or, Luis Salas gone (a pun on his name).
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.
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
I have a 100 trillion Zimbabwe Dollar note in the sleeve of my tablet. I look forward to the same denomination from Venezuela Bolivar.
It’s come to that, BF!