Topic: Real Time Socialist Train Wreck (again) Happening Now in Venezuela - page 19. (Read 42654 times)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/29/us-venezuela-economy-idUSBRE9AS0RM20131129

(Reuters) - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said a stricter wave of inspections for suspected price-gouging would begin on Saturday in an aggressive pre-election "economic offensive" aimed at taming the highest inflation in the Americas.

"We're not joking, we're defending the rights of the majority, their economic freedom," Maduro said on Friday, alleging price irregularities were found in nearly 99 percent of 1,705 businesses inspected so far this month.

Maduro, who has staked his presidency on preserving the legacy of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, launched a theatrical - and often televised - wave of inspections this month to force companies to reduce prices.

He says "capitalist parasites" are trying to wreck Venezuela's economy and force him from office.

Opponents scoff at the measures as cheap and short-term populism that is hiding the failure of Venezuela's socialist economic model and intended to win votes at an upcoming poll.

Economic problems, including inflation running at an annual 54 percent and shortages of basic products, have been Maduro's biggest challenge since taking office in April.

"The inspections are continuing daily and have let us see into the under-world of capitalism," Maduro said in his latest speech to the nation, warning of severe sanctions starting Saturday against businesses maintaining unjustifiably high prices.

Government officials say companies have been marking up prices by as much as 1,000 percent over cost, though many retailers say they have been forced to hike prices sharply due to lack of access to foreign currency at the official rate.

The government has given a plethora of different figures on the inspections, with Maduro saying 100 retailers have been arrested but his chief prosecutor putting that at around 30.

"The government is seeking to transfer the political cost of the crisis to a third party (the businesses), while trying to give the impression it is attacking the problem," said Henkel Garcia, of local financial think-tank Econometrica.

LIMITS ON RENTS

Maduro also announced on Friday a new decree to limit monthly rents for commercial properties, to 250 bolivars ($40) per square meter, in a bid to reduce costs passed to consumers.

And in another populist move, the president said interest rates for savers on low incomes would be hiked to 16 percent, from 12.5 percent currently.

"This is just a first step to reward savers," Maduro said.

The leader of Venezuela's main business group Fedecamaras, Jorge Roig, said this week the government's erroneous economic policies and excessive controls risk setting up the nation for a dire 2014 of shortages and stagnation.

Wall Street analysts expect growth of 1 percent to 1.5 percent this year. The government has backed off its official target of 6 percent, but has not provided a new figure.

Roig accused policymakers of "improvisation" in the face of growing economic distortions and insisted that businesses nationalized in the Chavez era were operating at half capacity, while only 2 percent of expropriated land was productive.

"Mr. Jorge Roig, you have just declared economic war on the country," Maduro retorted on Friday, using the same combative tone and accusations against private enterprise common during Chavez's 14-year rule of the South American OPEC nations.

Having narrowly beaten opposition candidate Henrique Capriles to win April's presidential vote, Maduro and his supporters are gearing up for a new test at the polls with nationwide municipal elections on December 8.

The opposition is painting the vote as a referendum on Maduro's record, but any voter backlash over the economic problems may be tempered by his recent populist measures.

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelan-president-tries-emergency-powers-071959194.html

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro exercised new emergency powers for the first time Thursday, signing decrees limiting business profit margins and tightening regulation of imports.

He acted as part of a so-called “economic war” against a crisis for which he blames the opposition “bourgeoisie” and imperialism.

Under new powers granted to Maduro on Tuesday, the two new laws aim to control prices and profits in the business sector and closely monitor imports and exports and hard currency that comes in from oil sales, Venezuela’s main source of revenue.

Maduro’s government says the business sector has been chalking up profit margins of up to 1,000 percent on imported goods.

