Galt's Gulch

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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 1 month ago
    Thanks for the Venezuela update, sender47. My university, Florida Tech, has about 40-50 students from Venezuela. They are quite talented and no desire to return, but many of them depend on scholarships that will run out in December because of Maduro's "changes".
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  • Posted by UncommonSense 10 years, 1 month ago
    Hmmm. Something just doesn't add up here. According the BS Marxist theory of communism: the "downtrodden" masses are supposedly represented by the "man of the People" ~ Maduro.

    Yet, as the Truth is revealed, (actions do speak louder than words), Maduro IS the ESTABLISHMENT because if he really was a man of "the people", he'd have the common sense to know better than to interfere with the commerce of goods & services of the very people he supposedly is from.

    Instead, he uses his awesome power of Da State to shut down any business not politically tied to the HIS minions. So much for 'the little guy', 'the people'. Shouldn't Venezuala (sp?) be a classless society by now? Isn't he supposed to just "wither away" just like Carlos Markos said would happen? Gee, I wonder what excuse they would have about that.

    The chilling thing I predict is; the situation described in the article is what I expect to see commonplace across the U.S. in about 15-20 years. With any luck, I'll have slipped out beyond the barbed wire of the U.S. by then and will be somehow making a meager living doing who knows what, but at least I'll have some measure of freedom. Otherwise, I'd rather be dead. Just my .02.
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    • Posted by edweaver 10 years, 1 month ago
      You really think we can last another 15-20 years?
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      • Posted by UncommonSense 10 years, 1 month ago
        IMO, it won't be the country we grew up in. It will be hardly recognizable culturally, politically & economically. If you're well educated about the life of the average East German during the Cold War, then you'll have a leg up on most of the poor Americans that have no idea whats coming.

        I recently bought two books because I firmly believe (connecting the dots) that's where we're headed: Stasi, by John O. Koehler and Stasiland, by Anna Funder.
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  • Posted by sender47 10 years, 1 month ago
    I have friends doing courses in Europe. As the euros (any currency) can only be bought through the gov, and it is just stopping the sell, well they cannot pay their courses... or food
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    • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 1 month ago
      "As the euros (any currency) can only be bought through the gov"
      I've never had a situation where I wanted to buy or sell something but I couldn't because I and the other party couldn't get our money changed.
      I just bought Pounds this morning at MoneyCorp. It's always easy.
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      • Posted by sender47 10 years, 1 month ago
        And add to that that we are only allowed a fixed amount to buy, 300 USD per year via electronic payment and depending of the destination and duration of the travel up to 2500 per year. In any case you always need a credit card.

        And that is also politically influenced, to Cuba more tha 7 days you can apply for 2500, to Miami 700 USD. And when you get back you can be called to revision, so have to conserve all receipts.

        You can try to apply to the black market where at the moment the price is around 120 VEF per USD, but if they catch you, well... jail it is
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        • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 1 month ago
          "And add to that that we are only allowed a fixed amount to buy, 300 USD per year via electronic payment and depending of the destination and duration of the travel up to 2500 per year. In any case you always need a credit card. "
          I don't think I'm unwittingly breaking any laws. I walk up to counter without showing my passport, other ID, or credit card, hand them $1000 USD, and they give me foreign currency. I have done this many times.
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          • Posted by sender47 10 years, 1 month ago
            Sorry if I made think I was talking about any European or the US gov, I was talking about my country, Venezuelan gov.

            My friends are doing courses in Europe, mainly in Spain, but of course all their money an their family's is in VEF. They apply to study abroad, and for that the Venezuelan gov must allow them to buy foreign currency as the cannot go to exchange house in the country they are, because VEF aren't accepted.
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          • Posted by sender47 10 years, 1 month ago
            The same was done her, went to the bank or an exchange house hand VEF recieve whatever you want, until... 2003 more or less, when CADIVI (Commission for the Administration of Currency Exchange) was set and everything went through the gov. In 2007 exchange houses where deemed illegal And the same to any brokerage that worked in international markets in 2009.

            I'm referring to Venezuelan gov, and the possibility of exchange our currency, Bolivares (VEF), into any currency, Outside Venezuela there is no exchange house that accepts VEF, the only way to convert our currency into Euros, USD or pounds is through Venezuelan government and CADIVI, now called CENCOEX
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            • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 1 month ago
              Oh, I see. Yes. Venezuela sounds like a complete mess. I have never travelled there, but I had a client who really wanted to do business there but said they wouldn't b/c of political concerns. They wanted a partner there to navigate the local corruption and baloney. That resulted it in not making sense, at that time (2007) to sell there. It sounds even more messed up now.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 1 month ago
    It sounds like their gov't wants to deny the fact that price ceilings/floors create supplus demand/supply. Their gov't's answer is to ration the goods, i.e. get rid of the surplus demand by limiting what people can buy.

    It sounds like the ave person sees right through it: "So what it costs twice as much as the price ceiling. At least I can get it. I can always go do work, presuming you have put a ceiling on whatever I do for a living, to get money to buy the expensive thing I want."

    That gov't is in trouble.
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