Venezuela Follows India’s Example and Voids Half of Its Cash

Re:Venezuela Follows India’s Example and Voids Half of Its Cash by ZenoArrow on Saturday December 17, 2016 @06:57AM (#13200356)

Thank you for your response, those sound like some sensible reforms to me. Are there any local political groups currently pushing for any of these reforms? If not, can you see this type of political movement emerging as things get worse?

Also, do you think there's any chance of doing what Ecuador did in similar circumstances by making the US Dollar the national currency? At least until the fundamental problems are sorted out.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venezuela Follows India’s Example and Voids Half of Its Cash by thnnb on Saturday December 17, 2016 @07:14AM (#13200425)

For groups pushing any of those reforms you need to start by omitting the largest opposition coalition (MUD). They propose no such reforms, just that the government should "do things better" and be "less cynical". Implicitly, the message is that they would do a better job, but nowadays no one believes them.

So far, two politicians come to mind. Leopoldo López (who is in prison) and María Corina Machado (who has been removed from mainstream MUD and derided as a "divisionist" by the MUD themselves). Their reach is extremely limited, though. No access to goverment-controlled media and conveniently forgotten or shunned by mainstream opposition.

Regarding Ecuador, I'm not sure. I do not have a full picture of the economic circumstances Ecuador considered then and how they relate to ours, right now. If anything, --if-- we were going to try that measure it should be after we try other methods to increase trust on our currency and then find them to be insufficient, I think.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venezuela Follows India’s Example and Voids Half of Its Cash by ZenoArrow on Saturday December 17, 2016 @07:52AM (#13200512)

To give some idea what happened in Ecuador...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_of_Ecuador

"The sucre maintained a fairly stable exchange rate against the US dollar until 1983, when it was devalued to 42 per dollar and a crawling peg was adopted. Depreciation gained momentum and the free market rate was over 800 per dollar by 1990 and almost 3000 per in 1995.

The sucre lost 67% of its foreign exchange value during 1999, then in one week nosedived 17%, ending at 25,000/US$1 on January 7, 2000. On January 9, President Jamil Mahuad announced that the US dollar would be adopted as Ecuador's official currency. Protests led to his removal. Vice President Gustavo Noboa became president, only to confirm the government's commitment to dollarization.

On March 9, 2000, Noboa signed a law passed by Congress, replacing the sucre with the United States dollar at an official exchange rate of 25,000 sucres per US$1. Both currencies were to circulate, the dollar being used for all but the smallest transactions. Only coins would continue in the local currency."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venezuela Follows India’s Example and Voids Half of Its Cash by thnnb on Saturday December 17, 2016 @07:26AM (#13200457)

Some kind of new political organization might come out of all the worsening things that are happening as people lose trust on an ineffective mainstream opposition, but I haven't seen it as of yet. So far all I see are people trying to get by at the levels of the individual and the family.

[ Parent | on HN ]