{"id":9521,"date":"2017-12-13T13:47:33","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T17:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/?p=9521"},"modified":"2017-12-13T13:49:53","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T17:49:53","slug":"tracking-socialist-venezuelas-death-spiral-4000-percent-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/tracking-socialist-venezuelas-death-spiral-4000-percent-inflation\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracking Socialist Venezuela\u2019s Death Spiral: 4,000 Percent Inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Photo: AP Images<\/em><\/h6>\n

The New American<\/strong><\/h3>\n

by Bob Adelmann
\n11\/22\/2017<\/p>\n

Excerpt:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It took 41,000 bolivars of the Venezuelan currency to purchase a single American dollar on November 1. Three weeks later it took 84,000 bolivars.<\/a>\u00a0Back on January 1 Venezuelans could trade just 3,100 bolivars to purchase a dollar. Patrick Gillespie, writing for CNNMoney, did the calculation: Inflation in Venezuela is running at a rate of 4,000 percent a year.<\/em><\/p>\n

Which explains why Venezuelans are increasingly turning to barter in order to survive. A loaf of bread can be traded for a handful of beans because each has intrinsic value and can\u2019t be degraded through a printing press.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also symptomatic of the end stages of every socialist enterprise which is allowed to run its course. First is the desire on the part of politicians to buy votes and support of the people by promising to give them things they didn\u2019t earn. In Hugo Ch\u00e1vez’s case it was easy: the country\u2019s massive oil reserves were being sold on the world market at great profit to PdVSA, the once privately-held oil company. It was nationalized in 1976 and its workers replaced by Ch\u00e1vez in 2006. Those workers were given a choice: support Ch\u00e1vez or lose their jobs. Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s energy minister was explicit: \u201cPdVSA’s workers are with this revolution, and those who aren’t should go somewhere else. Go to Miami!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

PdVSA became the primary funding source for Chavez\u2019s red revolution: the huge expansion of the welfare state without requiring the people themselves to pay for it.<\/em><\/p>\n

When oil prices headed south, so did PdVSA\u2019s revenues. Off by 40 percent, Ch\u00e1vez had two choices: cut back on the welfare state, or print the money to continue to pay for it.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Ch\u00e1vez died of colon cancer in 2013 at age 59, his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Nicolas Maduro took over and continued Chavez\u2019s socialist experiment. He borrowed against the country\u2019s oil reserves \u2014 some $150 billion against an economy that generated just $250 billion a year \u2014 and expanded the money supply to continue to fund it.<\/em><\/p>\n

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View the complete article including image, links and comments at:<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.thenewamerican.com\/world-news\/south-america\/item\/27440-tracking-socialist-venezuela-s-death-spiral-4-000-percent-inflation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo: AP Images The New American by Bob Adelmann 11\/22\/2017 Excerpt: It took 41,000 bolivars of the Venezuelan currency to purchase a single American dollar on November 1. Three weeks later it took 84,000 bolivars.\u00a0Back on January 1 Venezuelans could … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9524,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9521\/revisions\/9524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wasobamaborninkenya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}