Agarrate

Los grandes clásicos de populismo latinoamericano. Los venezolanos se deshacen de sus bolívares a toda velocidad, comprando dólares, autos, departamentos, whisky o champagne.

Insisto, Chávez debería recibir una especie de Nóbel de economía al revés. Hay que ser sinceramente un fuera de serie para fundir un país petrolero con los precios actuales de ese commodity:

Since 2003, Mr. Chavez has more than doubled government spending on free medical care, higher salaries, gasoline subsidies and other services. That created more demand for goods and services, which fueled inflation. In response, Mr. Chavez expanded price controls, which now cover meat, sugar, eggs, milk and other products. That led to food shortages as producers balked at selling their goods at the mandated prices. The shortages produced a black market, where prices have soared.

This mixture of food shortages, black markets and rising inflation is dejavu for the Venezuelans who have lived through three financial meltdowns since the 1980s. In the most recent, a collapse of a big bank helped bring on a currency crash and inflation that topped 100% in 1996. To protect themselves from a repeat, Venezuelans are trying to get their hands on dollars, further weakening the boli¬var.

"We all know what is coming, we just don't know when," says David Macedo, who drives a delivery truck that supplies small grocery stores. When he has a few boli¬vars saved, he says, he often goes to the Caracas airport to buy dollars from arriving tourists. He pays far more than the official rate of 2,150 boli¬vars per dollar, but less than the black-market rate, now about 4,800.

Wealthier Venezuelans have discovered they can use credit cards to exploit the difference between official and black-market currency rates. Some have flown to the nearby island of Aruba and bought $5,000 worth of gambling chips, the maximum overseas credit purchase allowed by the Venezuelan government, according to a person who arranges the trips. They cash in the chips for dollars, then, back at home, buy enough boli¬vars on the black market to pay off the credit-card debt, this person says. They pocket the rest -- around $2,300 at current rates, more than enough to pay for the trip.