SPOILER: IT’S SOCIALISM! With all that prime farmland, why are Venezuelans starving? “Having attempted for years to defy conventional economics, the country now faces a painful reckoning with basic arithmetic.”

Sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money. Even if you have massive oil reserves and a climate where practically anything will grow. Plus: “The cause of the starvation is obvious. Even under the most benevolent of socialist regimes, the government is ill equipped to operate such a complex system. And this one is far from benevolent, with the party leaders more interested in ensuring their own comfort and security than that of the rank and file. But all of this was predictable because, as we’ve said here more times than I can count, this is how socialism ends. Every. Single. Time.”

Socialism will never go away for the same reason that Ponzi schemes will never go away: On the one side, it appeals to the greed of the marks to get something for nothing, and on the other hand, it appeals to the greed of the people running the scheme, who don’t care what happens to the marks so long as they get theirs. Did I mention that Hugo Chavez’s family is worth billions now?