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  1. #21
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  3. #23
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    The Last Straw? Venezuela Runs Out Of Fake Breasts

    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/15/2014 18:33 -0400

    Venezuelan women are revolting complaining. While the citizens of the socialist utopia can withstand shortages of food, toilet paper, and now even news paper, in a nation thought to have one of the world's highest plastic surgery rates, AP reports beauty-obsessed Venezuelans face a scarcity of brand-name breast implants, and women are so desperate that they and their doctors are turning to devices that are the wrong size or made in China, with less rigorous quality standards. No one is giving the frustrated women much sympathy, especially not the government where late President Hugo Chavez called the country's plastic surgery fixation "monstrous," and railed against the practice of giving implants to girls on their 15th birthdays. However, many have taken to Twitter under the hashtag "Without Boobs, There's No Paradise."

    As AP reports,

    Venezuelans once had easy access to implants approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But doctors say they are now all-but impossible to find because restrictive currency controls have deprived local businesses of the cash to import foreign goods. It may not be the gravest shortfall facing the socialist South American country, but surgeons say the issue cuts to the psyche of the image-conscious Venezuelan woman.

    "The women are complaining," said Ramon Zapata, president of the Society of Plastic Surgeons. "Venezuelan women are very concerned with their self-esteem."

    Venezuela is thought to have one of the world's highest plastic surgery rates, and the breast implant is the seminal procedure. Doctors performed 85,000 implants here last year, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Only the U.S., Brazil, Mexico and Germany — all with significantly larger populations — saw more procedures.
    However, no one is giving the frustrated women much sympathy, especially not the government.

    The consumerism of plastic surgery has always jibed awkwardly with the rhetoric of socialist revolution. The late President Hugo Chavez called the country's plastic surgery fixation "monstrous," and railed against the practice of giving implants to girls on their 15th birthdays.

    On social media, some Venezuelans take a judgmental tone, saying the panic over implants shows the real shortage here is values. Others joke that the scarcity will force Venezuelan women to start developing their personalities, using a Twitter hashtag that riffs on the Colombian telenovela "Sin Tetas, No Hay Paraiso" ("Without Boobs, There's No Paradise").
    So - Venezuelan women are going global...

    In the absence of U.S. brands, plastic surgery has become an area dominated by Venezuela's chief trading partner, China, whose goods are often given priority for import over those from other countries. They're also a lot cheaper. While a pair of implants approved by European regulators can cost as much as $600 — about the same as the annual minimum wage here — the Chinese equivalent goes for a third of that. Some Venezuelan doctors refuse to use the Chinese devices, which are not subjected to random government inspections or clinical studies.



    "I'm not saying they're not safe, but I've removed more than a few ruptured Chinese implants. I just don't feel comfortable with them," Slobodianik said.
    We leave it to 46 year old Lisette Arroyo to sum up Venezuela's socialist utopia...

    "This country is not what it used to be," she said earlier this month as awaited surgery in a blue paper gown.
    No indeed it's not.
    * * *
    Frankly we think it's "fair" that Venezuelan women should have the right to fake boobs...



    and $15 an hour minimum wage...



    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...t-fake-breasts
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  6. #26
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    This is Why Socialism Doesn't Work

    Submitted by Capitalist Exploits on 09/20/2014 11:12 -0400
    By: Chris Tell at http://capitalistexploits.at/

    Today's article comes from a gentleman I've yet to meet, even though Mark and I know his brother well. Josh Galt is an extreme athlete who has traveled the world extensively and has built himself a life and lifestyle out of his passions, which in his case entails riverboarding some of the most amazing and dangerous rivers this planet has to offer.

    He is a kindred spirit. A man who is driven by creating, learning and doing. I'd like to share with you a post he wrote recently which embodies much of what excites us about some of the rapidly growing economies of the world and opportunities.
    You can find out more about Josh on his website. Enjoy!
    - Chris
    ------------
    I met a cute Cambodian girl the other morning as I headed back to my hotel after a run on the beach. We went to breakfast, and she told me she knew a great place to go snorkeling, which was our plan for the day.
    She was fun and hot and spoke English, so of course, I told her to come with us! I didn't realize she would teach me a profound lesson about what it really means to be a bootstrapping entrepreneur.
    When we reached our first destination, she jumped in with me and swam around for a few minutes, but then she headed back to the boat. I figured she was going to be a diva relaxing on the boat the rest of the day, or start complaining about being bored. I quickly saw that I was very, very wrong.

