(You struck out)
Uno.- January 13th. 2010. Hugo Chavez: We are going to pull down the swap rate, the intervention is going to be sustained, permanent and strong as far down as the Central Bank wants”
Dos.- May 9th. 2010. Hugo Chavez: “You can be assured that you could burn, Nelson (referering to Merentes Presiden of the Central Bank), all of interational reserves and we would not lower the paralll rate”
Tres.- May 12th. 2010. Hugo Chavez: “We are going to hit speculators where it hurts (darles en la madre)”
With Hugo, he seems to get as many strikes as he wants, he never really gets to ever strike out, even when he is always wrong.
The Devil's Excrement 
July 27, 2010 at 7:08 pm
[…] central_banks, Chavez, Dollar, Finance, Hedge Funds, Humor, Latin America, News, Scams, Venezuela Three Strikes: Famous quotes from the revolution’s leader May 13, […]
May 15, 2010 at 1:58 pm
If the Horizon Exploration accident happened to professional people, what can we expect of the toddlers playing “lets invent reality, and run a country”.
It´s only a matter of time before the devil hits the fan, and everyone tries to take a shower but theirs no water or lights, and the mapanare and chupacabra start lurking around.
May 15, 2010 at 1:50 pm
What can be expected of Venezuela, when it´s name has been changed, its flag has been changed(image cult), and after 11 years of hearing immoralities from the “government” in turn, the majority of the people turn the other cheek.
Change will only come by necessity, the Venezuelan people have been corrupted with delusions and hate, and it does not take a majority to keep this regime going, the oil will keep that violent minority in power for years to come. The Stockholm Syndrome of the vast majority will perpetuate. And the hate and indoctrination that the revolution has been feeding the young minds will reap violence after Chavez is gone. The Chavismo is just the tip of the iceberg, it is just a reflection of the degeneration of society in Venezuela; and in the worlds public forums inundated by politicians, “diplomats”, “cultural leaders”,”artists”, defending the regime.
The disgust is unbearable; The expected perspective for the world today would be that for true diplomacy to prevail and grow in the world, or at least objective discourse. Now we see some country leaders cashing in on hate. How do we change the dangerous ignorance and apathy of the majority.
Its easy to hate the phrase “each country gets the leader they deserve”, but it speaks an awful truth that we must learn to assimilate.
We have delusional poets in power, like Correa, Evo, The Kirchners, Lula “and his lack of moral cojones”, and the rest of the gang. All willing to take a share of the pie that Venezuela is now. And we cant forget the Russians and the Chinese, now our new colonial overlords cashing in on the hate and the hazy consciousness of the Venezuelan people. A diestra y siniestra.
The Hope seems fleeting, when working socialist governments around the world, defend this seudo socialist governments just to save face.
Dirty Dirty extreme leftists, overlooked by the sane left, and i wont mention the other side of the mirror because, the little monster running around in Venezuela is a lefty.
The hot patato is being passed around.
May 15, 2010 at 1:06 pm
No importa porque ahora Hugo va a venderles a los venezolanos neveras chinas a la mitad del precio.
:-{
May 15, 2010 at 11:13 am
Miguel,
This whole system is opaque, so in the end we are really guessing.
But in the end, as you described in your comment to: “As Venezuelan economy unravels due to XXIst. Century Socialism, Chavez criticizes European capitalism”
on May 9 at 10:50pm:
“If the Government tries to control the swap rate today, shortages by August will be generalized and things will get worse.
It is not easy to impose controls on the swap rate: You need to change three laws to ban “permutas” , it will take legally a month to do so. During that month the swap rate would soar to 10-12 bolivars in my opinion.
If the Government wants to lower the rate, there is only one way: Provide more dollars to the swap market, there are ways of doing this. After all, the Government is the biggest provider of dollars to the swap market in a very non-transparent and corrupt way. Just that adds one or two Bolivars to the price.”
Miguel, Now look at what’s happened in the few days since and take them in the order 2) 1) 3)
2. Well! That question has been definitively answered. Miguel, you of all people should be aware that questions of legal process just aren’t an impediment to government action. They crack down and then adjust any necessary laws post facto.
1) Ok, now that the government has acted, if you are right (and you are) there will be generalized shortages in August and elections in September. Normally, that is not a sequence of events that governments chose. Usually governments exhaust their resources to make everything look good just before the election and then allow things to go to hell right after. So either there is really no choice or he’s hoarding everything for August and September (when he will also run the generators at full capacity).
3) Maybe the government just doesn’t have the cash flow to sell enough dollars to avoid a violent import contraction. Since the BCV hasn’t published the composition of its assets, we don’t know what it’s liquid forex assets are. If you believe what they do publish, there are $28 billion left and decline rate of almost $2 billion/month. As much as $17 or $18 billion could be gold and not all the remaining $10 billion may be useable (SDRs or maybe claims on the central banks of Nicaragua or Ecuador). That may leave as few as $6 or $7 billion to be used. So it’s quite possible, unless he want to begin a rapid and obvious liquidation of gold for all the world to know about – there is just not enough to prevent a major reduction in imports.
