Currency Tumbles as Venezuelans Look to Offload Bolivars
Source: ABC News
A staggering plunge in the free market value of Venezuelan currency sent people scrambling to sell off their depreciating bolivars Friday.
The widely followed website DolarToday, which tracks exchanges along the Colombian border, reported that the South American country's currency lost a quarter of its value over the last eight days.
The site's app has become so ubiquitous that everyone in smartphone-obsessed Caracas seemed to find out about the crash through 400 to the dollar at the same instant, as DolarToday sent out a series of alerts announcing the new numbers under the headline "hyperinflation!"
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/currency-tumbles-venezuelans-offload-bolivars-31235576
"It's a CIA conspiracy plot!" in 3-2-1...
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Chavez left which was one of hero worship rather than responsible government.
Archae
(46,262 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)He was irresponsible and allowed his friends and family to loot the nation, but at least he kept enough back to pay the note every month.
Maduro isn't even doing that--he's just not paying the bills, taking these billion dollar/you can have all the oil you want for five cents a gallon for the next twenty years type loans from China, and he's selling his nation's treasure down the river at fire sale prices.
He's an ass. He's not going to be able to buy off the poor with a ten buck cellphone and a frozen chicken and a bag of arepa flour--not when the electricity doesn't work, the "toilet paper money" won't pay the rent, and there's no food on the supermarket shelves.
VZ is imploding, and it is the fault of Maduro. For the longest time, I thought there would be a coup from the left, with Hugo's buddy Diosdado Cabello tossing the bus driver out on his ass, but I understand that God Given Hair has been implicated in a cocaine-smuggling scandal which might affect his chances to make a power move. Kinda hard to show force when he's trying to stay a step ahead of the law.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)He sought to grandstand.
What our country owes to George Washington and our Founding Fathers and their rational approach to government and humble approach to themselves cannot ever be forgotten. We are so indebted to those who fought for our independence and for a rational, workable form of government that provided and continues to provide continuity without serious disruption.
MADem
(135,425 posts)down.
Maduro HAS no personality, so he has to rely on the Cult of Chavez to stay afloat. And no one respects him, so they're robbing the joint blind against the day when they're gonna have to hop over the border and get the hell outta Dodge. Stone cold buncha thieves, they are.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)name not needed
(11,660 posts)wolfie001
(2,131 posts)*HSBC Leaks: Venezuela Had Third-Largest Amount Of Money Stored In Swiss Banks, Report Says
Venezuelans are questioning why a former treasury minister and ex-bodyguard of late President Hugo Chávez is linked to a Swiss bank account with HSBC holding billions of dollars. The revelation came this week amid a trove of leaked documents that highlighted Venezuelas role as a major client in Switzerlands private banking industry.
Interesting article and this pilfering went on for years.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)wolfie001
(2,131 posts)The people who need the most help never get it. Doesn't matter the nation. The top doesn't like to share. Never have, never will. Tax 'em till they cry tears of blood!!!
okaawhatever
(9,453 posts)comes. I don't see the Maduro thing lasting much longer. The VZ citizens deserve much better, and I think they've got it in them to eventually get it.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Response to Archae (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
EX500rider
(10,532 posts)Hyper inflation means your pay check buys less every week while prices go up every week and your savings if you have any shrink.
MADem
(135,425 posts)supermarket shelves--gotta do something!!!!
What will Maduro nationalize next?
He took "extra-ordinary powers" yet again fairly recently--so he is, in effect, a dictator who can do whatever he wants by decree.
I think he's decreeing that VZ circle the pan, as they say....
freshwest
(53,661 posts)International Business Times - 2/10/15
Venezuelans are questioning why a former treasury minister and ex-bodyguard of late President Hugo Chávez is linked to a Swiss bank account with HSBC holding billions of dollars. The revelation came this week amid a trove of leaked documents that highlighted Venezuelas role as a major client in Switzerlands private banking industry...
The bulk of that amount was reportedly held by Venezuelas Treasury Office under the name of Alejandro Andrade, who served as Venezuelas treasury minister from 2007 to 2010, and was also president of the Economic and Social Development Bank of Venezuela, known as Bandes, from 2008 to 2010. The bank became the target of a U.S. lawsuit targeting four individuals accused of participating in a kickback scheme benefiting Bandes vice president and a Miami-based brokerage firm. The scheme allegedly occurred during Andrades tenure, but Andrade himself wasnt named in the suit.
Andrade was also a close associate of Chavezs, having participated with him in the 1992 failed coup attempt. According to the report, he is now based in Palm County, Florida, and has invested in show horses.
According to the data, Andrades account held $11.9 billion. By comparison, Venezuelas per capita GDP in 2007 was $8,300. Holding money in a Swiss bank account doesnt indicate legal wrongdoing; some high-profile figures (including U.S. celebrities Christian Slater and Phil Collins, as well as the kings of Jordan and Morocco) have been named in the documents without much question. But the issue has raised some eyebrows in Venezuela, a country that doesnt quite have a sparkling reputation in terms of transparency. Nongovernmental organization Transparency International ranked Venezuela 161 out of 172 on its 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, which gauges perceptions of corruption in countries public sectors, based on a survey of expert assessments. Venezuelas ranking was the lowest among Latin American countries, falling just one spot below notoriously corrupt Haiti.
Venezuelan opposition deputy Andrés Velasquez spoke out forcefully in response to the leaks Monday. I request that the government clarify the destinations of the public fund deposits in Swiss accounts, he wrote on Twitter. The corruption of the regime has obliterated immense oil revenue, he added...
http://www.ibtimes.com/hsbc-leaks-venezuela-had-third-largest-amount-money-stored-swiss-banks-report-says-1811706
There are imbedded links not shown in my post, too. This isn't necessarily proof of wrong doing. But it sounds like fishy. Of course, the opposition is using it against Chavez /Maduro. Wondering why they didn't nationalize the banks instead of jusing private, foreign banks. Something's not right.
MADem
(135,425 posts)An awful lot of the "Boligarchs" (fake Chavistas--to include members of Hugo's own family) play the Power to the People game while stashing dollars and euros in safe havens and snapping up real estate in safe nations. They're just so full of it--and I can't believe that any thinking person still buys the load of crap they are selling!
Zorro
(15,691 posts)Heh.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Our own economy was torpedoed by Bush barely surviving.