Feel The Bern!

I thought I might be interesting....and some may even find it enlightening.....to take a short trip into Bernie's world. 

Kim Jong Un balloons to 300 pounds as famine nears, byFox News

 Portly North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, whose hostile actions have brought crippling international sanctions to his impoverished nation, has a new message for the Hermit Kingdom’s starving masses: Get ready to eat plant roots.  Kim, whose weight the South Korean government estimates has ballooned to nearly 300 pounds, signaled through state media that the nation could be headed for another famine like the one that killed an estimated 3.5 million people in the 1990s.  “The road to revolution is long and arduous,” an editorial in the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Monday, according to The Telegraph. “We may have to go on an arduous march, during which we will have to chew the roots of plants once again.”  “Arduous march” in North Korean is code for famine. It’s how state media described the disaster that struck when Kim was a mere teen, which experts say was brought on by the economic mismanagement of his father, Kim Jong Il, loss of foreign aid and natural disasters.....

Low Water Levels Mean Lights May Go Out in Caracas, by Fabiola Zerpa
Over the past three years, Venezuelans have seen shortages of food, water, toilet paper and medicine. In some areas of the country, electricity has been curtailed.  Now, the lights may go out in the nation’s capital.  A prolonged drought blamed on the El Nino weather system has dropped water levels to a critical threshold at the Guri Dam, the hydroelectric plant that supplies Caracas with most of its electricity. Without rain, there could be rolling blackouts in Venezuela’s largest city by the end of April, said Cesar Cardozo, a retired engineer who managed turbines at the facility in the 1980s.  If so, it could further erode confidence in the three-year-old government of President Nicolas Maduro, according to the Eurasia Group, a global research and consulting firm. In 2015, the country’s economy -- largely dependent on the sale of oil -- contracted by 10 percent and is expected to shrink by an additional 6 percent this year. The currency has lost 98 percent of its value on the black market since Maduro took office in 2013.....

Europe’s Muslims hate the West,  by Leon de Winter 
The first reaction to the Brussels massacres among postmodern European intellectuals was predictable: What did we, Europeans, do to them, our Muslims? How could followers of a religion that is proudly called “the religion of peace” commit these kinds of atrocities?  People like Peter Vandermeersch, the Belgian editor-in-chief of Dutch newspaper NRC-Handelsblad, and Belgian writer David Van Reybrouck, both accomplished intellectuals, argued that Belgium must have done something terrible to deserve this. Their line of reasoning: The terrorists’ fury ;must be a reaction to their inhumane treatment at the hands of the West. So, we blame ourselves in order to remain blameless. Safer ;to blame our own societies and socioeconomic conditions than to blame the religious and cultural concepts with which terrorists poison their own minds.....

France: Exodus of 10,000 millionaires amid rising Muslim tensions, By Ananya Roy
Rising tensions in France, especially in Paris following a series of Islamist terrorist attacks in 2015, have spurred an exodus of its super-wealthy citizens, a new report on migration trends of millionaires and high-net worth individuals across the world reveals. The report warns that other European countries, including the UK, Belgium, Germany and Sweden "where religious tensions are starting to emerge", will also see similar trends.  Regarding a Brexit, the report suggests millionaires would want to stay in Britain even if it leaves the single currency bloc.....

Socialism Works Until You Run Out of Money to Pay for the Paper Your Money is Printed On,  by Daniel Greenfield
Here's a preview of Bernie Sanders' economic policy over in Venezuela. Millions of pounds of provisions, stuffed into three-dozen 747 cargo planes, arrived here from countries around the world in recent months to service Venezuela’s crippled economy.  But instead of food and medicine, the planes carried another resource that often runs scarce here: bills of Venezuela’s currency, the bolivar.    The shipments were part of the import of at least five billion bank notes that PresidentNicolás Maduro’s administration authorized over the latter half of 2015 as the government boosts the supply of the country’s increasingly worthless currency, according to seven people familiar with the deals.  And the Venezuelan government isn’t finished....

 

Venezuelan Socialism Still a Complete Disaster, Brian Doherty
As the United States faces the not-impossible prospect of an openly socialist president, Sen. Bernie Sanders, it is worth a quick revisit, from The Washington Post today, to how Venezuela's socialist government is doing.   It ain't pretty, though wonk Matt O'Brien isn't too quick to blame socialism or its goals per se:...

Socialist ANC Slowly Destroying South Africa’s Economy,  The Liberty Bullhorn
The problems inflicted by big government are not confined to Europe or the United States. I have reported on the enormous problems plaguing Argentina, and in August I concluded about South Africa:  The failure of South Africa over the past 18 years to become a prosperous nation is entirely attributable to the radically leftist policies of the ANC government. In addition to corruption, the ANC has handed out entitlements right and left and promised all kinds of perks to people without neither requesting nor providing an opportunity for them to work for the very same goodies. Instead of creating an economic climate of economic freedom and self determination, the ANC imposed its radical political agenda with no regard for how it was going to pay for it. And just like every welfare state, the South African one has failed. The situation in South Africa has not improved since then. Violent labor conflicts have shattered the mining sector, but that is only part of the nation’s problem. More important than anything else is the fact that the country is suffering under the heavy hand of a corrupt and economically intrusive government. This government is combining incompetence and arrogance into a poisonous pill that is slowly killing the South African economy. For one, as the Business Day news site reports, unemployment is enormous:.....

Socialist Policies Undoing Success of South America’s Strongest Economy, By Richard W. Rahn

Why do very successful nations often adopt policies that lead to their undoing? After a revolution or major reform, some countries allow a high degree of economic freedom, establish the rule of law, protect private property rights and establish low tax rates with strict limits on government spending and regulation. The economy takes off, the citizens become far richer and then the government mucks it up, usually by attempting to redistribute income and expand state control.  Is Chile, which has been one of the bright spots in the world economy, falling into this pattern under socialist President Michelle Bachelet?.....