    She proceeded to wrap fishing line around an empty water bottle, tie on a small metal hook she got from the boat driver, and then jump back into the water wearing a life jacket for extra flotation. From there, with a dive mask on for vision, she began fishing.
    After a while she moved back into the boat, leaning over the edge, hook dangled into the water. Aside from the times I was in the boat or water with her, or when we were moving from island to island, she fished this way all day.
    I had told her before we headed out to sea that I had to leave as soon as we got back, returning to the city. So, she caught her own dinner.
    But maybe she would have done it anyway, because it's just what survivors do – they survive (and some thrive) by seizing every opportunity that they can grab hold of.
    That determination of spirit shines in stark contrast to what has become the prevailing western mindset. She knows there are no handouts. She knows opportunity when it presents itself. And she probably knows real, painful hunger in a way that none of us can imagine.
    So she made the most of it. And not in a 'woe-is-me-I-have-to-catch-my-dinner-why-won't-someone-take-care-of-me' way. She laughed and had as much fun all day as I did. With me, and on her own. She'd yell out to me every time she caught a fish, beaming from ear to ear, proud of her success.
    I was simply looking at pretty fish, while she was surviving. And yet because it's just a way of life, she was very happy doing it.
    The opportunity to do so had presented itself, and she seized it without hesitation.
    When we arrived back at the beach, she took her fish to a local restaurant. They traded her some veggies and rice for a couple of her fish, for when she returned later when they'd fry the big one up with it for her dinner. A simple trade – a hot meal for a day's work.
    What people in the western world don't understand is that in 3rd world countries, EVERYONE is an entrepreneur, because they have to be! And thankfully, there are few regulations stopping them from being such.
    Every house is selling something out front. Every person has something they will offer you or pitch you on the street, to maybe make a few cents, or a whole dollar. If they don't work with what they have, they starve to death. Simple as that.
    There are no food stamps to buy steak and lobster. No free Obama phones. No handouts.
    There is simply the freedom to hustle. The freedom to use what you have, to get what you can, to make it through another day.
    In Asia, people seem to understand this better than most anyplace I've ever been. And that's why I'm staying (along with this). I've said it before, and it bears repeating here:
    I would rather live surrounded by the exciting chaos of birth that is Asia, than the struggling chaos of death that is the West.
    There is no perfect system or place on our blue planet, so spare me your pious lectures about poverty in the 3rd world until, say, you've fixed your own ****ing Detroit.
    Because people in the 3rd world are working their way out of it. People under socialist control are not allowed to, and so poverty and crime get worse as economies decline.
    In the West, this girl (and the restaurant, the boat driver, me the tourist) would have been in violation of numerous health codes, fishing laws, OSHA standards, tourism permits, and more. Leaving her with only one real choice – dependence on a flawed welfare system.
    With freedom, though, she could happily get her hands dirty to catch her dinner while laughing and enjoying life, and become an image of human resolve and the entrepreneurial spirit that I will never forget.

    Where there's a will, there's a way... as long as the freedom exists to grab hold of the opportunity to work for it without regulation.

    "The entrepreneurial instinct is in you. You can't learn it, you can't buy it, you can't put it in a bottle. It's just there and it comes out." - Alan Sugar


    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...sm-doesnt-work
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  7. #27
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    [ VIDEO ] shocking! Cabo vadillo comes to II City most violent of the World ' Caracas ' and it shows everything



    Cabo vadillo "CARACAS"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqz_Qbkscps
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  8. #28
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    With A Venezuela Default Looming, This Is What A BofA Banker Wanted To Look At First

    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/24/2014 22:00 -0400

    With a 66% chance of default/devaluation implied by the Venezuelan credit market, BofA economist Francisco Roriguez sprung an unusual question on the struggling socialist nation's central bank - Can you show me your gold?

    As Bloomberg reports, the answer was "yes"...

    He’d been itching to take a peek for years and now was the time to ask. With the government’s bonds sinking toward prices that indicate investors are bracing for the possibility of default, the country’s $15 billion of gold bars are crucial to ensuring debt payments are met.




    His first impression once inside the vaults? Those bars don’t take up a lot of room.

    “You picture that amount of money requiring a lot of space when, in reality, it all fits in five small cells that were not even full to the top,” Rodriguez, a Venezuela native who covers Andean economies for Bank of America Corp. in New York, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

    He said he started counting frantically in his head, summing up figures scrawled out on signs near each pile of the metal. By his quick math, the gold was all there.
    At least they have all their gold thanks to Chavez' repatriation, which is more than can be said about Germany.

