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from the toilet-paper-is-worth-more dept.
In a surprise announcement, [President Nicolas] Maduro said on Sunday that the 100-bolivar note, worth about 2 US cents (£0.015) on the black market, would be taken out of circulation on Wednesday.
The president said the aim was to tackle transnational gangs which hoard the Venezuelan notes abroad, a move he has in the past described as part of the "economic war" being waged against his government. [...] He said part of the plan was to block any of the 100-bolivar notes from being taken back into the country so the gangs would be unable to exchange their hoarded bills, making them worthless.
"I have given the orders to close all land, maritime and air possibilities so those bills taken out can't be returned and they're stuck with their fraud abroad," he said speaking on television.
Venezuela's currency has fallen dramatically amid skyrocketing inflation.
[...] Analysts say the move is likely to worsen the cash crunch in Venezuela, where people have already been limited in the amount of cash they can take out at automated teller machines. Venezuelans have only been given 10 days to exchange their 100-bolivar notes for new coins and bills ranging from 500 to 20,000 bolivars due to be introduced from 15 December.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 14 2016, @03:42PM
I, unlike you, am not willing to accept that as an axiom. And the reason is that there are a number of questions that socialism has demonstrably handled better than anything else that's been tried:
- Education: The smartest kids don't always have the smartest or wealthiest parents. That means that without an education system that is collectively paid for (i.e. socialism), potentially brilliant minds go to waste because they never got the training they needed to put those minds to use. Students in countries that do this extensively, like Finland, test substantially better and have better economies than countries that don't, like Nigeria.
- Health care: The best health care systems in the world, as measured by cost per patient, infant mortality, life expectancy, and various quality-of-life indicators, are the ones managed by government agencies such as the UK's National Health Service. The US's relatively privatized health care is on par with Costa Rica and Slovenia, at about twice the cost.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14 2016, @06:52PM
“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
True in the 1800s. Even truer today.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday December 15 2016, @07:47PM
> Even truer today.
Examples from the last 20 years or so, please?