May 15, 2010 at 10:58 am
m_astera, the rig was drilling wells as part of the “Mariscal Sucre” project. The wells will supply PAGMI, “Planta de Acondicionamiento de Gas para el Mercado Interno”, on the Golfo de Paria. It will NOT send the gas directly to Margarita, but it’s possible that some of this gas will eventually be sent there.
May 15, 2010 at 10:02 am
This totalitarian government of an ex-country called Venezuela, did the most stupid move, again, closing the blogs (like bonosvenezuela.blogspot.com) used to calculate the very true value of the BF against the dollar and the euro.
Yes, finally they resolve the problem killing the messenger.
The people making these blogs used, real serious true mode to calculate the value of the BsF., they were using professional and sense in economics ways to calculate the real devaluation of the BsF. The blog reference above had an award in 2008 for blogs in the web.
It is evidently that with the control of the BCV now will be more difficult and illegal buy dollars in Venezuela, because only the politics and companies in line with the regime will have access to the close market of dollars in venezuela, in BCV’s control, and most of the dollar will go to clean the stolen money of the regime personal and associates, the close market will be a laundry market.
As always as stupid they are, they think that inflation, devaluation, malaria and Chagas decease are not the failure of an economic and political system in its path to nowhere, they think all are only speculations from speculators. This is trying to resolve problems by combating the shadows of the phantoms.
My question is for expatriate persons, to avoid legal regime persecution, is now: Where can be found a way or a place look for the future real value of the BsF?.
The answer is to have in the future some idea if the value in the future black market will be reasonable or will be “real speculation” originating now because the black market will be at the West Frontier of Ex-Venezuelan Society.
I forget from now on to buy dollars in regime’s interpretation legal ways.
May 15, 2010 at 8:05 am
Spain seems to be serious about an austerity plan. Merkel talks about Germany leading an effort to bring european budgets under control. The new British Government will slash spending. What if another european recession brings down oil price indexes to say 60$ a barrel?
For Venezuela this would be the best, as the economy of a country commanded by freaks like this this will crash with no matter what oil price. It would only accelerate the inevitable. At least more oil would be in the ground after Chávez.
May 14, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Pity you, true red “Revolutionary” believer today!
He or she must be annoyed, nay incensed, no frustrated over this fact of life:
Their subjects very much prefer the Empire’s currency, and thus consider the Empire, it’s capitalistic system and it’s way of handling the economy infinitely more trustworthy than anything the Revolution might come up with in the economic area.
Say it aloud.
Not that I agree with every economic measure taken by the Empire, but the Latin-American, and worse, the socialist brand of economic management make entering a Ponzi scheme late in the game look like a good move.
Think Castro when he learned that his subjects would actually risk punishment to have dollars.
May 14, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Venezuela is Crumbling
Economic misery in Hugo’s populist paradise.
BY Jaime Daremblum
May 14, 2010 12:00 AM
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Recent weeks have brought more depressing economic news from Venezuela, where populist leader Hugo Chávez seems intent on destroying not only democracy but also the last remaining vestiges of private enterprise.
On April 21, the Latin Business Chronicle predicted that Venezuela would post the world’s highest inflation rate in 2010, ahead of even the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.
On May 5, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean reported that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Venezuela dropped from $349 million in 2008 to negative $3.1 billion last year, “mainly as a result of nationalizations.” In other words, the Bolivarian Republic experienced a net FDI outflow of $3.1 billion in 2009.
On May 7, the Venezuelan central bank released data showing that consumer prices rose by 5.2 percent from March to April. As Bloomberg News noted, this represented the largest monthly increase since 2003. Meanwhile, the annual inflation rate hit nearly 32 percent.
On May 11, the Chávez-controlled National Assembly introduced legislation designed to clamp down on currency trading and strengthen the bolívar, Venezuela’s national monetary unit. “This is a very negative measure for the Venezuelan economy,” Barclays Capital economist Alejandro Grisanti told Dow Jones. “It will increase the pressure on prices and will deepen the contraction of the economy.” In January, Chávez devalued the bolívar in order to facilitate greater social spending. Since then, the currency has plummeted, making Venezuela’s already dire inflation problem even worse.
