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The year 2015 was an annus horribilis in Venezuela with a 10 per cent decline in gross domestic product, following a 4 per cent fall in 2014. Inflation reached over 200 per cent. The fiscal deficit ballooned to 20 per cent of GDP, funded mainly by the printing press.

In the free market, the bolivar has lost 92 per cent of its value in the past 24 months, with the dollar costing 150 times the official rate: the largest exchange rate differential ever registered. Shortages and long queues in the shops have made daily life very difficult. No wonder the government lost the elections for the National Assembly in December.

As bad as these numbers are, 2016 looks dramatically worse. Imports, which had already been compressed by 20 per cent in 2015 to $37bn, would have to fall by over 40 per cent, even if the country stopped servicing its debt.

Via It could be too late to avoid catastrophe in Venezuela @ FT.com

Economy, Socialism, Venezuela

Socialism’s Wreck of Venezuela

February 4, 2016

Economy, Socialism

Socialism (inevitably) stumbles

December 13, 2015

Last week, in a gut blow for the movement known as Chavismo, Venezuela turned raw anger over economic hardship into a landslide victory for the political opposition in crucial elections.

Via As Economy Lags, Hugo Chávez’s Movement Fades in Venezuela @ NYT.

Economics, Socialism

Socialism’s Calculation Problem

November 16, 2015

Impossibilities –

Presidential Race 2016, Socialism

Sanders Tries to Explain Himself

October 20, 2015

Sanders previously attempted to explain his views in the first Democratic debate, stating,

“What democratic socialism is about is saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of 1 percent in this country own almost 90 percent — almost — own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. That it is wrong, today, in a rigged economy, that 57 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent. That when you look around the world, you see every other major country providing health care to all people as a right, except the United States.”

Apparently democratic socialism is about providing “free” things, paid for by your taxes, that inevitably end up not working, for the purpose of sticking it to the capitalist man.

Via Bernie Sanders To Explain Democratic Socialism In Upcoming Speech @ The Libertarian Republic.