
Here the scenario, hours ago your President announced that the currency will be devalued by half. Soon everything in the country will be double the price of what it was today.
What do you do? What do you buy? Where do you go?
This actually just happened in Venezuela. Peoples response was not what you might expect. Thousands of people ran to the Spanish version of Best Buy, “Mejor Compra” to buy up all the TV sets and other imported electronics they could get their hands on….
Shouting “Buy, Buy, The World Is Going To Die!” Venezuelans went on a frantic shopping spree on Saturday following a sharp currency devaluation that is expected to drive up prices.
Shoppers crammed into electronics stores, eager to snap up imported televisions and computers ahead of the anticipated price hikes.
“I’ve been lining up for two hours outside to buy a television and two speakers because by Monday everything is bound to be double the current price,” said Miguel Gonzalez

Watching TV while my country goes to hell is not exactly what I had in mind, but if you didn’t know any better, then you might be prone to make the same mistakes.
It’s true that all imported good are about to get a whole lot more expensive. So buying ANYTHING at all will be better than waiting for your savings to be cut in half by the devaluation. However before you buy that new TV set you had your eye on, there are probably quite a few more things
I mean wouldn’t you rather be buying guns, bullets, socks, underwear, generator, food, or water??
You could make a run to the local coin or jewelry store and buy up all the gold and silver coins too…..
Nah, screw it lets get that new LCD Screen TV we wanted before the price goes up, make sure you throw in the Blu-ray player and HDMI cables.






4 Responses
I believe this is what Mises referred to as a crack up boom. First comes the crack up (flurry to buy assets) then goes the boom (dead economy).
Chavez is a damn fool and anyone who has been paying attention to what he has been doing knows that he his policies will lead to the eventual collapse of Venezuela. It’s the easiest “sell” in the world today. I am sure there are many intelligent, well educated Venezuelans so sorry for any offense but when you elect an idiot like Chavez then it should not be surprising that people respond to a collapse of the economy by buying TVs. Those people are in for a world of hurt but they brought it upon themselves. I suspect that the wealthy are fleeing if they have not already left.
Posted on January 11th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
You’re absolutely right! Venezuela is in for the whole spectrum of communist revolution. The latest story is Chavez has issued strict price controls. Anyone caught raising prices will be “taken over”
http://thelibertyguardian.com/2010/01/chavez-orders-national-guard-to-enforce-new-price-controls/
Inflation for them last year was 25%, the devaluation is set to raise it another 5%. I’m guessing his next move will be to resort to war with a neighboring country.
Posted on January 11th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Are you still following this story? It keeps getting better and better. I summarized the latest happenings here: http://soyouthinkyoucaninvest.blogspot.com/2010/01/hugo-chavez-mickey-mouse-presidente.html
Posted on January 19th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Haha, ya Chavez is always great for some outrageous quotes.
Posted on January 20th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
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