Planekonomins misslyckande, igen

International Herald Tribune skriver om Iran och Venezuela, 82:a respektive 135:a (av 141 länder), på listan över världens mest ofria ekonomier (pdf, sid 138 - via Munkhammar):

Inflation:
"Rents are soaring, inflation has been hovering around 17 percent and 10 million Iranians live below the poverty line."

"Annual inflation has risen to 16 percent, the highest in Latin America, as Chávez tripled government spending in four years."

Resultat av prisreform:
"One of [Ahmadinejad's] first edicts was to order banks to lower interest rates to 12 percent, from as high as 17 percent. The order, like others, backfired, making loans harder to come by."

"Contreras called the government-set prices on many products "fantasy prices" that are below production costs. Milk, chicken, coffee and flour have disappeared from store shelves in Caracas at times this year.

In another case, Ahmadinejad decided that the price of cement was too high, so he ordered it reduced. Rashadi, the economist, said the decree frightened away investors who had planned to build new cement factories around the country."

Självsynen hos ledaren:
"There is an honorable butcher in our neighborhood who is aware of all the problems of the people," Ahmadinejad said, "and I also get important economic information from him."

"'It's like our director of marketing, our director of sales, our director of manufacturing is President Chávez,' said Edgar Contreras, who runs international operations at Molinos Nacionales, a Caracas-based food manufacturer that employs 1,500 people. 'We can't go on like this.'"

Bonus på samma ämne:
Göran Persson: "Jag kan gå Drottninggatan fram och läsa av opinionen på en halv procent när."

Vill man läsa vad Aftonbladet har att säga om Chávez finns det en krönika av John Pilger här och en av Åsa Linderborg här.

Och här är en Chávez-vänlig film (81 minuter) om vad som hände när han avsattes och tog tillbaka makten: