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Meanwhile In Venezuela... The Socialist Paradise Has Arrived
As we recently warned, the hyperinflationary collapse in Venezuala is reaching its terminal phase. With inflation soaring at least 65%, murder rates the 2nd highest in the world, and chronic food (and toilet paper shortages), the following disturbing clip shows what is rapidly becoming major social unrest in the Maduro's socialist paradise... and perhaps more importantly, Venezuela shows us what the end game for every fiat money system looks like (and perhaps Janet and her colleagues should remember that).
As we previously concluded, and seemingly confirmed by the above video,
Venezuela’s hyperinflation is reaching its final stages. It is probably already far too late for the government to stop the complete collapse of its currency. The bolivar is in the process of transforming from a medium of exchange to tinder for wood-stoves. Venezuelans who had the presence of mind to convert their savings into gold or foreign currency in good time are likely to survive the conflagration intact.
Those who bought stocks on the Caracas stock exchange seem to have successfully side-stepped the effects of the devaluation as well, but they need a plan for the post-inflation adjustment crisis, which will bankrupt a great many companies very quickly. Also, the government can simply close the market down at any time if it doesn’t like what is happening there, so there is the ever-present danger of even more government interference as well.
It is quite fascinating to see that in spite of numerous examples throughout history, governments never seem to learn. They all believe they can somehow overrule economic laws by diktat. This is not only true of Venezuela’s government, but of practically every government in today’s world. Central planning of money has been adopted everywhere. Venezuela merely shows us what the end game for every fiat money system looks like.
At some point the State is overwhelmed by the promises it has made to its citizens. When it can no longer pay by means of confiscating private wealth, the printing press is always the last resort. Recently one actually gets the impression that it is often the first, rather than the last resort.
In developed countries, people believe that the planners have everything in hand, and that their “price stabilization” rules will protect them from such outcomes. However, it should be clear that these rules will simply be abandoned in extremis. The independence of central banks exists only on paper – it will mean nothing in a perceived “emergency”. It is almost comical in this context that gold is being sold while most of the world’s major central banks are seemingly hell-bent on aping John Law’s Banque Générale Privée.
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Stores are well stocked locally. I'm certain this situation would take a long time to develop...say 3 days?
Looks like the Walmart ammo display case after Sandy Hook.
Venezuela is like that by long time, with ups and downs. Know somebody there... Nothing new, that kind of socialism destroys everything all the times
The best things in life are free.
That's what Obama says, as he never has to put his hand in his pocket.
Now picture living in a society like Venezuela's. Do you think gold and sliver would do you any good in a situation like the one portrayed in the video? Think about it!
I think "probably I will be OK and be a resource to my family". I would have prepped beyond PM and waaay beyond techno-currency that no one experiencing regular brown-outs, black-outs or all out war would even begin to want to exchange for vital necessities, like more antibiotics. Most gold and silver holders have their TP needs "hedged". Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character, not a PM hedger or someone who plans for a fractious future.
Where will my bitcoins be when an EMP burst or strong solar flare fries the skies and all long wire electrical systems? Wot internaught do you mean, your money is stored on the internaught?
Just kidding, I know your bitcoins are like Ft. Knox secure in the cyberspace.
I think your answer is the most realistic one.
and bitcoin would? I had no idea bitcoin could be rolled up and smoked. Tell me, is it better or worse than a hopium high?
Betting on Bitcoin is betting on the future, just like investing in Google in the early 2000s was. People who believe in the virtues of digital currency invest in Bitcoin, and they ignore the possibility of economic doom; we are optimists.
My question was in regards to gold hording for the purpose of surviving a coming "apocalypse." My point is that it is not practical to do so, because you can't count on having the ability to use your gold as a form of currency if infrastructure and order collapse.
No way man, during a collapse like this, people gladly hand over their food, house and car for a few gold coins! /sarc
Gold is useless during a collapse like this.
you really ought to try to avoid using your grey matter, it's useless now and we are even in a collapse.
I have a few coins, can I have your house?
How does this Bitcoin work when there's no internet? or indeed no electricity to power computers?
Since it is such a great new currency, as regularly stated here in the comments, I am sure they have thought of that.
Do you think any of those stores take bitcoin you turd.
#1 Q-Can I have that last loaf of bread and pay for it with this....10010010100101010000011
A- Blank stare followed by smoking gun..........
#2 Q- Can i give you this gold for that loaf of bread?