The Bolivarian Republic is gradually crumbling, and Chávez seems intent on speeding up the process. According to International Monetary Fund projections, Venezuela is the only major Latin American country that will experience an economic contraction in 2010. Inflation has reached staggering levels: As Bancaribe economist Adrian Aguirre told Bloomberg News after Venezuela’s central bank unveiled the April price data, “The fact that food prices rose by more than 11 percent is something we’ve never seen in the last decade.” Venezuelan importers are also grumbling about the new two-tiered exchange-rate regime, which was implemented as part of the devaluation back in January. The higher rate (4.3 bolívares per dollar) applies to “non-essential” imported goods. But the Associated Press reports that “the government has not distributed enough dollars at the official rate to satisfy demand, forcing close to half of Venezuela’s importers to buy much more expensive greenbacks on the black market.”
Venezuela’s economic misery has inflamed anti-Chávez sentiment and fueled large-scale protests. Ordinary Venezuelans are mad about food and water shortages, power outages, and surging crime rates. There are national legislative elections scheduled for September; unfortunately, many Venezuelans fear those elections will never take place. It’s possible that Chávez will manufacture a phony “security crisis” and suspend the voting indefinitely. It’s also possible that he will permit the elections to go forward but disqualify certain candidates from running or preemptively arrest them on trumped-up charges.
If the elections are canceled, the last remnants of Venezuelan democracy will collapse. Opponents of Chávez may eventually decide they have no peaceful choice. I sincerely hope this scenario does not come to pass. It is still possible that Chávez can be defeated at the ballot box—but only if he allows the elections to proceed. The Venezuelan strongman has been organizing regime-backed militias to subjugate the democratic opposition and protect his socialist revolution. In essence, he is creating his own version of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (who are committed to defending the theocratic dictatorship in Tehran).
Chávez’s paramilitary supporters effectively serve as a private government security force. They seek to intimidate the likes of former Venezuelan defense minister Raúl Baduel, who was recently sentenced to nearly eight years in prison. Baduel has been sitting in jail since 2009 as punishment for turning against the regime. Earlier this year, he published a letter with several other former Chávez loyalists calling on the Venezuelan president to resign. The letter condemned Chávez as “totalitarian” and argued that he “has neither moral nor material authority to rule the country, since he can not meet people’s demands satisfactorily.”
With inflation and crime spiraling out of control, more and more Venezuelans are coming to that conclusion. Rather than address their concerns, Chávez is building an enormous militia movement to squash the unrest. As the September election date draws closer, the paramilitaries will seek to terrorize opposition candidates and discourage them from campaigning. There is a very real threat of bloody street violence. Is the international community paying attention?
May 14, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Hugo is suddenly very nervous because he is running out of foreign currency. I made a conservative and simplified guess about Venezuela’s daily cashflow in USD. Can somebody add better data?
Barriles producidos promedio día……………………………… 2.500.000
(-) Barriles entregados Petrocaribe por día………………… (75.000)
(-) Fondo CHI-VEN y otros vendidos a futuro por día…… (50.000)
(-) Consumo interno por día…………………………………….. (900.000)
(=) Total barriles exportados por día………………………… 1.475.000
(x) Precio venezolana cesta promedio ($)………………….. 69,49
(=) Ingreso bruto de divisas por petróleo por día………… 102.497.750
(-) Traspasos a CADIVI por día…………………………………. (80.000.000)
(-) Necesidades Internas de PDVSA por día………………… (5.000.000)
(-) Traspasos al FONDEN por día……………………………….. (5.000.000)
(-) Traspasos al BCV por día…………………………………….. (5.000.000)
(=) Divisas disponible para otros usos……………………….. 7.497.750
May 14, 2010 at 11:33 am
It seems they’re going to sell dollars at a rate from 5,5 to 7. Wouldn’t now be a good time to abandon the stupid CADIVI-system? I mean: There’s very litte being exchanged at the other two official rates anyway and 7 is not that far from the parallell market anyway. They could implement the good old crawling peg, for example, and defend the bolivar at 7 (or 8).
May 14, 2010 at 10:17 am
Today I saw a caricature of Fonsesa today,
A poor person on his knees imploring to good:
My God!, why if you send a very bad government, didn’t you send a good opposition?
My question is:
What did we do to have these pests in Venezuela?
In other line, my best regards to KillChavez comments, one of the best of the blog.
Most of the comments I agree, but KillChavez is one of the newcomer that I more agree on, and I like his (her) name.
May 14, 2010 at 10:14 am
Floyd, give me one single example in the last 100 years where violence in the form of 2 has produced sustainable stability and peace.
We need to connect with the people who are living outside Caracas-Maracaibo-Valencia and give them an alternative. Then we can do what Poles and Czechs did.
Either that or we wait 60 years for this to end.
May 14, 2010 at 9:28 am
Dictatorships like this usually end in one of two ways, assuming they aren’t taken out or down by outside forces.
1. Gulags and firing squads. Remember Cuba went through this and they killed a lot of people who put up no fight.
2. Someone gets a lucky shot and ends the misery.
I do not think elections are going to solve the problem, I certainly would be happy to be wrong.
