January 18, 2008, 8:27 am
From Venezuela: (via Mises)
Venezuela launched a new currency with the new year, lopping off three
zeros from denominations in a bid to simplify finances and boost
confidence in a money that has been losing value due to high inflation....
"We're ending a historical cycle of ... instability in prices,"
Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas said Monday, adding that the change
aims to "recover a bolivar that has significant buying capacity."
Prices have risen as Chavez has pumped increased amounts of the
country's oil income into social programs, reinforcing his support
among the poor and helping to drive 8.4 percent economic growth in 2007.
The Central Bank is promoting the new monetary unit with an ad
campaign and the slogan: "A strong economy, a strong bolivar, a strong
country." Officials, however, have yet to clearly spell out their
anti-inflationary measures.
Good to see the government taking meaningful steps. Next up will be "Whip Inflation Now" buttons.
The 8.4 percent growth cited above may be illusory, given this:
Venezuela has had a fixed exchange rate since February 2003, when
Chavez imposed currency and price controls. The government has said it
is not considering a devaluation any time soon.
But while the strong bolivar's official exchange rate will be fixed
as 2.15 to $1, the black market rate has hovered around the equivalent
of 5.60 to $1 recently.
January 16, 2008, 8:57 am
OK, the comment thread in my post on Romney evolved into a good discussion on health care, but I did not get a very good answer on how Romney supporters could possibly consider him the inheritor of the Reagan small-government legacy. Apparently, I am not the only one confused on this, as both Michael Tanner and Jerry Taylor chime in with the same question.
What does it say about the Republican Party when the leading fusionist conservative in the field - Mitt Romney, darling of National Review and erstwhile heir to Ronald Reagan -
runs and wins a campaign arguing that the federal government is
responsible for all of the ills facing the U.S. auto industry, that the
taxpayer should pony up the corporate welfare checks going to Detroit
and increase them by a factor of five, that the federal
government can and should move heaven and earth to save "every job" at
risk in this economy, and that economic recovery is best achieved by a
sit-down involving auto industry CEOs, labor bosses, and government
agents armed with Harvard MBAs to produce a well-coordinated strategic
economic plan? That is, what explains the emergence of economic fascism
(in a non-pejorative sense) in the Grand Old Party at the expense of
free market capitalism?
Unfortunately, 1970-style Nixonian Republicans are back in force. Can "Whip Inflation Now" buttons be far behind?
Update: Apparently William F. Buckley is happily returning to the 70's as well.
