Venezuela on the brink of complete economic collapse

Color me stunned: a nation that went so socialist that they nationalized just about everything is facing some economic issues. Their new “economic czar” believes that simply printing more money *doesn’t* result in inflation. Just… shocking.

What’s especially entertaining is that when the socialists took over the economy, Venezuelas oil reserves were a massive source of national income. Essentially free money. And what did the Chavez socialists do with this? Did they build up the national infrastructure and invite foreign investment? Did they make Venezuela an inviting place to do business? No… they did the bread and circuses thing with welfare spending. And while Venezuela had a whole bunch of the sort of poor people that American poor people only *think* they’re as poor as, the Venezuelan welfare state did squat to raise the poor out of poverty. By embracing the nationalization of foreign businesses, the socialists made sure that nobody would want to do business there.

Probably some lessons worth learning here.