May 14, 2010 at 7:52 am
Casas de Bolsa do a limited range of business in Venezuela, not even all permutas used to go through them. The Caracas Stock Exchange is essentially dead, Chavez already killed it a few years ago. Thus, the only business left now that permutas are dead would be the sale of commercial paper, a minor one and the Bonos Cambiarios (or whatever it is the Central Bank will do now). Clearly Casas de Bolsa will not be invited to that business. Business in Venezuela is about reinventing yourself, we have done that four times in 18 years, we will do it again. In any case I dont think this regulated non-market in the BCV will last in any case.
May 14, 2010 at 7:32 am
Hugo is announcing he would close exchange houses and all…
I never thought we would be envying Chinese economic freedom, transparency and all the rest.
And Hugo says we are better off than Spain and Greece as the state rose minimum salaries.
The oppo has to do something about this! Is it so difficult? Perhaps they have run out of money, but if not, they should try to explain in very simple terms what inflation is in Venezuela and Spain and all the other main differences (go to bus stations, distribute flyers very fast, disappear)
May 14, 2010 at 6:25 am
“With Hugo, he seems to get as many strikes as he wants, he never really gets to ever strike out, even when he is always wrong.”
This suddenly reminded me of little kids’ baseball, when a handicapped kid gets a turn at bat. The pitcher moves up really close, tosses the ball real slowly, and there are no strikes at all – they throw as many pitches as it takes for the kid to hit one. Then when he does, the fielders move real slow, “accidentally” throw it over someone else’s head, and so on.
Probably a good metaphor for a Venezuelan cabinet meeting.
May 14, 2010 at 5:55 am
“Si hubiera que eliminar ese bojote de casas de bolsas, que se eliminen. Eso no le hace falta al país. No tengo problemas en eliminarlos, es una podredumbre”
So, Miguel, what are your plans for the future? It sure looks as if Chávez has gone into destruction overdrive mode. He must be destroying the economy on purpose. it’s very difficult to do this much destruction by accident.
May 13, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Who? Chavez______?
May 13, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Due to the use of foul language, you know who has been banned from this blog
May 13, 2010 at 6:59 pm
my mistake is: Jaua…
May 13, 2010 at 6:54 pm
I dare to imagine birdbrain Chavez’s discussing with his ministers about economics:
Birdbrain Chavez: Can anyone tell me the difference between GDP and a GPS?
Jahua: not sure, Nicolas Maduro!!! give me a hand!!
N. Maduro: GDP does not ring a bell, but GPS is the gadget we rented in Orlando Florida last summer; do you remember Jahua, when visiting SHAMU at Sea World?
Jahua; ohh yeah, kids were so happy; I also liked the dolphin’s show..
Birdbrain Chavez: Ajaaa!! So the GDP is used in the empire; Giordani, from now on it is prohibited the use of GDP inVenezuela.. to fight wild capitalism..
Giordani; Mr president; is not GDP , is GPS.
Birdbrain Chavez: don’t care much, prohibit both; “ por si aca´” Ok fellas, next subject to discuss: The US dollar…
May 13, 2010 at 3:35 pm
>>>Some say that the crisis could be a tipping point for the Euro as a European currency
It might have been but with the rescue of Greece (really the rescue of the German banks that hold the Greek debt) and now the rescue of the euro, the funny money is here to stay for some time.
May 13, 2010 at 3:24 pm
If I’m not mistaken, one of the actions against the ’empire’ was to only hold euros in Swiss accounts …
Assuming that this is true … these deposits have taken a significant hit
Do we know if it is true that US deposits were cashed in euros ?
What is the loss of value due to the Euro devaluation ?
Some say that the crisis could be a tipping point for the Euro as a European currency
May 13, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Was just reading about the gas drilling platform sinking. Wonder if that was supposed to be the fuel supply for the new electricity generators on Margarita.
May 13, 2010 at 3:01 pm
What exactly will they be doing with the new system? Is it just another exchange rate which will be, by definition almost, undersupplied and there will be a black market driven more underground and with consequently higher rates?
BTW, who was selling into the Permuta market anyways? I would think in Venezuela only PDVSA has dollars to sell.
May 13, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Miguel what a nice pic from EDO!!!! Congratulations to him and the students at the stadium.
BTW.. we may send a soccer version to the ECB board
May 13, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Miguel: By any rational count Esteban Chacumbele has struck out enough times to account for several no hits, no runs, no men on base games.
Pity it’s not baseball we’re talking about!
May 13, 2010 at 9:57 am
Unfortunately, Hugo swings and we strike out. That’s the nature of military dictatorships. A POX on all those who voted for Hugo hoping for a second Marcos Pérez Jiménez.
May 13, 2010 at 9:22 am
what morons….must be Bushes fault
http://www.eluniversal.com/2010/05/12/en_eco_art_pro-chavez-union-urg_12A3877407.shtml