Posted on 01/04/2018 9:31:12 AM PST by Brilliant
With hospital shelves bare and the government stumped on how to settle $5 billion in arrears to pharmaceutical companies, cash-strapped Venezuela recently offered some foreign suppliers alternative compensation: diamonds, gold and coltan, the rare metal used to make cellphones and Playstations.
The proposed exchange perplexed the pharma representatives, whose companies had no policies on accepting precious gems and metals as payment, according to three people familiar with the meeting last month where Venezuela’s health minister made the offer.
While it isn’t clear if any of the companies accepted it, the proposal underscores how Venezuela’s economic collapse is forcing President Nicolás Maduro’s embattled administration to improvise to pay for goods as severe dollar shortages push the country toward a barter society.
Bartering is also creeping into daily street transactions for staples, partly because the government is too broke to print enough currency. The so-called Strong Bolivar, which the government created in 2008 by lopping three zeros off its previous currency, lost 97% of its value in 2017 alone as the oil-rich country plunges further into hyperinflation.
“Money was created so that we could avoid having to barter for basics,” said Caracas-based economist Omar Zambrano. “But we’ve fallen so far that we’re now going back in time.”
Health Minister Luis López, who calls himself a radical anti-imperialist on his official Twitter account, couldn’t be reached for comment. Calls to a ministry spokesman went unanswered...
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
And yet Bernie and Barry and about 48% of the US population think that it will somehow turn out different when it is foisted on the US.
Already time to lop off another couple of zeroes!
Regards,
I don’t really feel sorry for Venezuelans. Chavez and Maduro are not alien invaders, and these thugs were generally chosen by Venezuelans (although coercion certainly is taking place now).
Also, Venezuela’s slow motion collapse is a constant reminder to stupid people everywhere. It seems the world (and America) needs a constant example of the evil of socialism to avoid choosing that fate for themselves.
Communism always fails. Read Communism by Richard Pipes.
With all the money Madura has stolen from the people, he could buy them some food and toilet paper.
> Already time to lop off another couple of zeroes! <
That’s the ticket! Call it the “Super Strong Bolivar”. Soon to be followed by the “Super-Duper Strong Bolivar”. Etc., etc.
Greedy capitalist pigs are behind this! Trump’s rich buddies.
Even if it takes the form of Bottlecaps.
Coltan is a cool metal. Wherever it is, you generally find Chinese mining for it. In two decades, Mandarin might supplant Spanish as the official language of Venezuela.
National leaders ride around in government limousines and live in the government Palace.
Some people want to ride in those government limousines and live in that Palace.
They start telling people that the national leaders are bad because they ride around in government limousines and live at the government Palace.
They convince people to fight and kill and die to get rid of the national leaders.
The people get rid of their national leaders.
The people who wanted to ride around in the government limousines and live in the government Palace now take over.
They ride around in the government limousines and live in the government Palace.
Some other people want to ride in the government limousines and live in the government Palace.
It starts all over again.
Lots of the riff-raff get killed.
It's taken just over a hundred years for the Treasury and Federal Reserve to do the same here.
A Fallout 4 reference?
And one of the richest persons in Venezuela is Chavez’s
daughter living in Switzerland.
He won’t. Some pigs are more equal than others. . .
Yeah, Maduro and his administration!
“And one of the richest persons in Venezuela is Chavez’s
daughter living in Switzerland.”
The “Dictatorship of the Proletariat,” always seems to work out a whole lot better for the dictators doesn’t it.
When the diamonds run out they’ll turn to bananas.
Yes, and as others have pointed out after the October, 1917
Russian Revolution, the czars were replaced by the commiczars. And the commiczars were far more brutal than the czars could have ever dreamed of.
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