreme poverty has dropped from nearly a quarter to 8.6 per cent last year; unemployment has halved; and GDP per capita has more than doubled. Rather than ruining the economy – as his critics allege – oil exports have surged from $14.4bn to $60bn in 2011, providing revenue to spend on Chavez’s ambitious social programmes, the so-called “missions”."}

   http://embavenez.co.uk/?q=content/62-venezuelas-2014-budget-allocated-social-investment

[quote - "Merentes recalled that in 1998 poverty rate was 50.4% and now stands at 25.4%, while extreme poverty stood at 20.3% and is currently at 7.1%.

He said the Millennium Development Goals urged nations to reduce poverty to 27% and promote reduction of extreme poverty to 12%.

He also stressed the importance of social missions, created by Hugo Chavez since 2003, that have improved the living conditions of the Venezuelan population.

"Barrio Adentro, Mercal, and now the Great Housing Mission are social policies that have helped Venezuela to achieve economic development. Missions are a link through which the State has used the money and wealth for the less fortunate," he said.]





   Considering that the US is in debt to the tune of $1.28tn to another of those nasty socialist countries - and considering also that the US is dependent on oil imports for around 40% of its (massive) annual consumption, I'd say that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

legendary
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minds.com/Wilikon
Since bitcoin is a capitalist invention, there's no doubt there is going to be capitalist bias on this forum.

How do you know it was invented by capitalists? At least if you see bias on this forum it would mean you are not a fan of capitalism, bitcoin being its child, not a fan of bitcoin.
It's all cool. Bitcoin needs to be tested from anyone and every political prisms and belief systems.

Now back to Venezuela...  Grin
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/28/us-venezuela-restaurants-idUSBREA0R0R020140128

Quote - "Venezuela's food shortages are nowhere near as bad as the situation painted by opposition critics, who revel in the idea that government incompetence has created Soviet-style dearth in the country with the world's largest oil reserves.

Restaurants remain packed despite a rise of about 70 percent in the cost of eating out last year and the waiters' mantra: "Sorry, we don't have that."

The average Venezuelan eats eat more and better than they did before Chavez took power in 1999.

One of the most applauded achievements of his 14-year rule was to make food affordable through price controls and subsidized grocery stores, a triumph recognized in 2013 by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Since 1990, Venezuela achieved a 50 percent reduction in the number of citizens facing hunger, the U.N. said - two years ahead of a global target date for reaching that goal."




I know that the US loves to knock Venezuala - I suspect this may have something to do with Chavez having taken his countries oil wealth (reserves as large as Saudi Arabia's)  back into the hands of the Venezualan people and out of the hands of the "Seven Sisters" - but try to have a sense of proportionality here gentlemen  Wink. They have, after all, used the oil revenues to try to help some of the most needy citizens of the Venezualan population.

     http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hugo-chavez-proves-you-can-lead-a-progressive-popular-government-that-says-no-to-neoliberalism-8202738.html
    {quote - "Even opponents of Chavez told me that he is the first Venezuelan president to care about the poor. Since his landslide victory in 1998, extreme poverty has dropped from nearly a quarter to 8.6 per cent last year; unemployment has halved; and GDP per capita has more than doubled. Rather than ruining the economy – as his critics allege – oil exports have surged from $14.4bn to $60bn in 2011, providing revenue to spend on Chavez’s ambitious social programmes, the so-called “missions”."}

   http://embavenez.co.uk/?q=content/62-venezuelas-2014-budget-allocated-social-investment

[quote - "Merentes recalled that in 1998 poverty rate was 50.4% and now stands at 25.4%, while extreme poverty stood at 20.3% and is currently at 7.1%.

He said the Millennium Development Goals urged nations to reduce poverty to 27% and promote reduction of extreme poverty to 12%.

He also stressed the importance of social missions, created by Hugo Chavez since 2003, that have improved the living conditions of the Venezuelan population.

"Barrio Adentro, Mercal, and now the Great Housing Mission are social policies that have helped Venezuela to achieve economic development. Missions are a link through which the State has used the money and wealth for the less fortunate," he said.]





   Considering that the US is in debt to the tune of $1.28tn to another of those nasty socialist countries - and considering also that the US is dependent on oil imports for around 40% of its (massive) annual consumption, I'd say that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
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Argentina isn't too far behind Venezuela's trajectory. We will see all of commodity exporter South America turn down hard once China's bubble economy implodes.

The contagion of the global dominoes are starting to fall just as I (and Armstrong) had predicted. The USA will be the last standing with the dollar moving to 118 before Sept 2015 (when the USA will turn down after being strangled by a strong dollar and Obama) as capital has turned and is starting to exit emerging markets. The emerging market tail does not wag the dog. Euro will crater sometime between now and Sept 2015, as the IMF is pushing for waves of "financial repression" (i.e. confiscation) starting with a 10% confiscation of all EU bank accounts. HSBC is already implementing capital controls.

