Is Maduro The Venezuelan Allende?

The economic impracticalities of socialism became immediately apparent in Chile unlike in Venezuela where they were masked by large oil wealth. Economies do not react instantaneously and there is often a lag time between policy implementation and their effects. However, the effects of a regulated economy and a large welfare state caught up with Venezuela in 2016 when the economy contracted 16.5%. Crucially, Allende pursued the same economic policies as Maduro. He began the nationalization and collectivization of Chilean industry and of course, inflation was, once again, the bane of his newly reformed economy, with the inflation rate peaking above 300%. More…