    Gold accounts for about 71 percent of Venezuela’s $21.4 billion of foreign reserves, according to the World Gold Council. About $13 billion of the gold is held at the central bank in downtown Caracas, with another $2 billion at the Bank of England, according to Rodriguez. Those gold assets have grown in importance as Venezuela’s overall foreign reserves plunged 34 percent in the past five years, the result largely of a drain of its more liquid assets.

    The central bank didn’t reply to an e-mail seeking comment on the meeting. In a Sept. 23 note to clients, Rodriguez said the “rare” look at the gold was “largely symbolic yet reassuring.”

    “It’s not that the majority of the people doubt that the gold is there,” he said by phone. “But it’s one of these things that linger, something that’s nagging you and makes you wonder: What if it’s not?”
    * * *
    As one commenter noted, "It's quite sad when Venezuela's Central Bank demonstrates more transparency with its assets than The Federal Reserve."


    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...ted-look-first
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  9. #29
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Where Is Venezuela's 366 Tonnes Of Gold?

    Submitted by GoldCore on 09/25/2014 05:12 -0400

    Where Is Venezuela's 366 Tonnes Of Gold?
    * Where is Venezuela's 366 tonnes of gold?
    * Does Venezuela still control and own unencumbered it’s own gold reserves?



    Former President Hugo Chavez and a London Good Delivery Gold Bar (400 oz)

    * Is any of the country's gold encumbered, loaned or leased to Goldman Sachs or other banks?
    * Bank of America economist on visit to Venezuelan central bank last week was allowed to view the bank's gold vault and the gold repatriated by Former President Hugo Chavez
    * Is there a possibility of this given the Venezuelan economy's weak position?
    * An arbitration court of the World Bank ruled that Venezuela needs to immediately repay $740 million to US mining company 'Gold Reserve'.
    * Repayment is connected to Venezuela having terminated Gold Reserve's gold and copper mining project in 2009 as part of Chavez's nationalisation of energy and mining projects
    * This ruling could set a precedent for other companies to seek compensation from Venezuelan government during a time in which Venezuelan economy is weak and heavily indebted
    * Venezuela's international credit ratings will now be in an even worse state, as will its international bond servicing situation
    * Chinese have also lent to Venezuela in return for ongoing deliveries of oil. Could Venezuela now need to mobilise more of its gold again to help finance its debts? Will China seek to use its considerable financial and economic power to build a stronger economic and political relationship with Venezuela?
    * The confiscation also highlights the risks to precious metals mining companies operating in politically unstable countries and the stock specific risk of investing in mining shares


    Former President Hugo Chavez and a London Good Delivery Gold Bar (400 oz)

    Venezuela's gold reserves are back in focus after Francisco Rodríguez, a Bank of America economist, revealed in a client note yesterday that while on a visit to the Central Bank of Venezuela last week, his party was given a tour of the central bank's underground gold vault in Caracas and allowed to view the bank's considerable gold holdings.
    This includes the sizeable quantities of Venezuela's gold reserves that were very publically repatriated back to Caracas by President Chavez in 2011 and 2012.
    Rodríguez covers the economies of Venezuela, Columbia and Peru on behalf of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), and is a native of Venezuela, having also previously been head of Venezuela's Congressional Budget Office.
    Rodríguez was in Caracas last week for meetings with government and central bank officials including Nelson Merentes, the president of the country's central bank, the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV).
    According to the latest figures published by the World Gold Council (WGC), Venezuela holds 367.6 tonnes of gold in its reserves, representing 70.6% of its official reserves of foreign exchange and gold.
    At current market prices, the official gold holdings are worth nearly $14.5 billion. Venezuela is one of the few large holders of gold whose gold holdings represent such a high percentage of total foreign exchange and gold reserves, the other countries being the US, Germany, Italy, France and Portugal.
    Unlike the US, Germany and Italy, and possibly Portugal, Venezuela actually has the majority of its gold in its own vaults and not stored abroad. As to whether any of Venezuela's gold reserves are leased, loaned, collateralised or otherwise encumbered is another question.
    In August 2011, the Venezuelan government surprised the gold market when it announced that it would seek to repatriate, at short notice, 160 tonnes of its foreign held gold reserves back to Venezuela for safekeeping. The government also revealed at that time where its gold was located and in what form it was held.


