Maduro government 'occupies' Venezuela electronics chain

[Socialistlemur]

95. Venezuelan government policies cause shortages

The Venezuelan government has created serious shortages with its current policies. The main mistakes are the foreign exchange controls which peg the Bolivar to the US dollar at a fixed rate even though inflation is over 50%, and the sheer printing of valueless currency which leads to the high inflation - which is getting worse and could reach 70 % in six months; and price controls which encourage the people to buy as much of a product as they can so they can resell it or save it as a hedge against inflation.

This is compounded by haphazard and poorly managed nationalizations which destroy productive capacity. And of course there's the gradual loss in export capacity which includes oil (today Venezuela has a much lower oil production capacity than it did when Chavez took over about 14 years ago). The lack of exports means lack of dollars which means they can't import food or other items. And the disconnect between the official rate and the black market rate leads to haphazard pricing signals, this is made even worse by corruption and the ever present threats of jail. The mess this jumble of policies is incredible.

Therefore it's fairly easy to work out how the government policy is irrational and creates these problems. Government propaganda (including that distributed by Eva Golinger and other paid agents) tries to blame the "businessmen" for the mess they created. This is of course the same as a farmer blaming rabbits for eating lettuce if he plants lettuce and leaves it unprotected.

I think the end for this regime is near, and they are likely to evolve into a tyranny with very heavy repression, fascist style. They will become another dictatorship like Cuba, and I'm afraid we are about to see mass flight of refugees.