Venezuela lobs currency nuke/ongoing disscussion.

[kenneal - lagger]

.......When i get a chunk of spare money, it immediately gets exchanged for real stuff that a central bank cannot print out of thin air.

So far it's working.

I bought my "real money" at the top of the market a few years ago so I've lost at the moment. But I didn't buy it to make an immediate profit I bought it as an insurance against future currency breakdown.

[Catweazle]

There is stuff in the world. Stuff has intrinsic value. Everything else is moving the chairs around.

Exactly. People spend ages trying to work out what will be "valuable" in the future, and completely miss the obvious.


A hammer is a hammer and a nail is a nail, regardless of what number is attached to a bitcoin. In fact, unfashionable old tech is a bargain - you can buy a shed-load of quality old tools for the price of an iPhone.

[cubes]

The paradigm case is pre-war Germany. It was given a huge bill for the costs of the war, it printed huge amounts of fiat deliberately, which effectively reduced the cost of the bill to a few loaves of bread.

The problem here is that germany's reparations (apparently this wasn't to cover the cost of actually fighting the war) was in gold marks and hence didn't devalue during the 20s. Hence the unpleasantness in the early 40s.

[adam2]

It is beginning to look like the beginning of the end for the present regime in Venezuela.

Many people are hungry, inflation has reached ridiculous levels, and efforts to keep out foreign aid are starting to fail.
Troops sent to the borders to keep out food shipments are reported to be leaving their posts.

[emordnilap]

As posted elsewhere

Furthermore, the U.S. “humanitarian aid� that we claim to be sending is not what it seems. Even NPR took a break from its traditional role as State Department stenographer-in-training to reveal that the “humanitarian aid� is actually meant to create regime change.

Yes, there are problems in Venezuela.

Is the US the best regime to sort it out? What's their track record on overseas interventions?

[raspberry-blower]

John Pilger: The War on Venezuela is built on lies

It is too difficult to report the collapse of oil prices since 2014 as largely the result of criminal machinations by Wall Street. It is too difficult to report the blocking of Venezuela's access to the US-dominated international financial system as sabotage. It is too difficult to report Washington's "sanctions" against Venezuela, which have caused the loss of at least $6billion in Venezuela's revenue since 2017, including $2billion worth of imported medicines, as illegal, or the Bank of England's refusal to return Venezuela's gold reserves as an act of piracy.

The former United Nations Rapporteur, Alfred de Zayas, has likened this to a "medieval siege" designed "to bring countries to their knees". It is a criminal assault, he says. It is similar to that faced by Salvador Allende in 1970 when President Richard Nixon and his equivalent of John Bolton, Henry Kissinger, set out to "make the economy [of Chile] scream". The long dark night of Pinochet followed.

[emordnilap]

https://www.rt.com/news/452325-max-blum ... uela-food/

�What we want is for the US to lift the blockade it has put on us in Venezuela. We are free.�

“People who hate Maduro often need humanitarian aid the least.�

and now rich bitch Branson has started promoting Guaido - what the feck?

[raspberry-blower]

and now rich bitch Branson has started promoting Guaido - what the feck?

Adam Garrie did a very good post deconstructing all this:
Peter Gabriel a No-Show at Branson's concert for "Regime Change"

This all changed when the United States recognised the self-appointed “leader� as the real deal, even though the United Nations continues to only recognise the government led by President Nicolas Maduro.

This is why it was automatically suspect when on the 14th of February, Virgin founder Richard Branson announced that he was staging a “Live Aid style� concert on the Colombian border with Venezuela. Anyone who knows anything about such mass multi-act concerts realises that such events typically take half a year to organise. Thus, the idea that such a concert could be organised so spontaneously, immediately invited speculation as to whether the entire thing might have secretly been planed weeks or even months before Guaidó appointed himself “president�.

Branson clearly knew something was afoot WELL BEFORE it actually occurred

As for its stated objectives:

In this sense, neither Branson’s concert nor a rival concert staged in Venezuela with the blessing of the legitimate government featured globally renowned acts. Taken as a whole, Branson’s concert appears to have failed in its mission of galvanising global opinion against the legitimate government of Venezuela.

Meanwhile, an attempt to distribute "Aid" flopped

Moon of Alabama: Venezuela - there was a riot at the border but what else did the "Aid" stunt achieve?

The attempt to incite defections of Venezuelan security forces largely failed. A handful of National Guard foot soldiers went over to the Colombian side. But the National Guard lines held well even under a hail of stones and fire and the units were quite disciplined in taking and holding their positions. The military of Venezuela stays firmly on the side of the state.

The "aid" nonsense did not help to brush up Guaido's legitimacy. Defying a court order Guaido left Venezuela and entered Colombia. If he ever goes back he will have to go to jail. The large mobilization inside and outside of Venezuela he had promised completely failed to appear. The melee at the border crossing only showed that his followers are a gang of brutal thugs.