Production quotas and prices have now been set for cooking oil, white rice, sugar, coffee, flour, margarine, pasta, cheeses and tomato sauce.
White rice, the staple for many Venezuelans, can now only be sold at a price of 2.15 bolivares (71p) per kilo. Private companies insist that production of that kilo costs 4.41 bolivares (£1.46) and that government regulations are impossible to fulfil and companies will quickly go broke.
Anyone got any suggestions for a simple economic primer to explain to the Venezuelan Government why it won\’t work?
Adam Smith would be a little long winded for them, The Road to Serfdom probably too close to the bone. Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt perhaps? Free to Choose?
Any more ideas?
A day spent in a Zimbabwean slum without bodyguards or aides should do the trick
Watching each ‘chosen’ leader trying to implement his brand of socialism is akin to watching a madman trying to cure his headache by banging his head against a wall.
To answer your question: Economics For Real People – Gene Callahan
..Specifically p189 onwards 🙂
The Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot
The Return of the Idiot
Both by Álvaro Vargas Llosa.
Not exactly Economics 101 but since Chávez is all about slavish adherence to ideology in the face of economic reality, we think the two volumes above are far more appropriate.
Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell.
Cannibalism for Dummies?
“The Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot”
That books looks like a gem – will have to add to my reading list. Noted that the only 1 star review on Amazon was from someone who clearly has been swayed by the communist mysticism.
They don’t even have to read, just an old newsclip showing the ‘overabundance’ of goods in the USSR’s marketplaces.
There is no such book. We are a tribe of stupid hairless monkeys and will never, never learn.