Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): The National Assembly (AN) abandoned its pre-set agenda and turned its attention to the scourge of shortages afflicting the country amid continued argument about the causes of the problem and how it could be resolved.
Legislators kicked off their debate with a string of reports from the regions on the situation there. A representative from Amazonas emphasized the difficulties of transporting food in that region. Others spoke of speculators and hoarders, whom President Hugo Chávez sees as the villains of the piece.
On the sidelines, AN Deputy José Albornoz, second vice president of the legislature, met with Miguel Pérez Abad, the head of Fedeindustria, which represents manufacturing companies, many in food processing.
Albornoz said he wanted a joint approach by the government and the business community against wrongdoers in the supply chain. The government had several proposals to put to business leaders, he added.
"We want to see how private banks can activate credits because financing is the determinant for some things that we can resolve in the short term," he continued, without going into detail. "In this sense, this is the support of parliament."
For his part, Pérez Abad said enforced inspection of trucks carrying food didn't help solve shortages. The only way to combat shortages and speculation was to adjust government-controlled prices and make it easier for importers -- which in turn implied relaxing controls on hard currency as well.
The shortages, Pérez Abad continued in a by now familiar message from entrepreneurs, were "stimulated by price controls that are not in line with reality." Were they changed, speculation and smuggling would not happen, he claimed.
As to the president's threat to take over large companies, Pérez Abad insisted most of them were working "in an adequate manner" and such warnings should be aimed at "a minority of pseudo-entrepreneurs who are speculators."
The doyen of Venezuelan economists, former central bank director Domingo Maza Zavala, unsurprisingly had his say. And, as usual, he put his finger on the pulse of the problem in an exposition of classic economics.
It was not easy listening for anyone hoping for quick solutions. Shortages, he argued, were the result neither of seasonal factors nor speculators but of a "structural" problem that was "not going to be corrected in the short term." Domestic producers couldn't meet rising demand from a population with bigger incomes, and solving that would not be automatic.
As to claims about speculators and the media creating shortages and boosting inflation, Maza Zavala dismissed them outright. The government had the means to monitor the level of shortages and the distribution of products, he said.
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So what's the bolivarian "socialist" government going to do, then? Listen to the businessmen -- who have less than zero interest in socialism -- or listen to the campesinos, and the workers in the barrios?
ReplyDeleteDon't let these speculators off the hook. Where a company hoards and speculates at the expense of the people -- nationalize them. Start with the big ones. There are plenty of people -- including probably most of these businessmen's employees -- who can run these enterprises in a socialist and responsible manner. The oligarchy's economic excuses are only so many greedy lies. They are not in the least interested in building a new, socialist Venezuela. The consejos should be organized to see to it that all corruption in their area is identified and dealt with -- as with all other crime.
If these forces are not dealt with, their sabotage will only get worse. There's a plan to destabilize Venezuela, understand. Guess who's running it?