2/12/19
I’d seen the black and white photos of German children using bundles of money as building blocks during the Weimar Republic. I’d read about the skyrocketing price of bread in Zimbabwe, and how people were carrying their cash in wheelbarrows. But nothing you read can prepare you for life with hyperinflation. in Venezuela it has been the result of two decades of gross economic mismanagement, profligate public spending, government debt despite a historic oil windfall, and epic corruption. What was once the most prosperous country in the region is now a man-made disaster. As Venezuela’s political crisis reaches new heights and international pressure mounts against Nicolás Maduro, hyperinflation and the hunger it has sown could worsen. But they could also prove to be the force that hastens his exit from power. In the end, hyperinflation spares no one. Inflation in Venezuela began to creep up slowly after Mr. Maduro rose to power in 2013. As a journalist, I began to report on how it, along with onic food shortages, was one of the reasons life had become so hard in 2014. Price controls meant that subsidized food disappeared from shelves. As shelves were bled dry, Mr. Maduro blamed “economic warfare waged from abroad.” The government supporters that stood in mile-long queues outside food shops still believed him then.
By 2015, Venezuela had the worst inflation rate in the world. Some food items have never made it back on the shelves. Shop owners started using money-counting machines. People carried bags full of cash. By 2016, the inflation rate hit over 700 percent. By late 2017, the inflation rate exceeded 50 percent a month. It was a turning point: economists signaled that we were officially in hyperinflation. Inflation is bad, but hyperinflation is a totally different game. Hyperinflation hits the poorest the hardest. Venezuelans have reported losing on average 24 pounds in body weight. Nearly 90 percent now live in poverty. In the slums of Caracas, I visited mothers who have gone from reducing their children’s portions to having them skip meals altogether. A recent move to slash five zeros off the previous currency became obsolete within months. Venezuela now has two currencies simultaneously in circulation — the strong bolívar and the sovereign bolívar — both of which are worthless. This humanitarian crisis, in turn, has led to the exodus of more than 3 million. It is the worst migration crisis the Americas has seen in this century and one that our neighbors can no longer resist. While a growing number of countries condemn Mr. Maduro as illegitimate, the queues outside food shops or at the border only grow longer. More than 80 percent of Venezuelans want Mr. Maduro to resign. They blame him and no longer “economic warfare” for destroying the country. For Mr. Maduro, hyperinflation is the force that is rallying half the world and his entire country against him.