A- Fucking right, you can.....
That's true about bitcoins, but Bitcoin wasn't the subject of the question. Yeah, my bitcoins wouldn't do me any good in such a situation. I would just settle on being poor like everyone else.
But regarding PMs, I suspect owning gold or silver and trying to use it could get you killed in a lawless society.
Hijo... ? There's a Whole Lotta Things out there that can "Get You Killed", even Within a Lawful Society! Yep, at At Any Time, a big heavy Rock, hurtling through Space at 40,000 mph's, relative to the planet in who's atmosphere it was rapidly becoming a meteor, burned down to about baseball sized by the time it Passed Right Through Your Head
Oh yeah, I applaude you for your Eternal Faith in the New Financial 'Pet Rock' and Respect your Right to Defend it til Death Do You Part!
First we are CURRENTLY in a collapse. (Yes it will get much worse.)
Finally we are CURRENTLY in a lawless society...if you have not figured that out.
I am still breathing and, not only do I own Gold, I USE IT, I WEAR IT, I PUBLICALLY DISPLAY IT.
One day last year, a Venezuelan went to sleep. When he woke up the next day, his fiat was worth 67% less, and his PMs were worth 67% more! You don't buy bread with gold - but you can sell gold to get more of whatever fiat you need in order to buy bread.
Here is my question: In a situation like the one seen in the video, where exactly would you go to sell your gold to get more fiat currency? And would the fiat currency that you get have any value? I really don't think it would in a situation where grocery stores are near empty and people are breaking the window glass to get in and steal whatever is left. That's my point regarding the purchase of PMs for survival purposes. Gold is a good hedge against inflation. That's about it. But without fiat currency it is useless in a modern society.
"You don't buy bread with gold - but you can sell gold to get more of whatever fiat you need in order to buy bread."
Jesus Christ you miss the whole fucking point....... It was just a comparison of which has more value in a crisis for god's sake. Have you ever gotten the punchline to a joke?
The whole reason this store is empty is because people are converting their rapidly depreciating currency into tangible items they can trade for the other things they need. The whole society is in a barter situation: anything somebody else needs is money.
However, like all recent hyperinflations, it is happening to one country, and the rest of world is not participating. This means there are good currencies just over the nearest border. There are also markets for the stuff you just bought locally. There is also the world's reserve currency, dollars. So if you can get some dollars or real you can buy whatever you want. These other currencices will not loose value, and that's the point.
Since gold and silver can be taken to any country in the world and exchanged for the local currency, no questions asked except 'is it real', the metals are even more liquid forms of money. In short when the fiat government curency goes belly up, anything that anyone in another country uses as money becomes your money too.
When it can no longer pay by means of confiscating private wealth,
Private wealth: that's what the rich Venezuelans stole, was already in Miami. That's called capital flight, there was nothing left in Valenzuela by the time Chavez took power. The so called called private wealth always disappears first.
Didn't they still have lots of oil in the ground? Or was that taken to Miami also?
Looks like a future Walmart.
Contrary to reports - in a Socialist Mecca like Venezuela you never run out of toilet paper -- you only run out of CLEAN UN-USED toilet paper. Sharing is caring...
and to think - the $USD rally is just getting started.
While I agree with the attitude expressed by all the posters here, I cannot quite believe that the store in this particular video represents a typical Venezuelan store. People were acting way too casual. If every store was wiped clean there should be panic, no?
Venezuela shows us what the end game for every fiat money system looks like
"fiat money system": There's the Mises Monk marker folks
It is almost comical in this context that gold is being sold while most of the world’s major central banks are seemingly hell-bent on aping John Law’s Banque Générale Privée.
And there's the punch line.
But it gives no clue how gold is supposed to make things better.
Perhaps you missed the bit about governments being unable to print gold.
Perhaps you missed the bit about governments being unable to print gold.
Governments can't "print" a barrel of oil or a pork belly either. So what?
you can't carry a pig or a barrel of oil in your pocket.
you can't carry a pig or a barrel of oil in your pocket.
So, that's an attribute of money? You can carry it in your pocket? The plot thickens.
What about those big stone wheels the historians tell us were an early primative form of money?
dup
they didn't have pockets. It was easier to just roll with the flow.
Nice try with that guy but ya can't fix stupid.
