More straight poop on the shortage:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...st+Articles%29
Key quote:
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The combination of price controls and currency controls spells trouble. While they can be good for consumers in the short run, they can be bad in the long run. If the government sets the price of any good—shoes, oil, wheat, or paper products—at a price below what it costs someone to make and distribute it, there’s no incentive for local suppliers to meet the demand. Say government policy stipulates that a roll of toilet paper must cost 50 cents, but the supplies and labor used to make a roll cost 52 cents. Local producers would simply stop producing, or find ways to export their products to neighboring countries where they might bring a higher price, or sell them on the black market. The result: scarcity for domestic consumers. In theory, when domestic suppliers reduce capacity and production, imported products could pick up the slack. But currency controls make it difficult for companies in Venezuela to import goods freely.
You don’t have to be an Ayn Rand devotee to understand that when there’s little or no possibility of profit from an economic activity, the market will stop providing it.
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Socialism at work: Venezuela runs out of toilet paper.
