The Bolívar Fuerte/Soberano/X: A Mosquito-Killer Currency
Greetings, everyone
I made a video this time to show you how crazy things are in Venezuela when it comes to monetary policy and pest control. You don’t see the connection? Watch the video!
You should check this post from 8 months ago first:
https://steemit.com/ulog/@hlezama/ulog-020-or-sovereign-or-soverass
Erratum: In the video I say that you would need 50 2-Bs bills to pay for a photocopy. It is actually 100 (in the cheapest places a photocopy is 200BS). The cheapest item, a simple home-made candy (chupón) costs 300 Bs (imagine how impractical it can be to pay that amount with 2s or 5s, let alone to pay for a kilo of rice, sugar or a liter of oil, which prices go anywhere between 5,000 and 14,000 Bs). Keep in mind that public markets in Venezuela are places where 90% of transactions are done in cash, so are 100% of those involving street vendors (Buhoneros).
Devolution of Venezuela’s currency
Originally introduced in 1879 during Antonio Guzmán Blanco’s second presidency, the Bolivar was until 1983 (Black Friday, under Luís Herrera Campins’ presidency) one of the strongest currency in Latin America and the world. Imagine how fancy our currency was that from 1887 to 1930 Venezuela had gold coins as legal tender. I remember my mother telling me stories of the Morocotas (5-Bs gold coins) she had in a jar and which my father squandered gambling. Until the 1970s we still used silver coins. I remember using them and also remember when they were collected out of circulation. I regret I did not save some for the future. They’d be worth something today, plus the collector’s value.
Those were the times when the Gringos owned Venezuela, according to the socialism/communism apologists. Those were the times when we did not have economic, political or cultural autonomy. I don’t know about you, but I have no problem going back to those times. We never lack food, a housewife and a national guard could raise 8 children and send them to college (if they chose to), people did not die of curable diseases, we did not see people eating from garbage, and far from leaving the country we were receiving people from all over the world.
By 1934 to exchange rate was 3.914 Bs per $
By 1983 it had increased barely to 4.30. From then on we were an economic mess.
Today the exchange rate is about 3,900 Bs per $ (it increases every single day).
Note: those three thousand plus are actually 390,000,000,000 Bs PER 1$
What did the revolution do for our economic stability and sovereignty? What did they do for our cultural and technological development?
Revealing numbers:
From Bs to BF: 130 YEARS
From BF to BS: 10 years
From BS to BX: ?
Make your bets!
Our currency may not be strong enough to kill a fly, but mosquitoes, it can surely fight!
Thanks for your visit.
Greetings @hlezama
We are living the result of policies applied from a criterion of social resentment. Chavez sought the support of the "people", and the people gave him support. Now you touch us to finish learning the lesson; "Wealth without studies is poverty for many" The true wealth will be developed when qualified professionals, with clear objectives, strict controls, and strategic plan are implemented.I absolutely agree with you.
They took advantage of centuries of social inequality, which ironically has not always been caused by the so called oligarchs (at least not the ones we associate with foreign powers).
A couple of days ago, I delivered a talk to some 6 graders about the Federal War (1859-1863) and the irony of that episode, which is somehow repeating itself now, is that the Federals, the winners of that war, the defenders of the poor and invalid, were the ones who ended up creating the most shameless chain of oligarchic rulers, like Antonio Guzmán Blanco himself.
All these caudillos were megalomaniacs, corrupt, and ruthless. They were all untrustworthy and they did not trust anyone. They could not care less about the country and their dispossessed. They only cared about getting rid of their enemies (real and imagined), their accumulation of obscene fortunes, and their attachments to power.
For as long as we have this caudillo mentality in our politicians, whether they are back or white, college educated or functional illiterates, we'll have the same self-destructive pattern for a country.
Ironically, the USA also fought their Civil War around the same period (1861-1865) and we couldn't have more different outcomes.
Professor @hlezama
There is a theory that raises, that approximately every 70 years the stories are repeated. If we analyze the evolution of civilization, each cycle of 70 years presents representative and similar historical moments. It will be that in the passing of time in the cycle of 70 years we forget the experience and we make the same mistakes again. If the above is validated, why do not we learn from history, why do we make the same mistakes again?That is the million-dollar question, my friend.