Venezuela: Sale Luis Salas

or, Luis Salas gone (a pun on his name).

At Caracas Chronicles,

Just over a month after he was appointed Vice-President in charge of the Economy, Luis Salas has been fired, (for “family reasons”) in favor of Miguel Pérez Abad.

The removal of thefamously crazy Salas and his replacement by a still hardline but somewhat more earth-bound figure can only be good news.

WSJ: Businessman Named Venezuela’s New Economic Czar. Venezuela’s president has appointed a businessman as the country’s new economic czar, replacing a leftist sociologist who has denied existence of inflation and argued for the dissolution of the central government.

Mr. Perez, who will remain trade and industry minister, is Venezuela’s fourth economy chief in two years. To halt triple-digit inflation and fill shops with scarce food and medicine, Mr. Maduro had earlier tried giving reins over the economy to an oil official, an army general and a leftist intellectual, while refusing to loosen rigid currency and price controls at the root of the crisis.

I wouldn’t call it good news, but rather a less-crazy inmate in charge of the nuthouse.

.@DolarToday uses my calculations to find #Venezuela's annual implied inflation rate #TroubledCurrenciesProject #TCP pic.twitter.com/1yybFaLJrE

— Prof. Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) January 20, 2016