The center-right opposition has called a rally for Saturday to protest the emergency powers granted to Maduro, the handpicked successor of the late populist president Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela’s economic woes are marked by inflation running at 54 percent and shortages of basic goods, among other problems.
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Soon it will be too "expensive" to even buy their oil.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/19/us-venezuela-maduro-powers-idUSBRE9AI16L20131119


Venezuelan lawmakers granted President Nicolas Maduro yearlong decree powers on Tuesday that he says are essential to regulate the economy and stamp out corruption but adversaries view as a thinly veiled power grab.

Hundreds of supporters of the ruling Socialist Party cheered outside the National Assembly as the so-called Enabling Law was passed, while a recording of Maduro’s late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, singing Venezuela’s anthem rang out inside the hall. …

“With this Enabling Law we are following an order by President Chavez,” said Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly and a staunch supporter of Maduro.

“He told us to pass all the laws necessary to wring the necks of the speculators and the money launderers.”

Doctor Ché as Surgeon General...

Yeah, doesn't he know that Health Care is the new socialist chic?

Well, one could make this same argument when Kissinger ordered the replacement of Salvador Allende by Pinochet, or when Indonesia invaded East Timor. Being hard to believe, sometimes has nothing to do with the truth.

Yes, we often forget that Adolf was democratically elected; we didn't learn our lesson, but it's probably because we forgot.  The only way the Europeans can change this is by taking control over their own government; this is also true for the Americans, and everyone else in the world.  No matter what we do, if we don't make the conscious decision to take charge of our own lives, we will always drift into totalitarianism; at that point, the left and the right become indistinguishable, the beginning of the end (for that empire anyhow) finally occurs and, depending, they either own the world and self-destruct.  The two options given in your thread seem to play directly into the hands of the state, which increases their power and further pushes them into totalitarianism; this is solely because you still seek reliance on the state, as opposed to pushing away from it.

I do believe socialism is possible, but it seems to only function with a society of rational players acting in self-interest.  Socialism on the opposite end, when a lot of irrational players act in the interest of the state, leads very quickly into fascism, which isn't something I'd like to experience.  I compare the spanish anarchists, who were communist, with the USSR and those like them, who were also communist, and compare the death tolls excluding war, and it's clear which form of government is more beneficial to our survival as a species based solely on how well we can live to reproduce.

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.

All right great, just making sure you weren't actually advocating for this to happen again   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.

It is obvious fact. As well as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, Pinochet and other totalitarian dictators.

You're aware that Mao's system and leadership led to the deaths of tens of millions of his own people, yes?

May be I have mistaken mentioning Mao - I thought one-child policy in China and forced abortions, which in fact started in 1979, i.e. after Mao death.

Judging by your other thread, I'm not sure if you're serious

Don't be so confident, advancements in biotechnology and the government like under Mao Zedong or Pol Pot could make human desire for profit just as article in the history schoolbook

Logical thoughts are not needed. That's the president Mad-uro way...

I really don't get what is going on in Venezuela. What are the government actors playing at?

It seems that most of the population there is mind-bogglingly stupid. They want to raid all the markets and retailers with no concern who supplies them the next day. Surprising, but still conceivable. But I can't really make sense of the government playing along. Looting shops has such a fast negative feedback that it should be a politically worthless move -- and this Maduro guy became president only this year.

From what I understand, the election victory was narrow. Even assuming the government's goal is solely to redirect funds via corruption, this isn't even close to an effective strategy. How do the players profit from this scale of economic devastation? Or did they somehow manage to get actual "crash and burn" mentally ill people into the leadership? It looks like a lossy game for everyone, which is weird. Usually there is someone who profits if there's this scale of damage. Even in Thailand's rice madness, a significant portion of the population gets a net benefit, even if at absurd costs to everyone else.

 

Is it possible the CIA is trying to destabilize Venezuela? Is it possible the CIA tried to poison Chavez and succeeded by creating his cancer? All those could be true but...

Occam's razor: when faced with competing hypotheses, select the one that makes the fewest assumptions.

So, this is impossible?

I agree. Plasma TVs are a terrible choice in 2013 

Ridiculous, socialism has been proven time and time again to fail. People keep falling for the same mistakes, if you don't learn from history you are doomed to repeat it.