Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Venezuela approves import of toilet paper

Life in a tin-pot dictatorship. It takes an act of "Congress" to get toilet paper on the store shelves.

The dictators - late and new - imposed price controls on basic needs; this resulted in no supply and shortages. So it takes an act by the National Assembly so toilet paper can be imported. And toothpaste. And soap. The abject failure of Hugo Chavez's strong-arm socialism. Hugo thought that whatever he commanded would happen. Funny thing - The law of supply and demand. If you lower the price then less will be produced (the supply), and shortages will results - always.

Merco Press

… Under late leader charismatic president Hugo Chavez, chronic shortages have in fact plagued the country since 2003.

It comes thus comes as no surprise then that the toilet paper shortage has ignited partisan tensions in Venezuela. In April, Chavez's chosen successor President Nicolas Maduro, narrowly defeated challenger Henrique Capriles. Scores of people died in the bitter election riots that followed.

The move to approve the shipment of 39 million toilet paper rolls to Venezuela probably won't solve any of the deeper issues that caused the shortage in the first place.

“The resulting scarcity forces up inflation defeating the entire purpose of price controls in the first place” said the organization Consensus Economics. But for now, at least locals can rest easy while they're on the pot.

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