Venezuelan Escalates “War on Bread” As Food Shortages Continue to Plague a Hungry Population

 

This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge.

Editor’s Comment: In the great logic of governments, the Venezuelan dictator has essentially ordered an end to hunger by making a rule against food shortage. But no rule, no matter how strictly enforced, will work if there is no supply for the food. The shortages of imported food staples is the source problem here with the bread, not the conduct of the bakers, and yet they are facing new, and somewhat bizarre, implements as Maduro takes on the “economic war” against his country – paid for with the price of his people’s hunger.

This remains a desperate situation that is only getting worse, and remains a textbook reminder of why socialism, once the wealth has been stripped or used up, is ultimately doomed to fail.

As Venezuelan “Bread War” Escalates, Maduro Warns Bakers “You Will Pay, I Swear”

by Tyler Durden

With its people resorting to eating flamingoes, the Venezuelan government has decided to find yet another thing to blame for the collapse of the socialist utopia – the bakers!

As The BBC reports, the Venezuelan government says it will expropriate bakeries which fail to abide by new government regulations aimed at tackling bread shortages.

In a growing row between the government and bakers, officials said that bakeries could face fines if people had to queue to get their bread. Severe shortages of basic goods mean that Venezuelans often have to queue for hours to buy essential items.

The government says the shortages are caused by an “economic war”.

Venezuela does not produce wheat and relies on imports bought in by the government which it then sends to mills where it is ground and then distributed.

The government blames bakers for the bread shortages, accusing them of using the flour allocated to them to bake pastries rather than simple baguette-style bread in order to maximise their profits.

Croissants and other sweet baked goods are more expensive than baguettes and French-style breads, as the prices for the latter are controlled by the socialist government.

So the government has decided that more price controls will fix the problem and has unveiled new rules for bakers…

• Use 90% of flour to bake savoury bread and only 10% for pastries and cakes


• Provide a constant supply of bread throughout the day from 07:00 to 19:00


• Ensure next day’s supply by holding over bread from the previous day

And the rules will be strictly enforced…

On Sunday, President Nicolas Maduro announced that inspectors would be sent to 709 bakeries in the capital, Caracas, to ensure they were complying with the new rules.

He said that those “speculators who hide the bread from the people will face the weight of the law”.

“They’re going to pay, I swear. Those responsible for the bread war are going to pay and they better not complain that it was a political persecution,” he added.

Vice-President Tareck El Aissami warned that “bakeries which do not follow [the rules] will be occupied by the government”.

As The Miami Herald notes, two bakeries were already seized for 90 days for breaking a number of rules, including selling overpriced bread.

Juan Crespo, the president of the Industrial Flour Union called Sintra-Harina, which represents 9,000 bakeries nationwide, said the government’s heavy hand isn’t going to solve the problem. “The government isn’t importing enough wheat,” he said. “If you don’t have wheat, you don’t have flour, and if you don’t have flour, you don’t have bread.” He said the country needs four, 30-ton boats of wheat every month to cover basic demand.

The notion that bread could become an issue in Venezuela is yet another indictment of a socialist economic system gone bust.

This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge.

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“Hold Gold”: Why This Country Wants Its People to Buy Gold

This article was written by Shaun Bradley and originally published at The Anti-Media.org.

Editor’s Comment: Important things are happening on the global stage with regard to the money system. It is a long game, and will take many years to fully play out. But one of those important developments involves the feverish return to gold holdings in both China and Russia, and many individuals in these societies, in India and other burgeoning world powers are also investing in gold.

The reason? There is a power play in the works, and there is every possibility that the central banks around the world could drive the fiat currencies into the ground. The U.S. petrodollar could well lose its global reserve status – indeed, there may be nothing to stop it. As that happens, people around the world are looking to stability, privacy and security in their monetary assets. This is even true in less developed, and little talked about places like Kyrgyzstan, mentioned in this article, were antiquated stores of wealth, like cattle, are still king. But with capricious times ahead, and neighboring Asian powers like China grounding themselves, the government is urging its people to get ready.

