How Chavez is destroying the Venezuelan Economy

[HoreTore]

Since 2003, Mr. Chávez has more than doubled government spending on free medical care, higher salaries, gasoline subsidies and other services.

Except the gas subsidies, everything on that small check-list is mandatory for a good country.

The fault IMO is not the price control, but what they controlled. If you put it on food, black markets will soar. However, how can you create a black market for electricity, for example? A fixed cheap price on electricity will do wonder for the industry, especially when you raise wages...

[The Wizard]

It's old news; the people we rented our house from when we lived on Aruba (until 1998) were from Venezuela and staunchly anti-Chavez. For that (and for partaking in an anti-Chavez march) they were beaten and hounded by Chavez's supporters, and fled the country to go and live in a house for four with a family of six or more. That's the political reality in the so-called "democracy" of Chavezian Venezuela.

I don't think this whole lending/mortgage business is gonna lead to a Venezuelan slump, or even a crash. That's because I don't think that's gonna happen anywhere. If it even has major effects they'll be meted out in a just as slow way as the entire process leading up to the "crisis" until now.