Posted on 10/22/2021 10:15:40 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
"To fathom the magnitude of Venezuela’s financial collapse, travel southeast from Caracas, past the oil fields and over the Orinoco River, and head deep into the savanna that blankets one of the remotest corners of the country.
There, in the barber shops and restaurants and hotels that constitute the main strip of one dusty little outpost after another, you’ll find prices displayed in grams of gold.
A one-night stay at a hotel? That’ll be half a gram. Lunch for two at a Chinese restaurant? A quarter of a gram. A haircut? An eighth of a gram, please. Jorge Pena, 20, figured that eighth came to three small flakes — the equivalent of $5. After getting a trim one recent weekday in the town of Tumeremo, he handed them over to his barber, who, satisfied with Pena’s calculation, quickly pocketed them. “You can pay for everything with gold,” Pena says.
How can authenticity and weight possibly be determined with a mere glance from someone untrained in the ways of mineralogy? Gold experts, though, back what the locals say: You just get a feel for it over time.
The use of gold is slowly expanding into nearby cities, including Ciudad Bolivar, the state capital nestled along the banks of the Orinoco. Miners regularly travel there to sell their bullion when they want to cash out, and stores in shopping malls exchange it for dollars.
[LOTS more at linky]
If you would like to be on the FR Gold & Silver PING LIST, please pm me.
The Gold & Silver Ping List covers the following:
Everything Gold & Silver
Stock market investments in mining companies,
etc.
Coming to a diner near you.
Especially interesting in how many on FR have argued that gold coins, etc. are too valuable to pay for small things.
What are they using to determine if gold is real?
Dave Ramsey always said “you cant eat gold”. I always replied to the radio. I cant eat cash or my checkbook either!
Where the heck are they getting the gold? Are they all mining for it?
Portable smelters?
Wow - not even the Tribulation yet but Larry Norman’s song from the ‘70’s “I wish we’d all been ready” had a refrain “a piece of bread would buy a bag of gold... I wish we’d all been ready. Life was filled with guns and wars and everyone got trampled on the floor..”
They make bullion sheets that cleanly break off like old postage stamps.
As convenient as cash in such a situation
Illegal gold mines in the mountains
All of the people that think Socialism is great ought to spend a week in Venezuela. Of course, like all other Socialists before, we are so much smarter we will make it work this time. If they get their wish, I should invest my life savings in the coffin industry ... terrific growth industry.
Gold wire would be a great medium in this type of environment.
And always will.........................
People that think Socialism is great spend are more likely to spend that week in the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard.
Well, you can scrape it off of computer motherboards or inkjet connections.
Good, all the American economic crash wet-dreamers can move there and be happy.
Very prophetic, wasn’t it?
I’d shave my head. No need for a haircut paid for in gold!
yes it was.
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