Lights go out on Chavez

[Ragnar]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdLz6USAbc]YouTube - Lights go out on Chavez[/ame]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/americas/11venez.html

CARACAS, Venezuela — This country may be an energy colossus, with the largest conventional oil reserves outside the Middle East and one of the world’s mightiest hydroelectric systems, but that has not prevented it from enduring serious electricity and water shortages that seem only to be getting worse.

President Hugo Chávez has been facing a public outcry in recent weeks over power failures that, after six nationwide blackouts in the last two years, are cutting electricity for hours each day in rural areas and in industrial cities like Valencia and Ciudad Guayana. Now, water rationing has been introduced here in the capital.

The deterioration of services is perplexing to many here, especially because the country had grown used to cheap, plentiful electricity and water in recent decades. But even as the oil boom was enriching his government and Mr. Chávez asserted greater control over utilities and other industries in this decade, public services seemed only to decay, adding to residents’ frustrations.

Interior Minister Valdes goes to Venezuela to deal with power outages - why? - Cuba Politics News - Havana Journal

Outages dim Chavez's popularity - Los Angeles Times

Venezuela rejects Colombian energy offer _ even as it copes with power outages | Markets | Market News | Canadian Business Online

Widespread power outages in Venezuela - CNN.com

 

[Toro]

Price controls don't work.

 

[The T]

Price controls don't work.

That is the main premise. I agree. They don't, and what gets most economies in trouble. Especially one's like Chavez's that so many progressives in this country seem to hail.

We see the failures continue despite History's teachings of the past.

Failure is failure. You cannot improve upon it no matter how hard some in THIS government seem to think that you can.

How many more times must human kind be booted in the ass before they get it?

 

[California Girl]

Price controls don't work.

Neither does socialism.

 

[Tom Clancy]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Kzbo7tNLg]YouTube - King Juan Carlos to Chávez: "Shut up" (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)[/ame]

 

[midcan5]

I find economics so bizarre sometimes, it seems nothing works forever. Change, diversity, and pluralism are the essential pieces of a working economy. But Chavez may be the socialist Bush Jr? Another incompetent who can't see sticking to rigid formula doesn't work.


"Perhaps the most evident effect oil has had on Venezuela’s economy is the appearance of the “Dutch Disease.” This economic disease is caught whenever a commodity brings a sudden increase of income in one sector of the economy, which is not matched by increased income in other sectors of the economy." The Economics, Culture, and Politics of Oil in Venezuela | venezuelanalysis.com