Are you ready?

One Country’s Central Bank Is Urging Its 6 Million Citizens To Buy Gold

by Shaun Bradley

The central bank of Kyrgyzstan is encouraging its six million citizens to each own at least 3.5 oz (100 grams) of physical gold. The precious metal is the nation’s leading export but, surprisingly, the people there invest most of their money in cattle. The country’s location on China’s border seems to be playing a significant role in its choice to shift away from their traditional form of investment. A growing trend across Asia has been an increasing demand for physical metals by private and institutional investors. The Chinese and Russian governments are leading the world in their efforts to stockpile gold, and in turn, they have been fueling speculation about its importance in the future of international finance.

Countries like India have seen internal turmoil as their traditions of owning precious metals confront the government’s new war on cash. The Indian people are the world’s largest buyers of gold, and the measures taken to eliminate cash transactions have only emboldened black markets to meet demand. As authorities crack down on paper money, gold remains one of the last physical and untraceable assets available. The current uncertainty in the banking system has increased demand for more direct control over one’s savings.

The key to any prosperous economic system is stable money, and without a reliable currency, the public’s confidence can easily be broken. As the world reserve currency, faith in the U.S. dollar must be contemplated on a global scale. Despite what appears to be a recovered economy, the United States is resting on an eroded foundation that only deteriorates more by the day. The government’s response to the 2008 crisis has significantly undermined international support for the U.S. dollar. By printing trillions of dollars through quantitative easing and by keeping interest rates artificially low for nearly a decade, the Federal Reserve has destroyed its own credibility.

Since WWII, the United States has lived in a bubble, benefiting as gold holdings from around the world were stored in the Federal Reserve system. This vast wealth provided America the leverage it needed to influence the world stage for over half a century, but that age seems to be coming to an end. Germany has already repatriated a large portion of their gold holdings from American central banks, and several other countries are expressing the desire to do the same. As the U.S. has declined from the world’s leading creditor to history’s greatest debtor, the pendulum of power is swinging back towards those who have secured tangible wealth. Countries that position themselves correctly can protect their standard of living and purchasing power, while those who trust in central planning will see their quality of life slowly diminish.

The general perception of gold has changed radically over the 20th century, and a lot can be learned by listening to the voices of the past. Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was one of the most influential men in finance for decades. He said the following back in 1966:

Under a gold standard, the amount of credit that an economy can support is determined by the economy’s tangible assets, since every credit instrument is ultimately a claim on some tangible asset.…The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit.

The societies that recognize the danger of abandoning gold as a benchmark for currencies have typically witnessed firsthand the devastating toll that fiat money and inflation can have on the general public. The historic collapses of empires and monetary systems have firmly embedded the understanding of precious metals as insurance into these populations. Although the governments of these nations may be corrupt and immoral in their own right, at least they’re encouraging their citizens to start protecting themselves. Collateral damage to wealth during times of currency devaluations, tariffs, and trade wars is inevitable, but those who remain ignorant of the underlying causes are doomed to bear the full burden of the fallout.

Hopefully, more nations will follow Kyrgyzstan in giving their citizens the information they need to make better decisions. Unfortunately, the West is likely to keep encouraging people to pour money into in the stock market, government bonds, mortgages, and auto loans. A hard lesson will be learned when the results of this grand central banking experiment come to pass. Individuals and governments who are proactive and go against the tide now will reap the benefits down the line. Short-term thinking won’t work in this new financial paradigm, and growing wealth under these conditions could become extremely difficult.

This article was written by Shaun Bradley and originally published at The Anti-Media.org.

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Author: Shaun Bradley
Views: Read by 2 people
Date: February 22nd, 2017
Website: http://theantimedia.org/central-bank-buy-gold/

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