Toilet paper shortage is because ‘Venezuelans are eating more’ argues the government

[Socialistlemur]

13. I take it you believe there are huge warehouses hiding toilet paper?

Sounds a bit goofy. Toilet paper is a very bulky material and hard to hide. I suspect the shortage is transitory, caused by restrictions in the supply caused by lack of foreign currency. I understand the Maduro regime closed a secondary exchange market (SITME), and this has increased shortages. My advice to the regime would be to have a very honest discussion with the people and announce a scaled devaluation of the bolivar, which is really overpriced. A weaker currency will help make local production more competitive. But they will have to abandon Marxist ideas and let the private sector inject some badly needed dynamism into the economy. This is a radical shift from the Obsolete approach Mr Giordani and Mr Merentes have used. If the economy is not reformed to be more responsive to market conditions the Venezuelan bond market will react with a kick towards much higher interest rates for new issues. Venezuela is in debt, and will need to issue much more debt to pull itself out of the current crisis. This means it has to devalue and rationalize, otherwise nobody will buy their bonds.