LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Venezuela Economy Contracted 29.8 Percent in Third Quarter-Congress.

That was a sharper deceleration than the OPEC nation’s 16.6 percent contraction in 2017, according to preliminary data compiled by the country’s central bank. The economy has been in freefall since oil prices collapsed in 2014, quickening the unravelling of an already-faltering socialist system.

“Hyperinflation, the fall in oil production and the lack of confidence in the economic model are the reasons for the economy’s disastrous behaviour,” said opposition lawmaker Angel Alvarado.

The National Assembly has become the sole source of reliable gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation data since the central bank stopped publishing economic indicators in 2015.

Short of what happened to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945, that might be record for economic collapse — and it’s all self-inflicted.