All right great, just making sure you weren't actually advocating for this to happen again Grin  I've met a fair share of people who see these systems and what they've accomplished and say, "but this time it'll be better!"  I once heard a guy say, "Stalin's death count isn't even that big, and besides all those people who died were rebels anyway."  That one really hit me in the nads.
I am not advocating, but I fear that the same could soon happen again in Europe - far-right parties gaining popularity, even Anders Breivik-supporting party got a lot of votes in the Norway recently!
Adolf Hitler came into the power with some support from the population, and his success was largely predetermined by Great Depression and big unemployment.

P.S. If I am right about technological unemployment problem I described in another topic AND no measures will be taken to mitigate this problem - rise of new totalitarian ideology is very probable/inevitable.

Solution:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.4906694
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One thing gentlemen forgetting
and it is that all these things we are discussing and passing
that neither the rule nor an empire and empire that existed (although in all such things existed), collapsed and disappeared ...
legendary
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CARACAS, Venezuela — On aisle seven, among the diapers and fabric softener, the socialist dreams of the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez looked as ragged as the toilet paper display.

Employees at the Excelsior Gama supermarket had set out a load of extra-soft six-roll packs so large that it nearly blocked the aisle. To stock the shelves with it would have been pointless. Soon word spread that the long-awaited rolls had arrived, and despite a government-imposed limit of one package per person, the checkout lines stretched all the way to the decimated dairy case in the back of the store.

“This is so depressing,” said Maria Plaza, 30, a lawyer, an hour and a half into her wait. “Pathetic.”

Depressing, in an otherwise bright, modern supermarket that sells $100 bottles of Spanish wine, Jack Daniel’s whiskey and organic rice puffs.

Pathetic, in a country with the world’s largest petroleum reserves and oil prices at nearly $95 a barrel, yet unable to supply basic goods because of its crumbling local currency and a shortage of U.S. dollars.

“Soon we’ll be using newspaper, just like they do in Cuba!” said an elderly man nearby, inching forward in line. “Yeah! Like Cuba!” others shouted. [...]

Maduro squeaked past opposition candidate Henrique Capriles in April’s presidential election, and Maduro’s United Socialist Party won enough races in Dec. 8 local elections to push back against perceptions that Chávez loyalists were deserting him. Just before the vote, with television cameras rolling, he sent soldiers into an appliance store accused of price gouging and ordered huge markdowns on televisions and microwaves. Apparently it gave his party a final boost at the polls.

Only the shortages and overall sense of unraveling seemed to have worsened since then.

Each day the arrival of a new item at Excelsior Gama brought Venezuelans flooding into the store: for flour, beef, sugar. Store employees and security guards helped themselves to the goods first, clogging the checkout lines, and then had to barricade the doors to hold back the surge at the entrance.

“The store owners are doing this on purpose, to increase sales,” said Marjorie Urdaneta, a government supporter who said she believes Maduro when he accuses businesses of colluding with foreign powers to wage “economic war” against him.

“He should tell the stores: Make these items available — or else,” she said.

But store managers said they are putting scarce, price-capped supplies out on the floor as soon as they arrive from government-run distribution centers.

Venezuela’s real problem, economists say, is that a shortage of U.S. dollars is squeezing the ability of the government and the private sector to import. Even in upscale Caracas shopping malls, international chain stores such as Zara and Gucci are gutted, their employees standing around with nothing to sell and the mannequins left naked.

While the government has fixed the exchange rate of the country’s currency, the “strong bolivar,” at 6.3 to the dollar, the widely used street rate is more than 10 times higher. Inflation was 56 percent last year — officially — and in an oil-warped economy that depends heavily on imported goods, businesses can’t get the dollars they need to restock their shelves. Even Venezuelan-made items go scarce as factories struggle to obtain replacement parts and raw materials.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/at-markets-chavez-successor-falls-short/2014/01/31/ac85c62a-8518-11e3-a273-6ffd9cf9f4ba_story.html
legendary
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minds.com/Wilikon
President Nicolas Maduro will urge representatives of Venezuela’s television stations on Monday to change what he calls a culture of violence glamorized by the media.

Voters routinely cite violent crime as their top concern. In the latest case to put pressure on the government, gunmen shot dead a former Miss Venezuela and her ex-husband in front of their young daughter.

Maduro, who narrowly won a presidential election last April to succeed his late mentor Hugo Chavez, has accused TV stations – especially popular soap operas, or “telenovelas” – of glamorizing guns, drugs and gangsters.

“We are going to build a culture of peace,” he said last week, summoning representatives of local terrestrial and cable channels to the Miraflores presidential palace on Monday.

“They transmit negative values of death, drugs, arms, violence and treachery and everything bad that a human can be,” he said.


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/venezuela-worried-murder-rate-takes-aim-tv-soap-163302633--sector.html
legendary
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Chavez was a legendary figure with excellent ideals. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the person who succeeded him. The results are there for everyone to see.  Huh
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