This Is The New Normal For Venezuela

Mac Margolis, Bloomberg: Catastrophe Is the New Normal for Venezuelans

Making sense of the rolling political and economic disaster in Venezuela isn't easy. But the bigger mystery may be why the whole country isn't flooding into the streets to demand the end of the social revolution that's left one of Latin America's most resource-rich nations in a shambles.

Start with the riddle of why the country with the world's largest crude oil reserves has suffered constant power outages. (Spoiler: instead of using oil to generate electricity, the government has relied on hydropower while failing to plan for this year's punishing drought; it neglected to build new power plants or invest in its crumbling infrastructure.)

And how has President Nicolas Maduro responded to the energy crisis? He cut the work week for public servants to two days. Along with the furlough, Maduro -- who also is presiding over the world's worst recession -- ordered a 30 percent hike in the national minimum wage. Just how much the crowd-pleasing bonus will matter in a country with high triple-digit inflation, where consumers queueing for hours can't find eight out of 10 staple goods at grocery stores, is debatable. Not to mention that Venezuela is literally running out of bank notes.

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WNU Editor: For opposition leaders of the regime .... it is now getting to be very dangerous .... Killing of Venezuelan leader was 'politically motivated,' government critics claim (FOX News). This commentary reminds me of the fall of the Soviet Union. At the end everything economic and social was falling apart .... the government, military, and state media were still present and functioning .... but the writing was already on the wall. I see the same thing in Venezuela today.