Johns Hopkins professor Steve Hanke has been studying the Venezuelan economy for years as part of his Troubled Currencies Project. Last January Hanke ranked Venezuela as #1 in the world misery index for two years in a row,
Venezuela holds the inglorious spot of most miserable country for 2016, as it did in 2015. The failures of President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist, corrupt petroleum state have been well documented over the past year, including when Venezuela became the 57th instance of hyperinflation in the world.
Venezuela’s government oil monopoly company PDVSA is mortgaging its jewel in the crown, Citgo, which means the country is in big trouble.
How big?
Hanke’s team got hacked while researching PDVSA’s numbers. Monica Showalter reports,
A Johns Hopkins University professor found that Venezuela’s ruling Chavistas really, really don’t want anyone with knowledge of economics doing that.
On Thursday, they dispatched a cyberthug team to deny acess to the PDVSA state oil company website to all of Johns Hopkins University’s computers, after Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics there, wrote extensively about the country’s failing currency and its economic mismanagement at PDVSA. Hanke told American Thinker in a phone conversation that his academic assistant had been burrowing through the muddy and obscure details of PDVSA’s financials for hours recently. For him, the ACCESS DENIED code to the page came with a rider not seen on the rest of the university’s blocked-off computers: REPEAT OFFENDER.
Hanke tweeted a screenshot,
Access forbidden to #PDVSA website for users of Johns Hopkins wifi. Venez response to so called ‘economic war’: Stop them from digging deep pic.twitter.com/oXxTKCVzE3
— Prof. Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) April 13, 2017
Chavismo tries but can’t hide the facts. And the facts show the ruinous reality of 21st Century Socialism.