You heard it here first.
This year in Venezuela, the currency has collapsed, the economy has contracted, while inflation and unemployment has soared. Our global economics and financial markets contributor Andrew West predicted all of this over two years ago in Capitalism Magazine. The good news is that in Venezuela, the most productive people have gone on strike, refusing to exist as Hugo Chavez’ revolutionary slaves. According to the BBC,
Oil production in Venezuela – the world’s fifth largest oil exporter – is nearing a standstill, as the national strike against President Hugo Chavez enters its second week. Many petrol stations are running out of fuel, and exports are being severely hit, hiking up prices on the international oil market.
Opposition leaders vowed on Sunday to continue their strike against Mr Chavez indefinitely. Many schools and businesses in Caracas and other major cities remain closed, and domestic airline pilots and aluminium workers are the latest to join the stoppage…
… During his weekly Alo Presidente television programme, Mr Chavez launched into a lengthy diatribe in which he dubbed the opposition “coup-mongers”. “They won’t rob Venezuela of its happiness,” he shouted, grabbing a plastic model of the baby Jesus from a crib on his desk and kissing it.
Comments Andrew West, “[Chavez’s diatribe and grabbing of a the baby Jesus is] as good a comic scene as any in Atlas Shrugged. Even Mr. Thompson wouldn’t stoop that low.”