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Venezuela Faces Shortages in Grocery Staples

Venezuela Faces Shortages in Grocery Staples

By 6:30 a.m., a full hour and a half before the store would open, about two dozen people were already in line. They waited patiently, not for the latest iPhone, but for something far more basic: groceries. “Whatever I can get,” said Katherine Huga, 23, a mother of two, describing her shopping list. She gave a shrug of resignation. “You buy what they have.” Venezuela is one of the world’s top oil producers at a time of soaring energy prices, yet shortages of staples like milk, meat and toilet paper are a chronic part of life here, often turning grocery shopping into a hit or miss proposition.

If the economy is this messed up with oil at historic highs, what happens if oil drop by 10% or 20%? Price controls don’t work. As far as I can tell, Chávez’s has turned to really radical and awful price controls to reign in inflation. They should be raising interest rates to control inflation and opening up to free trade.

Robert Reich: Why Anyone Should Care that Bill O’Reilly Calls Me A Communist

Robert Reich: Why Anyone Should Care that Bill O’Reilly Calls Me A Communist

robertreich:

Bill O’Reilly, the tumescent personality of Fox News, said on his Friday show “Robert Reich is a communist who secretly adores Karl Marx.” (This came after Fox News’ Neil Cavoto called me a “sanctimonious twit” for suggesting the rich should pay more in taxes.)

O’Reilly’s accusation is odd, to…

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Britain is officially in double-dip recession, and has achieved the remarkable feat of doing worse this time around than it did in the 1930s. Cameron’s Remarkable Achievement – NYTimes.com The first rule of austerity club is that you don’t talk about anything except austerity.

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If public employment had grown the way it did under Bush, we’d have 1.3 million more government workers, and probably an unemployment rate of 7 percent or less. (via American Austerity – NYTimes.com)

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being a right-wing ideologue and a spineless flip-flopper don’t have to be mutually exclusive conditions. And in Romney’s case, they probably aren’t. The Romney paradox, explained – War Room – Salon.com

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Mr. Romney constantly talks about job losses under Mr. Obama. Yet all of the net job loss took place in the first few months of 2009, that is, before any of the new administration’s policies had time to take effect. So the Ohio speech was a perfect illustration of the way the Romney campaign is… Continue reading Untitled

Robert Reich: The Significance of Citigroup’s Shareholder Revolt

Robert Reich: The Significance of Citigroup’s Shareholder Revolt

robertreich:

The shareholders of Wall Street giant Citigroup are out to prove that corporate democracy isn’t an oxymoron. They’ve said no to the exorbitant $15 million pay package of Citi’s CEO Vikram Pandit, as well as to the giant pay packages of Citi’s four other top executives.

The vote, at Citigroup’s annual meeting in Dallas Tuesday, isn’t binding on Citigroup. But it’s a warning shot across the bow of every corporate boardroom in America.

Shareholders aren’t happy about executive pay.

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Europe has had several years of experience with harsh austerity programs, and the results are exactly what students of history told you would happen: such programs push depressed economies even deeper into depression. And because investors look at the state of a nation’s economy when assessing its ability to repay debt, austerity programs haven’t even… Continue reading Untitled