Venezuela is down to its last $10 billion
So runs the headline in the CNN article.
Just now Richard Quest of CNN money has been on TV saying that the reasons Venezuela is barreling towards bankruptcy are the falling price of oil, corruption, economic mismanagement and so on.
Well, no doubt these are factors. The clue to the real underlying cause of Venezuela's meltdown is in the "economic mismanagement" factor.
In turn, the reason for that?
One word: SOCIALISM.
I've lived, studied and worked in socialist countries (China, North Korea, Vietnam). There's not one that works well. Socialism leads to economic mismanagement. It leads to corruption.
As for the oil price? Sure it's down.
But when it was up, Chavez and Maduro just gave the windfall away. Free or nearly so. Petrol at $0.01 / litre, for goodness sake! Nice for drivers. Idiocy for the country.
Meantime what did Norway do with its own oil windfall? Invested it in a well-managed and transparent Oil Fund. As a result they now have £700 billion, €130,000 for every. Norwegian man, woman and child.
One is liberal, free market capitalism, boosted by benign nationalism (Norway).
The other - the failing one -- is Socialism (Venezuela).
Why don't the Left media - the likes of CNN and BBC too -- ever pin the blame on the donkey? The donkey of always-failed always-failing socialism.
Meantime I gotta have pity for the poor people of Venezuela. Crushed by an outdated, inane ideology, which should have been on the scrap heap of history 40 years ago.
