Dr Oliver Hartwich: Dictators conspire: Oil, assassins, exploitation

Last week’s prisoner exchange between Russia, Belarus and several Western nations offered a stark glimpse into the workings of modern autocracies. As such, it serves as a timely backdrop to Anne Applebaum’s new book, Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, which examines the collaborative efforts of authoritarian regimes to undermine liberal democracy globally.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Meddling in other countries’ internal affairs – when do two wrongs make a right?

The doctrine of sovereign nation-state equality underpins international law. A corollary of this maxim is that thou shalt not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations.

National sovereignty means that we run our own show and do not stick our noses into the internal affairs of other sovereign nations. This maxim should only be deviated from in extreme circumstances, such as when a government is involved in genocide.

Interfering in the affairs of other nation-states can take very direct forms or subtler ones. The most direct form is military intervention in order to effect a change in the target country’s government or its policies. The Opium Wars were a classic example of the latter kind, while the NATO action against Serbia over Kosovo in 1999 provides a more recent instance. Tanzania’s military intervention in Uganda, and Vietnam’s in Cambodia in 1979, exemplify interventions aimed at regime change. (So was the invasion of Iraq in 2003, but that was under the pretext of Iraq presenting an imminent military threat, thereby invoking the right to pre-emptive self-defence.)

Hans Bader: How a Minimum Wage Hike Wiped Out 40% of Venezuela's Stores

A large minimum wage increase in Venezuela has dealt a “fatal blow to 40% of Venezuelan stores,” reports the Miami Herald. The increase has closed many stores and left employees jobless. Venezuela’s government ignored the most basic law of economics in raising the minimum wage: the law of supply and demand. But laws don’t go away just because you ignore them.

The job losses will rise in the coming weeks because even “some of the stores that did [remain] open are simply liquidating their merchandise and plan to close definitively when that’s done.”

Nicholas Kerr: Socialism’s apologists ignore Venezuela’s human tragedy

Supporters of socialism have taken to suggesting that the human tragedy unfolding in Venezuela has nothing to do with socialism, rather it’s the result of the dictatorships of former President Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro. In their view, dictatorships lead to the deprivation we’re witnessing, not socialism. They’re confusing types of government and economic theories.

Dictatorships or authoritarian regimes don’t always lead to economic misery. We only have to look to Venezuela’s south to see that’s true. Chile was under a dictatorship for 17 years, yet President Pinochet pursued free market economic policies that, in spite of the (inexcusable) tyranny and unchecked power, lifted huge numbers of Chileans out of poverty, the exact opposite of what is taking place under Maduro.

Jarrett Stepman: As Venezuela Collapses, Inflation Careers Toward 1 Million Percent

Venezuela’s inflation may hit 1 million percent by the end of the year, the International Monetary Fund announced on Monday.

This incredible hyperinflation is reminiscent of Weimar Germany during the years immediately after World War I, in which wheelbarrows full of cash were required to buy bare essential items, like a loaf of bread.

Daniel Di Martino: Socialism, Not Corruption, to Blame for Venezuela’s Oil Production Drop

Venezuela’s tragic famine and refugee crisis taking place despite the largest proven reserves of oil on the planet. Watching it play out on television is one thing. Living through the ways socialism pushes the middle class to poverty and the poor to starvation is another experience entirely.

Although I was fortunate enough to leave Venezuela almost two years ago to come to the United States, not everyone has the chance to leave. Venezuela has become the latest experiment of socialism, and like all those before, it has resulted in famine and mass exodus.

However, some news outlets wrongly state that Venezuela’s crisis is due to lower oil prices and that its oil production has collapsed due to mismanagement and corruption, claiming socialist policies are not to blame. However, what these analysts fail to understand is that widespread mismanagement and corruption of a whole industry and country are only possible within socialism. Only an economy that lacks free prices and competition, with high levels of government involvement and tight regulations can harbor government mismanagement and corruption that lead to shortages and hyperinflation.