What's Worse And Better In The News About Kirchner's Drama, Devaluing The Bolivar, Asian Carp, And Fat Elephants

  Out Of Fortune Grows Misfortune, And Out Of Misfortune Grows Fortune
                                                                - Chinese Saying

Violence and looting in stores have occurred as Argentina's economy worsens due to last year's inflation of 25 to 30 percent due to decades of the government flooding the market with cheap money and also due to the world-wide decline in commodity prices which means that Argentina has less money coming in from her exports. The drama queen president Christina Kirchner had brain surgery recently, but still persists in efforts at income redistribution instead of trying to help grow productivity. We predict that both Venezuela and Argentina will continue to fail economically, though one may learn from the other's mistakes and take a more pro-business approach. Business is the only way to make money. In socialism, the government eventually takes everyone's money and then has none.
    Venezuela officially stated that it will take not 6 bolivars but 1l bolivars to buy 1 U.S. dollar. The true value of the bolivar is its worth on the black market- the free market. There it takes 70 bolivars to buy 1 U.S. dollar. In Venezuela, the socialist hatred of business has driven out human and investment capital. This means that very few people are making money. The country is essentially living on its oil revenues which are not enough for the entire population. The noose is tightening, and the order of business for the government will be shriller and more violent demonizations. The people are largely ill-educated and child-like, and the empty emotionalism will probably work.
    Asian carp, which can weigh 100 pounds fully grown, were brought into America's South to clean waste water and are now prevalent throughout the South. They are working their way to the Great Lakes and destroy almost completely other species of fish. Very few Americans enjoy eating carp. In fact, there is a recipe that calls for baking a carp on a board, then throwing the carp away and eating the board. But Americans are learning that Asian prize carp and are exporting carp to Asia. The major obstacle is that Asians like fresh not frozen carp primarily because they aren't used to freezers. As an aside, we'd like to see Peta make sure that these fish are being killed before they are gutted and cleaned. They may not be.
    Three-fourths of the elephants in American zoos are fat. Zoos are initiating regular weigh-ins for the pachyderms. They are hiding food around the elephants' enclosures in order to make the elephants get some exercise. The article did not say that fat elephants were simply being fed less, but there's every reason to believe that.
    These commentaries are based upon news in the Wall Street Journal, America's most trustworthy national newspaper.
    Peter Nickerson. Not a Republican or a Democrat but an Evidentist.