******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
In the selection below, isn't the author conjoining several factors? Would we not agree?: 1) the exchange controls of 2003 were mainly imposed, as I understood it, to prevent the elites from looting the country, as they were doing; 2) but in addition, the policy sovereignty that is increased thanks to such controls can be absolutely vital, especially in times of financial meltdown (many countries learned this in 2008-09, even South Africa which had dismantled big chunks of controls but retained a 75% requirement on institutional investors' funds being located locally); 3) the oil price crashed ($148/barrel in 2008 at peak, then as low as $26/barrel in early 2016, though now around $60/barrel); 4) an accountable (or even competent) government would have ways of rationing access to hard currency in both good and bad times, which requires exchange controls. Whether you are a transitional-programme Marxist or a Keynesian Marxist, having exchange controls is absolutely vital, we'd all surely agree? Cheers, Patrick On 2019-02-06 10:42, jgreen--- via Marxism wrote: > ... > "Meanwhile, enormous amounts of money went into artificially keeping > Venezuela´s currency strong through strict exchange controls imposed in > 2003... currency controls did little more than fuel opportunities for > corruption as those with access to dollars sold them at black market rates. > Moreover, the oil boom simultaneously masked and fed corruption as dollars > were > plentiful. But when dollars became scarce as oil prices plummeted, the breach > no > longer held. > As authorities have stubbornly refused to lift controls - not for ideological > reasons but because so many officials are now wrapped up in the web of > corruption - black market demand for dollars to finance imports of everything > from food to medicine to replacement parts have depressed local currency and > driven inflation rates to upwards of 800 percent." > From "Explaining the Venezuelan Crisis", October 28, 2016 > https://nacla.org/news/2017/04/28/explaining-venezuelan-crisis > From "Explaining the Venezuelan Crisis", October 28, 2016 _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
