Typical dysfunctional economy run by neo-leftists in Venezuela becoming manifest. Story at al Jerzeera here.
People line up outside a supermarket to buy toilet paper in Caracas, January 12, 2015.
Three states in Venezuela have banned residents from queuing outside grocery stores at night, after reports of fights breaking out in recent weeks.
Venezuela's grocery shortages have worsened since December, forcing many to wait in lines for hours to buy basic goods.Pretty disgraceful when you need $100 oil in order to be able to wipe your own ass.
Don't they even have a paper mill there in that country?
Meanwhile last year at the Stochi Olympics in Russia, with the $100 oil they DID have the toilet paper but you just were forbidden from flushing it down the toilet; NBC's Bob Costas famously contracted double conjunctivitis.
What is it with these neo-leftists and the inability to domestically provision proper lavatory services...
Their plan is probably: "pray oil goes back up so we can again afford to buy stuff from the civilized nations....".
Time to grow up.
"the inability to domestically provision proper lavatory services..."
ReplyDeleteLOL
I don't think Russia qualifies as 'neo-leftist' though.
ReplyDeleteIt's called Dutch Disease and it has nothing to do with left vs. right. Venezuela would be experiencing Dutch Disease even if it had a right wing government.
ReplyDeleteIan Welsh on Dutch Disease
Not saying the Maduro government is without fault. But the root problem is dutch disease, not the leftist government.
Plus they have been under attack by the US clandestine services since Chavez, and now are under US sanctions. Nothing to do with the mistakes or incompetence of the leftist government. Play ball with the US and your oligarchs will do fine but the rest of the people will be screwed. Chavez and Maduro challenged that, know that there would be "consequences."
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the downside of comparative advantage?
ReplyDeleteIf you think that is bad, wait when the era of oil comes to an end finally and see what they are going to do in that big shithole that is the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteThey even have a saying in those countries for what will happen... And no amount of megalomaniac skyscrapers will change that, as they are incapable at creating real value out of their dollars and you can't live of past stocks forever.
I appreciate your humour, Matt. I literally laughed out loud at "the inability to domestically provision proper lavatory services..."
ReplyDeleteIgnacio,
ReplyDelete"They even have a saying in those countries for what will happen"
what is that saying?
Oh come on Tom we're talking about toilet paper for crying out loud....
ReplyDeleteYou have to at least be able to deliver toilet paper...
"the cia is conspiring to deprive them of toilet paper...." please.... its hardly "strategic materials".... maybe it is becoming such to the Venezuelans i guess...
Dan,
If you get an interview with Maduro and ask him what was "Dutch Disease" he would probably think that was some sort of VD one could catch in Rotterdam....
I,
I know that is not going to be pretty... this new guy in Saudi better start to get in front of that...
"they are incapable at creating real value out of their dollars"
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think they are incapable of doing that?
"Our grandfathers used camels, we use Mercedes, and our grandsons will use camels"
ReplyDeleteSomething along these lines.
They have a dual currency system -- the same currency is used at different exchange rates depending on what is purchased.
ReplyDeleteThey sell gasoline for .002 cents per gallon, so people put 300 gallon gas tanks in their old cars and then drive the cars across the border to columbia to sell gas at market rates and then buy groceries and stuff to sell on the black market in Venezuela because the shelves are empty. And the price controlled groceries in Venezuela? Same games except the groceries never make it to the shelves anymore. A giant mess.
Ignacio,
ReplyDelete"Our grandfathers used camels, we use Mercedes, and our grandsons will use camels"
You might be forgetting that whole period of time where they ruled half the known world.
Is their saying not mine.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyway... so what, they are stuck in the middle ages and can't get over it! In fact they are all about regression because they cannot solve their socio-economic mess even with a botomless faucet of petrodollars.
Is like equating current Italians with Romans or current Greeks with classic Greece.
Venezuela's problems, aside from US hostility, come not from its leftism, which has greatly benefited it, but from its exchange rate system, as Ryan said.
ReplyDeleteSee Fixing the Exchange Rate System in Venezuela by Mark Weisbrot.
"Is like equating current Italians with Romans or current Greeks with classic Greece"
ReplyDeleteyes, but I think Italians and Greeks are probably not incapable of 'creating real value'
Wasn't my point. Are completely different time periods and contexts.
ReplyDeleteThese comparisons are useless.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteI dare say that you would be at a loss as to what to do after taking a crap when visiting any place in Asia, Africa or the middle East - unless you are only frequenting the luxury hotels. TP is just not used in these places.
Whatever you do, learn from others' experience. See the sentence beginning with: He also told the story of an officer ..
ReplyDeleteMatt, Who do you think owns the shops? You can't imagine how or why the owners might commit economic sabotage?
ReplyDeleteClonal,
ReplyDeleteI used to carry my own with me back in the day...
Jeff its just too complicated/convoluted for me to believe these people are that smart...
I think the best thing that these leftist could do would be to deliver the goods...
I'm sure the shop owners would like to have product for sale but the paper products require big mills (capital intensive) and the small guys cant get that kind of scale... this is where govt can step in some way to make sure the domestic economy can deliver at least the basics when the elites in the govt/banker axis blow everything up as they always do....
although I blame all of this on Chavez this time.... he reneged on the oil deal when it went up to way over 100 per bbl and now they are screwed... nobody will do business with somebody who will renege...
rsp,
Britain ran out of toilet paper during World War I. So come WWII my dad stocked up with enough to fill a spare room. Musgrave arses were scrupulously clean during WWII - if anyone's interested.
ReplyDelete