    Celebrations as Venezuela’s gold is repatriated to Caracas in 2011

    Of the 366 tonnes held at that time, 154 tonnes was already stored in Venezuela, 99 tonnes were in custody at the Bank of England, 12 tonnes in custody with the Bank of International Settlements, and 17 tonnes in custody with JP Morgan. Another 82 tonnes of gold was held in term deposits with a group of bullion banks consisting of HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered, the Bank of Nova Scotia and BNP Paribas.
    Gold on term deposit earns interest for the central bank but the bullion banks that either accepted the original deposit or took over an existing term deposit would likely have sold or lent the gold in the market. Yet, they would be obliged to return the same amount of gold when the Venezuelans requested that it be repatriated.
    The Venezuelan significant repatriation request, in the summer of 2011 may have been a contributing factor to gold's strong price appreciation at that time, as market participants were forced to find 160 tonnes of physical gold bullion at short notice.
    The 160 tonnes of gold was transported back to Caracas with much fanfare in a series of flights from late 2011 to early 2012, with the last flight carrying 14 tonnes of gold from Paris. The fact that this gold was sourced in Paris suggests the possibility that it was sourced from the Banque de France, meaning that the Banque de France may also have been involved in helping to secure the necessary physical to transfer to Venezuela.
    Wherever the repatriated gold came from, it is now residing in a vault in Caracas.
    Before the 2011/2012 repatriation, Venezuela held 211 tonnes of its gold reserves abroad. After bringing back 160 tonnes, this still leaves 51 tonnes outside the country. This remaining foreign stored gold is, according to Bank of America’s Francisco Rodríguez now held at the Bank of England.
    Rodríguez also revealed that the gold held in Banco Central de Venezuela vault is in approximately 5 smallish compartments, and that in his view, all the gold that would be expected to be in the vault is in fact in the vault.
    This would be about 316 tonnes of gold, which is just over 25,000 good delivery gold bars. With 5 compartments, that would be about 5,000 bars per compartment.
    In November 2013, Bloomberg revealed that both Goldman Sachs and Bank of America had proposed loan deals to Venezuela. Bank of America's proposal was said to involve the bank acting as an intermediary to facilitate up to $3 billion in payments for Venezuelan companies seeking US dollars.
    Goldman Sach's proposal was said by Bloomberg to involve a loan or swap of $1.68 billion in US dollars but collateralised by $1.85 billion of the Venezuelan central bank’s gold. That would have been about 47 tonnes of gold at the time.
    Banco Central de Venezuela denied that it was considering the Goldman Sachs deal, but its unclear if this swap was ever implemented.
    If it was, then part of the Banco Central de Venezuela's gold is currently spoken for. This would more likely be gold stored at the Bank of England than in Caracas.
    With the Venezuelan economy remaining weak and Venezuelan bonds dropping sharply in value, it may be just a matter of time before Venezuela needs to use some of its gold for borrowing purposes.
    Last week, S&P cut Venezuela’s credit rating from B - to CCC+. S&P said that they “assign CCC+ ratings in instances where we assess that issuers face at least a one-in-two likelihood of default over the next two years.”
    Hedge funds are said to have started looking at Venezuela’s debt with a view to possible default.
    On Monday in other gold developments in Venezuela, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an arbitration court of the World Bank for investment disputes, ruled that Venezuela needs to immediately repay $740 million to a US mining company called 'Gold Reserve'. This repayment is connected to Venezuela having terminated Gold Reserve's Las Brisas gold concession project in 2009 as part of the then President Hugo Chavez's nationalisation of Venezuelan energy and mining projects.
    This ICSID ruling could now set a precedent for other companies to seek compensation from the Venezuelan government during a time in which Venezuelan economy remains weak and heavily indebted. The ruling and earlier confiscation also highlights the stock specific risk inherent in precious metals mining stocks and the risks that these companies face when operating in politically unstable countries.
    As the Venezuelan currency and bond market lurches into another possible crisis, it looks like the large international investment banks are waiting to provide increased financing or restructuring while the hedge funds look to profit on the sovereign debt.
    The Chinese also supply financing to Venezuela on the understanding of getting continuous oil deliveries in return. Just last weekend the Joint Chinese - Venezuela Fund got an inflow of $2 billion from China to help with Venezuelan infrastructure and housing spending.
    With China on one side and US banks on the other, it will be interesting to see who ends up financing the lions share of any needed Venezuelan sovereign financing packages.
    Venezuela’s gold reserves may then come into play in some way or another.

    by Ronan Manly , Edited by Mark O’Byrne

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    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...zuela-how-long
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  10. #30
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Take Note that NO One is Running from America Heading to Venezuela for a Reason; so why in the Hell do Progressives want America to be a Socialist Country like Venezuela


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