So the Bolivarian Republic recently devalued the bolívar. As you might expect, there were some fears that the move might cause inflation as import prices rose. IMHO, those fears are simultaneously unfounded and irrelevant. “Unfounded” because the difficulty of getting foreign exchange at the old official price of 2.15 bolívares per dollar meant that imported goods were relatively scarce, and their domestic price correspondingly high. “Irrelevant” because inflation in Venezuela is accelerating regardless of the exchange rate, so who cares?
Anyway, the government worried that the devaluation might cause inflation. So what do they do? Nationalize a supermarket chain for raising prices! The President announced the bold move during a seven hour episode of his television variety show, Aló Presidente. The chain will join the other stores of the wonderfully-named Socialist Market Corporation.
That’s inflation-fighting credibility! Richard Nixon, eat yer heart out.
In housing-related news, the President also gave out 175 socialist apartments, which cannot be rented or sold by their occupants, because that would be capitalism.
The awesomeness of the comedy show that is La Revolucion Bolivariana is compounded by the fact that he's actually been kind enough to provide us with a reality-TV telecast. The layers of jokes practically write themselves.....
Posted by: Bernard Guerrero | January 18, 2010 at 11:13 AM