I don't get it. How come Cuba seems to be plentiful in food but Venezuela is not? You would imagine they would have followed Cuba's secrets of sustainability.
venezuela is current target of oily crony capitalist predfator banksters enabled by venal US.gov careerist slugs (ala Ukraine).. US doing to V same as they did to Cuba. Triumph of sociopath criminals over people. why ZH supports this evil is connundrum.
Sorry to deflate your bubble but the gringo expats are saying that the capitalist paradise of Honduras is now the murder capital of the World.
Cant be all that bad, they still have their cell phones.
Good luck wiping your ass with that
Boy, those Venezuelans are professional looters!
They're amateurs. This was done over a number of days. We got looters in Los Angeles and Baltimore that can do that in a few hours.
search on youtube "venezuela saqueo" there are a lot more similar videos of stores being looted/ransacked
There is no number of scenes like this that will convince Socialists and Communists that their economics dont work.
They will commit first murder then suicide without ever confronting the fact that their enemy is nature itself.
Am I the only one who noticed and the exteme fat-fucks in this video?
This hyperinflation mights jsut save those tolly-pollies' lives.
Fuck do they needs to hit the stair master or what.
Squid
This socialist paradise is coming to American --- shortly....
'.....coming to American't --- shortly...'
there, fixed it.
Venezuela is NOT a 'socialist paradise', it is a Ponzi Casino Capitalist Hell & Purgatory. Why is Z/H referring to it as a 'socialist paradise'?
What kind of a Marxist website would refer to Venezuela as a 'socialist paradise?
Wtf, Tyler(s)?
Is that sarcasm?
Caracas has always been the crime capitol of the world.I believe they stopped taking statistics during the last decade. You are on your own there and its best to be armed.People always get the government they deserve.No monetary solution to this cancer.
I thought I was back in Miami for a minute.
Finallly!!! Parity in Venezuela......Well, except for the government, and those shootin' up my side of this evacuated building.
Affirmative Action made Obama what he is today.
These are Obama's People: the FSA (Free S*** Army).
Affirmative Action means never needing to balance one's checkbook-or making deposits for that matter. Just keep writing those checks. It's all good in the world of Affirmative Action!
Congratulations America! Obama has sold off all of the United States gold reserves. Fort Knox is empty!
But, China is going to make Obama rich for selling them all of the United States gold reserves.
Not true. The Gold was leased, and subsequently sold off in the 1990s. The USA became both the World's Largest Exporter of Gold and the World's Largest Importer of Gold during that time.
The Gold was exported into Italy. There it was manufactured int Jewelry Items and then imported by the USA for sale to the retail consumer. It was effectively distributed to the American public from the vaults of Fort Knox during the Clinton Administration.
Of course since prices were depressed due to the Leasing Activities, the Gold Jewelry was made extremely affordable and vast amounts of that Gold ended up in American women's Jewelry Boxes.
Unfortunately due to the extreme circumstances experienced during the 2000s the Gold was purchased, refined, and exported to foreign markets.
Fort Knox remains empty but the Obama Administration had little to do with that. The actual person responsible was Alan Greenspan who believed that the American public were wise enough to own the bulk of the Nation's Gold.
Unfortunately that expectation for American wisdom was sadly disappointed.
That all happened DECADES before Obama was president. Fort Knox was emptied out in the 70's.
No matter how many times I see these its still very haunting. At least to me, and as in crime I cant help to think we take the top spot, the cartoonish ultra violence is only beginning. Shootings galore, stabbings are like a receipt for meeting people day in day out. Rough times, hard levels like old kid icarus games.
Notice the nice, calm, orderly looting. None of the USA-style nihilistic vibrant rioting.
PA announcement: "Attention, cleanup on aisle......oh never mind. FREE SHIT!!!!"
http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-sees-political-satire-as-no-laughi...
SOcialism, hosecrap! Go google IMF loans history to Venezuela, you'll find the real reazon for their troubles. Their monetary system has been destroyed.
Re " hyperinflationary collapse in Venezuala is reaching its terminal phase."
"We're from the IMF and world bank and we are here to help!"
Job well done. Now lets go help Greece...
As a former Circuit City drone, methinks their planogram has been rent asunder.
#RealCommunistHaveSkidMarks
The solution is not gold standard, elimination of socialist/communist/corrupt government, cutting of debt spending on entitlements - NO, the REAL solution is the minimum wage. Their miniimum wage is obviously just way too low which is causing all their problems. That and they still actually have a private sector, what the fuck is up with that.