Posted on 05/01/2016 6:12:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Venezuela's largest privately-owned beer company has stopped producing beer after running out of malted barley (or, more specifically, running out of foreign currency with which to buy malted barley).
The company, Empresas Polar, stopped production yesterday—it warned last week that it would run out of malted barley by then.
Polar is putting "your drunk uncle's favorite political forecast to the test," Francisco Toro of the Caracas Chronicles wrote. "You know the one I'm talking about, right? That one uncle of yours who gets drunk at every family gathering and starts to rant about how the only way we're going to get people mad enough to take to the streets and overthrow the government is if the beer runs out? Well, here you have it Tio."
Polar says it's been warning the country for a year about the need for sufficient access to foreign currency "to keep making products demanded by Venezuelans."
Beer now joins a long list of products and food that there have been shortages of in socialist Venezuela since the price of oil went down and the country's government did nothing to loosen its grip on the economy.
In Venezuela, there have been shortages of: Batteries, beef, birth control pills, bleach, brass, bread, breast implants, butter, cheese, chicken, chocolate, clothes iron, coffee, coffins, condensed milk, condoms, corn oil, deodorant, detergents, diapers, eggs, fabric softeners, fish, flour, French fries, fruits, gauze, hops, ice cream, insecticide, jams, juice, lentils, margarine, Marie biscuits, makeup, mayonnaise, medical gloves, milk, mouthwash, mustard, napkins, oatmeal, olives, pan de jamón, pasta, peas, pork, powdered milk, raisins, razors, rice, sanitary napkins, sacramental bread, sardines, satin, shampoo, shoes, skim milk, soap, sodas, sugar, sunflower oil, tires, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, varnish, vegetables, water, wine, and more.
No ham bread, either
Wow. No beer, birth control pills, breast implants, or make-up. Sounds like Iraq.
I wonder if they are working hard on the guillotine shortage?
Not good. Alcohol seems to be one of the things that helps ease the pain of socialism. Wonder how long the USSR would have lasted without Vodka?
Time for some pruno.
They should all steal boats and go to the Socialist Island Paradise of Cuber as “immigrants”.
There isn't anything Socialism can't destroy.
it’s not a real crisis until bankers’ bonuses are negatively impacted
Can those living on the border with other countries go across to buy needed stuff? Is Venezuelan money good outside? When do the riots start? In earnest?
Too bad Venezuela doesn’t have any natural resources, such as oil. /sarcasm.
Wow, things are really getting serious.
Food, electricity, who cares, but beer?
There will be revolution!
Send them ecstasy pills. They are in a socialist paradise.
There aren’t a lot of posts coming from the blogger I read, Daniel Duquenal.
Its a struggle for daily existence now with the opposition in control of the legislature passing all kinds of bills against the regime.
President Maduro can’t veto their bills, but the top court he’s packed can shoot down the bills as they come out of the legislature.
Its a political standoff where the regime knows it hangs by a thread.
But the people suffer more and more each day.
Things get worse for the people on the streets, but I guess if the people who have the guns get taken care of, the regime stays in.
No worry.... Everyone is equal now.
Better yet send our welfare recipients there. Their money will be big bucks. Just can’t buy anything. Return and get cut off.
I guess every cloud has a silver lining.
So, wouldn’t the shortage of soap, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and toilet paper remedy the shortage of birth control pills and condoms?
OK...PANIC!
(Airplane reference)
Venezuela has run out of currency paper and cannot afford to buy new stocks for the Bolivar. As one news source put it, "...the Bolivar is not worth a paper napkin...."
So a poor Venezuelan trying to cross the border with his wheelbarrow full of worthless Bolivars is caught on the horns of a dilemma: If caught by the Venzuelan border guards he is open to charges of smuggling valuable toilet paper out of the country, if he succeeds in the crossing, he finds the Bolivar is worth less than Brazilian or Colombian toilet paper.
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