Venezuelans Grapple With Maduro's Baffling New Economic Plan
- A strike doesn’t take as residents line at ATMs for new money
- Pricing chickens with a new currency and an epic devaluation
Beaten-down Venezuela on Tuesday began confronting a 95 percent currency devaluation and a regimen of economic controls that, after years of hunger and hyperinflation, landed like a hassle rather than a cataclysm.
Caracas returned to work after a holiday weekend that saw President Nicolas Maduro announce the devaluation and a minimum wage hike of more than 3,000 percent, decisions that were a tacit acceptance of the ubiquitous black-market exchange rate. They accompanied the roll-out of new banknotes that dropped five zeroes -- the second time such a measure was implemented in the past decade -- to simplify transactions. Many Venezuelans waited outside banks to get their hands on the new sovereign bolivares after months of living almost cashless.