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> inevitable outcome That's the problem here. You've decided the only way Venezuela can emerge through this is by collapse and rebirth. Pushing 31 million peo
by oliwarner 9y ago
> inevitable outcome
That's the problem here. You've decided the only way Venezuela can emerge through this is by collapse and rebirth.
Pushing 31 million people right to the brink and hoping they fall your way is far from inevitable.
It doesn't have to be that dramatic and painful.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago> You've decided the only way Venezuela can emerge through this is by collapse and rebirth No, I have not. There are three ways a sovereign can deal with its debt: taxation, inflation and default. Chavez nationalized everything he could. Maduro inflated away the locally-denominated debt [1]. Dollar-denominated debt is immune to Bolivar inflation, so what's left is further taxation or default. Maduro is choosing further taxation. ("Taxation" refers to the government's take rate of economic activity. Democracies publish tax rates. Dictatorships seize.) I'm arguing they should default. This would be good for Venezuela but bad for Maduro's regime, which appears to use dollar debt for patronage. [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Venezuela%27s_Annual_Inflation_Rates.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Venezuel...