Venezuela’s Breakdown

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In economics, things have to add up. The socialist Government of Venezuela is
engaged in a bitter and unavailing struggle to abolish, or at least escape
from, the laws of arithmetic. Though the country is blessed with abundant
natural resources, its rulers have squandered its wealth and created an
economic wasteland. Their efforts represent a triumph of dogmatism and
ideology over sense and judgment, the costs of which are evident in the
rapidly diminishing living standards of ordinary Venezuelans.

Yet things are worse even than that. Venezuela’s rulers have not only run
self-destructive policies for 14 years. They have taken