Posted on 05/16/2013 6:11:14 AM PDT by grundle
First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities – toilet paper.
Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the government says it will import 50m rolls to boost supplies.
One supermarket visited by the Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday was out of toilet paper. Another had just received a fresh batch, and it quickly filled up with shoppers as the word spread.
"I've been looking for it for two weeks," said Cristina Ramos. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in line."
Economists say Venezuela's shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.
"State-controlled prices – prices that are set below market-clearing price – always result in shortages. The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union," said Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.
President Nicolás Maduro, who was selected by the dying Hugo Chávez to carry on his "Bolivarian revolution", claims that anti-government forces, including the private sector, are causing the shortages in an effort to destabilise the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
They smoke the leaves.
You're so right. By the way, how many sheets ARE THERE in a koran?
You forgot Crowe’s cohort, Laurie David.
Zimbabwe, about 10 years ago, didn't have the hard currency to buy paper and ink to print currency.
Does this mean that many Venezuelans are full of s***?
Mark Steyn, subbing for Limbaugh about a year ago, mentioned something about the moonbat crowd trying to get the importation of logs from Canada banned for the manufacture of TP.
You’re tellin’ me! They stink on ice.
Thanks for mentioning that.
Pink TP for celebs, one-square-per for the rest of us... isn’t totalitarianism just great!?
Telephone books still work well. Same for newspapers.
Did they use all theirs up trying to flush Chavez?
Wasn’t that long ago when the old USSR had constant tp shortages. People found that PRAVDA worked fairly well as a substitute.
Yet another wonderful aspect of the sort of state socialism Obama has planned for us all.
Maybe they should hire Sheryl Crow as a consultant.
They want to keep their Caracas clean.
Oops! You forgot to use the politically correct... 
one!
You are truly an arteest!
Well worth my time to see that greatness in person, May 1980.
Those are big rolls. The average tp roll is about 70ft. A 30m roll would be about 165ft. They will probably have to buy new dispensers.
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