Venezuela's Maduro admits economic 'catastrophe'

[Bacchus4.0]

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuela-president-declares-economic-emergency-175902635.html


Caracas (AFP) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro admitted before a hostile legislature that the oil-rich nation is mired in a "catastrophic" economic crisis, hours after decreeing a two-month state of emergency.

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The figures show the magnitude of the country's recession: the economy shrank 4.5 percent in the first nine months of 2015, the central bank said, while inflation for the same period came in at a painful 108.7 percent, fueled by crippling shortages.

"These catastrophic figures (are) the result of an economic situation that in another era of regressive neoliberal and capitalist policies would surely have pushed (the Venezuelan) people into unemployment," said Maduro.

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It gave the administration special temporary powers to boost production and ensure access to key goods, including taking over private companies' resources, imposing currency controls and "other social, economic or political measures deemed fitting."

[MADem]

1. Entirely HIS fault, too. He had the power and he mortgaged the nation's future and treasure. nt

[enid602]

2. hope

I sure hope our 'revolution' doesn't take the same course.

[MADem]

3. We're not in the habit of giving the President "unlimited powers." VZ has done this routinely

during both the Chavez and Maduro regimes.

I say "regimes" because they've been de facto dictators with a rubber stamp legislature and court system.

The recent elections have upset "Manuro's" apple cart.

[forest444]

4. We're not?

Three words: George Dubya Bush.

I should remind you that we didn't careen into Venezuela-style collapse in 2008 only because the Fed has the ability to print practically unlimited quantities of money to paper over the astronomical Bush-era derivatives losses - and, fortunately for us (and the world), they came through with flying colors to the tune of $20 to $40 trillion.

[Oele]

5. What do you think the BCV has been doing for the past few years?

[forest444]

6. The key word there being unlimited.

There is a difference between countries with a hard currency and countries without one (most of them).

Countries like Venezuela can print money for their domestic needs, of course; but they can't print hard currency to cover their international obligations (imports, debt payments, tourist outflows, capital movements, etc.) and bank capitalization needs in the unlimited way we can. They can burn through their hard currency reserves (and are); but not indefinitely.

Regardless of who's most to blame (Maduro, plummeting oil prices, right-wing intrigue - probably a combination of all three), Venezuela finds itself in a balance of payments crisis common to most developing countries from time to time. With today's commodity prices, many of them in fact are right now to some extent.

[MADem]

8. NO. We didn't give him unlimited powers--"Manuro" can APPROPRIATE. He can spend the nation's

cash. Dumbya couldn't do that.

He needed a complicit Congress to vote in favor of authorizations to process his dreams. His demands would have faltered without the cash to fuel them, and Congress voted, year after year, to fund his wishes.

Without those votes and that dough, though, Dumbya would have been HAMSTRUNG.

"Manuro" not only has his hands on the tiller unilaterally, he also has both paws in the till.

It's not the same thing at all.

[Bacchus4.0]

10. Looks like Venezuelan crude is less than $20 a barrel. Less than production cost nt

[MADem]

11. The stuff stinks, that's why. Literally. It's sour; heavy and sulfurous.

It barely flows. It's like that crap the Canadians wanted to send to us via the that stupid pipeline. You've got to heat it up and add crap to it in order for it to move at all.

China bought up a bunch of the VZ garbage oil; they may have to get in there and help get it out, if they really want it, the way the industry is so effed up these days. What a bad bargain!

[Oele]

7. The funniest part was that the state media started a "Cadena",

forcing every tv and radio station to broadcast a state media controlled feed of Maduro's speech, with lots of long shots of Maduro and applauding chavista's and an occasional 2 second shot of opposition deputies.

Apparently they expected Henry just to follow protocol and close the session after Maduro was finished because they didn't stop the cadena after Maduro was finished. They practically forced the whole nation to watch Allup's speech.

For those who understand a bit of spanish:

[Marksman_91]

9. Allup told it like it is in Manuro's face

He's no saint, but the guy's a realist and has balls to say things the way they are. And that's precisely what he did to Manuro and the rest of the immature band of delinquents that make up the Chavista portion of the new National Assembly.

[MADem]

12. Same speech--better angle. You can see Maduro looking like Deputy DAWG when he gets chastised!