That country is with serious problems for years. For instance, citizens need to be on slow and humiliating lines to buy food, that is limited by government. Recently, government also said that the prices of milk increased because people are drinking it too much.
I remember not 10 years ago a liberal friend of mine (With a Masters in economics!) supporting Chavez and complaining about Obama not supporting Venezuela.
This is not a liberal paradise.
- http://bit.ly/macript and - https://twitter.com/bradpickler/status/700363764261130241
Isn't that literally how supply-and-demand is supposed to work.
Market prices are one of the most essential aspects of a healthy economy. It is the lack of market prices which right off the bat dooms any form of socialism to failure. Any time you see large scale, perpetual shortages of any kind you can know there is some form of price fixing or market manipulation going on by the government.
You can have perpetual shortages on the supply side that keep prices up. The entire luxury goods market relies on this, as an example.
I'm afraid I'm not confident in your analysis; seems to oversimplified.
You'll have to go into more depth on your example. I'm not sure to what you're referring.
>But what about supply?
Reread the second paragraph in my comment. Generally, when the term "shortages" is used, it refers to supply.
As for the "perpetual shortages on the supply side that keep prices up", I'm not sure you are using the term "shortage" as it is understood in economics. Just because something is not available at a price I prefer does not connote a shortage (as defined in economics). Otherwise the fact that I cannot buy a Lotus car for $10k would mean there is a shortage. However, if the government introduced price controls on Lotus cars so they could only be sold for $10k, you would definitely have a shortage because more people would want them (demand) at that price point but no one would be willing to sell them (supply).
You are not even describing a monopoly because there are still alternative brands, even luxury brands, which people can buy. Otherwise any brand would be considered a monopoly.
EDIT: used "scarcity" instead of "shortage"