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Anyone with a sense of history could see this coming.  Marx (Karl, not Groucho) was correct about one thing – history repeats itself.  First as tragedy, then as farce!  Problem is he didn’t realize it applied to his own economic theories. 

“The only question now is whether Venezuela's government or economy will completely collapse first. 

The key word there is "completely." Both are well into their death throes. Indeed, Venezuela's ruling party just lost congressional elections that gave the opposition a veto-proof majority, and it's hard to see that getting any better for them any time soon — or ever. Incumbents, after all, don't tend to do too well when, according to the International Monetary Fund, their economy shrinks 10 percent one year, an additional 6 percent the next, and inflation explodes to 720 percent. It's no wonder, then, that markets expect Venezuela to default on its debt in the very near future. The country is basically bankrupt. 

That's not an easy thing to do when you have the largest oil reserves in the world, but Venezuela has managed it. How? Well, a combination of bad luck and worse policies. The first step was when Hugo ChÁvez's socialist government started spending more money on the poor, with everything from two-cent gasoline to free housing. Now, there's nothing wrong with that — in fact, it's a good idea in general — but only as long as you actually, well, have the money to spend. And by 2005 or so, Venezuela didn't. 

Why not? The answer is that ChÁvez turned the state-owned oil company from being professionally run to being barely run. People who knew what they were doing were replaced with people who were loyal to the regime, and profits came out but new investment didn't go in. That last part was particularly bad, because Venezuela's extra-heavy crude needs to be blended or refined — neither of which is cheap — before it can be sold. So Venezuela just hasn't been able to churn out as much oil as it used to without upgraded or even maintained infrastructure. Specifically, oil production fell 25 percent between 1999 and 2013. 

The rest is a familiar tale of fiscal woe. Even triple-digit oil prices, as Justin Fox points out, weren't enough to keep Venezuela out of the red when it was spending more on its people but producing less crude. So it did what all poorly run states do when the money runs out: It printed some more. And by "some," I mean a lot, a lot more. That, in turn, became more "a lots" than you can count once oil started collapsing in mid-2014. The result of all this money-printing, as you can see below, is that Venezuela's currency has, by black market rates, lost 93 percent of its value in the past two years” 

https://www.washingtonpost.com...a-complete-collapse/

More oil than the Saudis couldn't make this work. Cronyism and incompetence running the place.  Dam, sounds like DC.

 

Add, that the capitol, Caracas, is now listed as the most violent city in the world.  Young people, of you are tired of the war games on X Box, take a trip to Venezuela.  Its at the tipping point of emulating a Mad Max movie, plus there are many lovely ladies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...ealed-21-Brazil.html

Note, that four US cities are amongst the list of the 50 most violent.  The one thing the four have in common is Democrat rule for decades.  Forget gun control, we need Democrat politician control.

 

TRUTH -- THE NEW HATE SPEECH!

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Argentina just stepped back from the brink by electing a more conservative government, while divesting themselves of a socialist one run by yet another ex-president's bimbo.. Argentines are slow to learn, it appears.  Things are so bad that only Chavez would buy Argentine bonds.  The only place most Argentines could afford for holidays was Venezuela because of the extreme inflation in Venezuela.  That was before the extreme violence. 

After seeing all the listed Latin American cities, as the "50 most violent cities in the World", No wonder Trump wants to build a wall on our southern border. Next, we will have to Wall Off those Violent US Cities where Democrat Socialist Rule the show... Would not surprise me if ole communist, Angela Davis gets herself more active in a "call to arms", within those US cities, once the Bern is in the white house. Democrat Politicians make strange bed fellows. 

Remember Angela Davis? 

Angela Davis promotes atheistic communism / socialism:  
In 1980 and 1984, Davis ran for vice-president of the United States on the Communist Party ticket together with Gus Hall.  In 1979, Davis was awarded the International Lenin Peace Prize (formerly the International Stalin Peace Prize) by then-communist East Germany.  More recently, she delivered a speech in Detroit proposing "socialism for us all."  Davis was also active in the Black Panther Party and was a friend of the Freudian, Marxist intellectual, Herbert Marcuse.  For a period of time, she was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted.

Bestworking posted:
HIFLYER2 posted:

But Bernie can make it work here!  Ha ha I find it amazing that all Trumps ideas are crazy and will not work and crazy Bernie's ideas never get called out.

The left wing academic are always saying, "give us one more chance.  This time we won't screw it up."  Take about refusing to learn from experience.

direstraits posted:
Bestworking posted:
HIFLYER2 posted:

But Bernie can make it work here!  Ha ha I find it amazing that all Trumps ideas are crazy and will not work and crazy Bernie's ideas never get called out.

The left wing academic are always saying, "give us one more chance.  This time we won't screw it up."  Take about refusing to learn from experience.

Usually the claim is the leaders didn't go far enough and those evil American capitalists conspired against the people. If Bernie gets elected, the latter position will disappear when Tina Turner gets some new neighbors.

Stanky posted:
direstraits posted:
Bestworking posted:
HIFLYER2 posted:

But Bernie can make it work here!  Ha ha I find it amazing that all Trumps ideas are crazy and will not work and crazy Bernie's ideas never get called out.

The left wing academic are always saying, "give us one more chance.  This time we won't screw it up."  Take about refusing to learn from experience.

Usually the claim is the leaders didn't go far enough and those evil American capitalists conspired against the people. If Bernie gets elected, the latter position will disappear when Tina Turner gets some new neighbors.

More have given up their US citizenship in the last seven years, than ever.  Apres Obama, if Bernie Le Deluge.  To paraphrase Louis XV.

Wealthy socialite and top Democratic donor Denise Rich renounces her U.S. citizenship - saving her tens of millions of dollars in taxes

  • Songwriter also has Austrian citizenship through her late father
  • Former husband Marc Rich fled the country when indicted on charges of tax evasion - but was pardoned by President Clinton in 2001
  • House of Representatives committee later found Denise Rich had swayed the decision through donations to Clinton campaign
  • Comes as the latest wealthy American to denounce citizenship
  • Excerpts:

Denise Rich, the wealthy socialite and former wife of pardoned billionaire trader Marc Rich, has given up her U.S. citizenship - and, with it, much of her U.S. tax bill.

Rich, 68, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, top Democratic donor and glamorous figure in European royalty circles, renounced her American passport in November, according to her lawyer.

Her maiden name, Denise Eisenberg, appeared in the Federal Register on April 30 in a quarterly list of Americans who renounced their U.S. citizenship and permanent residents who handed in their green cards.

Rich's ex-husband, commodities trader Marc Rich, fled the United States in 1983 when indicted on charges of tax evasion, fraud, racketeering and illegal trading of oil with Iran. They divorced in 1996.

Marc Rich received a presidential pardon in 2001 on President Bill Clinton's last day in office. 

Federal prosecutors and Congress investigated the pardon, and in 2002 a House of Representatives committee concluded Denise Rich had swayed the action through donations to the Clinton library and campaign.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...s.html#ixzz3yqNhEp00 
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