People think its hard to ruin an economy. But an old book taught me how to do it.
Hugo Chavez did it in Venezuela. Salvador Allende did it in Chile.
Juan Peron did it in Argentina. Alan Garcia did it in Peru. Jose Sarney did it in Brazil.
At a MUN I went to, someone said “Not many of you know Hugo Chavez started his career as a bus driver. But we all can agree that he should have stayed one”.
And I’m sure you can do it too!
Step 1: Get elected. Can't ruin an economy if you don't have power. Because being in power gives you advantages. You can print a lot of money. You can impose ridiculous price controls. The power of the purse and the monopoly of violence are really important to ruin things!
Step 2: Spend a lot of money. It doesn’t matter on what specifically, but the key is *a lot*. It would be more effective if you gave it to people directly. Give it to people directly, cash in their hands.
Step 3: Print a lot of money to get this done. M0, M1, M2, M3, M4 let them rip! And don’t forget: use all the printed money to fund your spending. Money right from the printing press to the treasury coffers. None of that Quantitative Easing nonsense. We're REAL spenders here.
Step 4: PRICE CONTROLS. You can’t ruin an economy without price controls! And you have to fix prices much much below the market prices. No matter what actual prices you have to make prices seem like they’re “affordable”. Who cares what the actual prices are?
Step 5: Fix your exchange rate really high. It shouldn’t matter if you can maintain it or not. Spend all the foreign exchange you have to support your currency. Remember: you can't be rich unless you have a high currency value. So come what may, overvalue your currency!
Step 6: Constraints? They don’t matter. If people tell you, you’re spending too much or if your currency is overvalued, call them counter-revolutionaries. “Enemies of the people”. Anything. But don’t forget the basic principle: there are no constraints!
Step 7: Stay in power. Don’t forget Step 1: to ruin the economy you have to stay in power!
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