Posted on 12/27/2017 6:48:50 AM PST by blam
Venezuelans are struggling to carry out basic transactions like purchasing food as the value of their currency, the bolivar, has plunged against the dollar amid the country’s worsening economic collapse.
According to Reuters, over the past year, Venezuela’s currency weakened 97.5% against the greenback: Put another way, $1,000 of local currency purchased in early January would be worth just $25 now. The annual inflation rate in 2017 could reach $2,000. Though at least one other estimate puts the real rate of inflation closer to 2,800%.
Of course, President Maduro has blamed websites like DolarToday – which publishes the closest thing to an official black-market rate by surveying clandestine exchanges in Caracas and other cities – for the spread of black-market activity, part of a conspiracy organized by Washington and his local political opponents to force him from power.
One of the unintended consequences of the bolivar’s collapse has been a social experiment of sorts in the use of digital currencies: As we noted back in October, as many as 100,000 people are now mining digital currencies in Venezuela, defying a government crackdown that’s seen many of them thrown in prison.
But for those who can’t or haven’t resorted to transacting in bitcoin, an increasingly scarce supply of dollars is creating intractable problems for millions of Venezuelans, Reuters reported.
For many, simple purchases like a new tire for their car are simply out of reach.
There was no way Jose Ramon Garcia, a food transporter in Venezuela, could afford new tires for his van at $350 each.
Whether he opted to pay in U.S. currency or in the devalued local bolivar currency at the equivalent black market price, Garcia would have had to save up for years.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at capitolzero.com ...
I see lamp posts in their government’s future....................
Editor on vacation?
Appreciate the recent spate of Venezuela stories that never once mention Socialism or Chavez and blame all their troubles on low oil pricing.
Enjoy the suck, Commies, you voted for it.
Could it be ....aaahhhh because, Socialists are doing the reporting?
What were Sean Penn and Michael Moore’s addresses in Venezuela? I want to send a care package to them in the socialist paradise /s
Socialism destroyed the value of their currency, so the people started using the currency of a capitalist free market country. Should make commies all over the world reconsider. But it won’t.
Maduro will ban the use of dollars.
A currency that is out of the control of the government and oligarchs is the beginning of freedom
Actually, I’m a bit surprised that the bolivar hasn’t hyperinflated like what happened in Zimbabwe ... or Weimar Germany, for that matter.
This is such a shame. Simon Bolivar was a Freemason and had our constitutional republic as a model of government to follow. We are currently on the same path of collapse if the globalists and insurrectionists have their way.
“The annual inflation rate in 2017 could reach $2,000. “
That some expensive percents.
At a 2800% annual inflation rate, it is hyperinflation, though not yet to the Weimar standard. What surprises me is that the citizenry has not yet stormed the palace gates.
Why doesn’t President Trump publicly ask Bernie Sanders to go help them with their great socialism?? Hell take a few Million super smart socialist college kids and their professors with him.
Thanks for that clarification. Hyperinflation it is.
Time to buy stock in rope futures?
I see what you did there!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.