Mission Mercal
Mega Mercals
Caption Contest
This is the best analysis of Chavez's idiotic economic policy:
Corruption, Mismanagement, and Abuse of Power in Hugo Chávez's Venezuela ,(from the Cato Institute).
and check this:
Lose money or lose your business!
Breaking Imperial Ties: Venezuela and ALBA
Venezuela Expands Regulation of Food Production
Can we begin cutting through this sudden tidal wave of anonymity? It's scrambling my head - I don't even know how many anonymoids I'm dealing with. Even serial numbers would be a distinct improvement.
ach, das panic of inconceivable intensity swallowed by slow drowning!
"Entering a supermarket here is a bizarre experience. Shelves are fully stocked with Scotch whiskey, Argentine wines and imported cheeses like brie and Camembert, but basic staples like black beans and desirable cuts of beef like sirloin are often absent. Customers, even those in the government’s own Mercal chain of subsidized grocery stores, are left with choices like pork neck bones, rabbit and unusual cuts of lamb."
-- Can't decide if this is utterly depressing, hilariously funny or some strange hybrid of the two.
"tidal wave of anonymity"
[Looks sheepish] I was the emoting drunk on Saturday evening.
Just been arguing with some student anti-war protesters about Chavez. I was told, "Chavez thinks that the laws are too bureaucratic and need to be simplified" and that "inflation won't exist if we don't want it to"! Great stuff all round.
It did make me realise that I need to better understand inflation, though.
[Forgive my ignorance, but] for instance, if a can of pop costs twice today what it did yesterday and Chavez prints twice as much money to pay for it, has there been a real price increase?
Can anyone point me to some good macro data for the Venezuelan economy and how it has reponded to Chavez? E.g. are the poor richer and the rich poorer or is everybody poorer, is the economy growing, all that kind of jazz?
the very best in V-snark
Poverty Rates in Venezuela: Getting the Numbers Right
Venezuela Information Office
Lies, damn lies, and oil production statistics
Lies, Damn Lies and Poverty Statistics
tim - how's your head feeling?
Inflation is still surprisingly mysterious, try this (problematizing monetarist assumptions (from even further out on the supply-side right)) for e.g.:
http://
article.nationalreview.co...zBhNzU4YWIwNjM=
PH - do you actually credit that stuff, or is it posted for light relief? If the former, then I guess Mugabe is doing a great job too.
... in fact, Mugabe deserves extra credit because he's 'developing' the Zim politico-economic system Bolivarian-style without even the benefit of multi-billion barrels of Orinoco crude to blow on the endeavour.
http://www.lileks.com/institute/...gallery3/
2.html
Found this article, and though it seems as though all theories of inflation are inherently political, this kind of syncs up nicely with my own intuitive beliefs:
http://www.futurecasts.com/
Under...0Inflation.html
There's loads which is relevant to the discussion of venezuela as well.
Good article, yep; read it and weep Hugo:
" Inflation never "runs away." Only by stupidly persisting in expanding the money supply do governments overcome the deflationary impact of price increases and impose chronic inflation on an economy."
Supply-side question:
What's this about "demand for balances of money"? (From the wiki entry on inflation) How can money supply grow without causing inflation?
the very best in V-snark
- So Livingstone and the City of London are helping Chavez to demolish his country's economy then?
el presidente - I'm obviously highly dubious but thanks for the links in any case.
ph - Also worth bearing in mind that inflation is initially stimulating to the economy (right?) - that's part of what makes it so deadly and part of what makes it a spiral.
"Generally, after an initial period of pleasant increased demand and broad economic stimulation, inflation manifests itself not just in rising prices, but in an increase in economic dependency on continued inflationary stimulation, and in a decrease in the purchasing power of credit."
More form Blatt:
"Monetary inflation is actually a tax by which government - by expanding the money supply - transfers wealth from its people to itself."
Nick - that article made my heard hurt!
Venezuelan Info Office: "today I'm a maid, tomorrow I'm a social worker"
- Unemployed social worker, I think that should read. Great site though, cheered me up no end.
tim - on inflation, it's a mode of State wealth seizure so immediate it takes on an almost mystical quality and arguably exceeds what is commonly understood as 'taxation'
Anyone wanting to use the powers of the State as a private ATM (= your run-of-the-mill smash-and-grab despot) will obviously find the primary inflation mechanism - "print money" - utterly irresistible
...seems as though governments in Western democracies are not immune either! (Or prices would be falling every year in accordance with increases in productive efficiency).
The forecast for Venezeula looks bleaker the more I read. The Cato Institute piece was especially great, if worrying - thanks for that, sd.
