Venezuela Sitrep

[Mortblanc]

And to think that Hugo Chavez lectured Obama on how to properly run a country.

And Obama sat wide eyed and worshipfully listened to him.

As for the UK going down the same rabbit hole any time soon????

Remember that VZ began their dependence on a one product (oil) economy in the 1980s and refused to use the profits to diversify their economy, handing out the new wealth as individual subsidies after the leaders skimmed what they wanted off the top. When the oil prices collapsed in the 1990s the subsidies collapsed with it and they had 60% unemployment and over 100% inflation.

The oi prices recovered after a decade and did the leaders have better foresight? No, they again tried to buy political support with oil rather than use the finances to diversify and stabilize. Oi prices again collapsed, imagine that! The unemployment returned, hyperinflation returned, this time unabated by new oil price increases, and the economy has collapsed with the government attempting to hold the population in serfdom to starve until needed again.

But VZ is a South American fluke, much like Cuba and with the same end result. People like to point at it and claim the same could happen anywhere. Anther world wide Great Depression, except worse than the old GD, worse than the collapse of 2008?

The UK is not in that condition. It is not in the condition that VZ was in or will be in. The world economy, and the economy of the UK us in better condition than it has seen for 20 years.

Total collapse, roving mobs of looters, individual survivalists roaming the countryside hiding in the hedgerows and stealing from the sheds.

I don't think so, not for a few years.

It took VZ nearly 20 years of willful mismanagement, hyperinflation and lopsided unemployment to get where it is now.

No kidding, they had to try really hard!

You are not there yet.

You have too many options and resources to draw on and they are very diverse in nature, insuring all do not collapse at the same time.

So enjoy building the raised beds and planting in the poly-tunnels on rainy days. The Golden Horde will not show up this season, probably not next season either. Besides, they will not know where you are or how to get there with their phones not working and the GPS out of whack.

I do not envision the UK falling into chaos without a full scale and unexpected war that also envelopes the rest of the world and a leadership that refuses to properly react to the crisis.

Watch out for those submarines, they play hell with shipping schedules.