OLD AND BUSTED “PROGRESSIVE” SLOGAN: “Start From Zero!”

The new hotness? Venezuela has inflation fix: drop those zeros from their currency.

Economic pledges may be par for the course in election campaigns, but in hyperinflationary Venezuela, the candidates’ dueling promises are going further, with the incumbent vowing to lop a few zeros off the currency, while his main challenger calls for the adoption of the U.S. dollar.

President Nicolás Maduro late Thursday briefly outlined his monetary rescue plan. In a country where a dozen eggs can cost 250,000 bolívares ($5) amid worsening inflation, he would chop three zeros off the currency – arguable bringing the price for those eggs down to 250.

Steve likes to say that when it comes to hyperinflation, “the only thing socialist states never run short of is zeros.” What could go wrong with Maduro’s “solution” to this ever-recurring problem?

UPDATE: More zeros being removed: “Venezuela will remove five zeroes from the bolivar currency rather than the three zeroes originally planned, President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday, in an effort to keep up with inflation projected to reach 1 million percent this year,” Reuters reported yesterday.

In other news, Oceania reports that the chocolate ration increased last week from 25 to 20 grams.