Venezeula: 144th in the 2006 Economic Freedom Index (sitting in the section of the index marked "repressed"), 28th out of the 29 countries of the Americas (only Cuba, unsuprisingly, has less economic freedom).
http://www.heritage.org/research...fm?
id=Venezuela
"As a staunchly socialist nation, Venezuela is weak in labor freedom, financial freedom, investment freedom, monetary freedom, freedom from government, property rights, and freedom from corruption. The commercial regulatory process is burdensome and confusing. The judiciary is heavily influenced by the government and does not enforce contracts well. The labor market is rigid, and the financial market, though sophisticated, has become more vulnerable to political interference. Corruption pervades the civil service and, along with the likelihood of expropriation, helps to deter foreign investment. Inflation is extremely high, and the government has the power to set prices."
"By any means necessary" indeed
Interesting to read in the Cato Institute report of the rapidly emerging "revolutionary" elite, rich in oil money and misappropriated government funds. Thank god they're on the side of the people, though.
Why do so many people buy into this crap about Chavez being some sort of friend to the wretched of the earth, despite all the evidence to the contrary, though? (See this piece by Johann Hari, for example).
Private First Class LaVena Johnson
An Army representative initially told LaVena's father, Dr. John Johnson, that his daughter died of "died of self-inflicted, noncombat injuries," but initially added that it was not a suicide. The subsequent Army investigation reversed this finding and declared LaVena's death a suicide, a finding refuted by the soldier's family. In an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dr. Johnson pointed to indications that his daughter had endured a physical struggle before she died - two loose front teeth, a "busted lip" that had to be reconstructed by the funeral home - suggesting that "someone might have punched her in the mouth."
"...seems as though governments in Western democracies are not immune either! (Or prices would be falling every year in accordance with increases in productive efficiency)."
- my candidate for most thought-provoking comment on the thread so far. Hope we're going to dig into this one a bit ...
Reading up on the gold standard at the moment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol...i/
Gold_standard
Inflation obviously addictive as skag and just as hard to "kick".
A good question:
"...Economists and opposition parties questioned why a country where 38 per cent of the population lives in poverty should be giving aid to one of the world’s richest cities."
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-...s/1788395/
posts
"Inflation obviously addictive as skag and just as hard to 'kick'."
- and just as beneficial to long-term life prospects
tim - on freeper link, I just question the 'one'
Isn't Chavez dishing out petro-bribery to a whole bunch of rich cities, including some in deep blue America?
Absolutely - reading sd's CATO Institute report, it's quite incredible how extensive and blatant the scale of the bribery is.
I guess because London & "Red Ken" are closer to home it p*sses me off more.
I think my favourite bit of corruption (though oil to pooor US states is good) is the oil bribe to Cuba, the "integral cooperation agreement" costing Venezuela $2.2 billion plus.
$2.2 billion plus per year, sorry
& "poor US states" probably too generous to Chavez as well
U.S., Chinese markets plunge on recession concerns (Chinese Stock Prices Drop Nearly 9 Pct.) "every single stock on the Dow down today - rare"
stock plunge - this was the most signposted market move I've ever seen. Totally kicking myself I didn't make a packet out of this - Knew exactly when it was going up and coming down (within weeks, that is). Only thing that got in the way of sheer (highly profitable) capitalist speculation was inertia and market friction. Sheesh, sometimes I just deserve to be a sad prole ...
... Shanghai stock exchange, that is. The Dow movement on the other hand is bizarre hysteria. With pundit hat firmly on: The ShangEx correction says absolutely nothing about China economy fundamentals. This is true casino capitalism - a self-enclosed game played by local grannies - if you want to play the real China economy the Hong Kong or even New York exchanges make far more sense ...
this gets it:
http://
articles.moneycentral.msn...NoSurprise.aspx
[Tangental]
Hermann Heinrich Gossen
Theory of Marginal Utility
More tangents - a great piece about Seymour Hersh's latest screed:
http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.c...light-
zone.html
greenspan switch & dow jones glitch
Glaswegian Saddamite goes moonbatting for Chavez:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
commen...2022970,00.html
"the Bolivarian revolution is a peaceful revolution but it is not unarmed"
LOL
Pro-Chavez moonbattery
It's the comments that I find particularly depressing
can't even bear to look at them, we're talking Guardian readers (public sector parasite cryptocommie do-gooder class) after all
"Muscular bonding" is the most economical label I could find for this phenomenon, and I hope the phrase will be understood to mean the euphoric fellow feeling that prolonged and rhythmic muscular movement arouses among nearly all participants in such exercises.
alien zones of convergence always give that impression
Plus ca cahnge
http://tinyurl.com/2kyxkt
Teapacks - "Push The Button". (Eurovision 2007 - Israel)
The world is full of terror
If someone makes an error
He's gonna blow us up to biddy biddy kingdom come
There are some crazy rulers
They hide and try to fool us
With demonic, technologic willingness to harm
They're gonna push the button, push the button
Push the bu... push the bu... push the button
Push the button, push the button
Push the bu... push the bu... push the button
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