There is just so much win in the following article describing what is taking place in hyperinflation-ridden [2]Belarus (aka a true Keynesian success story), that we decided to post it in its entirety.
State control of prices in Belarus will remain forever
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that state control over prices will remain in place in the republic and urged businesses not to count on a liberalization of the price policy after the scraping of a package of emergency measures from the government and the National Bank.
"I was told, and saw it for myself, that some of our scoundrel-officials have been telling entrepreneurs, businessmen and all sorts of thieves that they should wait until around (January) 9th or 15th, everything will be liberalized here, and they would be able to get what they have not until now. People are simply begging to be you know where. I want to say that the trend, as is fashionable to say nowadays, towards control over domestic prices will remain forever," Lukashenko said at a meeting which focused on the country's economic development on Friday.
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It is outrageous that certain politicians have been telling businesses the control over price-formation in the country will soon be lifted and businessmen will be able to make up for lost profits, the president said.
"Retailers, middlemen, money-grabbers and thieves working in this sector have become the richest people in our country," Lukashenko said.
"We did all we could to form a proper retail industry in our country. Even if tomorrow we have no more new retail companies, we still have an incredible number of them and middlemen. We could do without new ones. But those that are operating, we'll make them work the way they should," the president said.
"Like I said, unless they heard already: 2-3% of the profit margin. We'll have each type of goods under control, especially imported ones," Lukashenko said.
"They should not expect to be able to hide something somewhere in the hope that after (January) 9th or 15th they would get incredible prices and fill their pockets even more," the president said.
And just like that, we have government central-planning of... everything. Coming soon to every banana republic near you.
Source [4]
