Venezuela Just Had A 'Let Them Eat Cake' Moment

In Venezuela, a plunge in oil prices, the country's main export, has turned a goods shortage problem into an unmitigated national disaster, but the tragedy seems lost on the country's food minister, Yván José Bello Rojas.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-food-minister-dismiss-shortages-2015-1#ixzz3OettZBMs

"I've been in tons of lines. I went to my favorite sports team's game this weekend, and I had to get in line to get a parking space. I got in line to buy my ticket. And then ... I made a line to get into the stadium. And you know what, I made a line to find my seat. And then you know what," Bello finished with satisfaction, "I went to go buy an arepa ... and I had to wait in line there, too."

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Earlier in the seven-minute interview Bello explained the shortage problem was not due to an unbalanced Venezuelan economy manipulated by government price regulation and bloated by government spending, but due to issues with distribution.

"The same people can't just go and buy the same products every day," Rojas said matter-of-factly, adding that one person couldn't possibly buy one gallon of milk per day, for example, even if they had the money to do it. "More than anything is a distribution problem because if any government has done their homework on food, it's this Bolivaran government."