Hilarious: Venezuela to eliminate 3 zeroes from currency to combat 'economic persecution'

Venezuela's hyperinflation is driving the government loony-tunes.  That's the only explanation I can think of for why the government of Nicolás Maduro has decided to lop off three zeroes from its currency, the bolivar, to fight, he says, "economic persecution" from Columbia.

Business Standard:

"I have decided to reduce three zeros of the currency and take out of circulation the current bills and put into circulation new bills," Maduro said on Thursday during a broadcast on state channel VTV.

The President said that this new monetary denomination, which replaces the one he established in January 2017, will help the government fight the "economic war of financial persecution", which he claimed was masterminded by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos with the help of Venezuelan opposition leader Julio Borges, Efe news reported.

"That war is directed from Colombia, personally directed by Santos, advised by Borges," he said, while also accusing them of "stealing" the country's oil money.

However, 500 bolivars, the new maximum denomination of the country's bills, amount to only $0.01, according to the official exchange rate of 43,980 bolivars per one dollar.

Sounds like you need a wheelbarrow full of money to purchase a shopping basket full of groceries.

According to the President, this measure represents "the defence of the bolivar" and that these new bills will be known as "sovereign bolivar".

"There are those who propose to dollarise the Republic, no, Venezuela will not be a colony of the dollar, we will defend the Petro (the new Venezuelan cryptocurrency), we will defend the monetary, economic and financial sovereignty of the country," he said.

Venezuela's new set of monetary denomination will consist of two coins, one of 0.50 cents of a bolivar ($0.00001) and the other of one bolivar ($0.00002).

Aren't socialists funny?  They live in a world where they think they can proclaim a stable currency simply by removing some offending zeroes on the bills.  What this does is devalue the currency even more, which will only serve to make things worse.

There are enough simple-minded dolts in Venezuela who will swallow this nonsense as truth, so Maduro is in no trouble politically.  But in a country where the government controls the electoral machinery and puts opposition politicians in jail, he wouldn't care much if he were.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/03/hilarious_venezuela_to_eliminate_3_zeroes_from_currency_to_combat_economic_persecution.html