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О злодеяниях венесуэльского режима:

(Reuters) - Venezuela's deepening economic troubles, and in particular the weakness of the bolivar and restrictive currency controls, have hurt U.S. corporate profits for the fourth quarter of 2014 and are set to inflict further pain this year.

In a likely sign of things to come from a number of companies this results reporting season, Ford Motor Co on Friday said it was taking a pre-tax charge of $800 million for its Venezuela business. It blamed Venezuelan exchange control regulations that have restricted the ability of its operations in the country to pay dividends and obligations in U.S. dollars.

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Companies often need approval from Caracas to raise prices amid soaring inflation. Sometimes that approval is delayed or the price hikes don't keep pace with a 12-month inflation rate currently at nearly 64 percent, threatening losses because of a mismatch between costs and revenue.

Before the move by Maduro, some well known U.S. companies, including Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Baker Hughes Inc and Brink's had already reported financial hits related to the bolivar over the past year.

“A wide swath of multinational companies with large operations in Venezuela will suffer from having to hold currency that is stuck in the country and depreciating in value," said Erik Gordon, professor of law and business at the University of Michigan.

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Overall, foreign companies have an estimated $16 billion in outstanding dividends listed on their balance sheets that they have not been able to return to headquarters, according to Caracas-based research firm Ecoanalitica. The actual value of those assets could, though, be considerably less, depending on the exchange rates.

At the end of the third quarter, for example, American Airlines Group Inc, had $721 million held in the Venezuelan currency, at a weighted average exchange rate of 6.41 bolivars to the dollar.

Theoretically, if the airline tried to repatriate all of that money into dollars at the current black market rate of 184 bolivars per U.S. dollar as quoted by the website dolartoday.com, it would only receive about $25 million.

"For a business like American Airlines, they have a bank account full of worthless monopoly money, and the only way it is worth something is if they can get an exchange," said Russ Dallen, head of Caracas Capital Markets in Miami. "But the government doesn’t have any dollars to exchange, in size. They can’t pull out because not only will they not get the dollar at the original rate promised but the Venezuelan government said they would take the travel routes and never let them back into the country if they did.”

Рейтерс продолжает радовать, не зря я их хвалил. Никаких абстрактных соплей про демократию, благодать свободного рынка и неэффективную экономику, честно объясняют, как и какие корпорации прищемили на конкретные суммы.

Ещё у рейтерса неплохое. После нашумевшей катастрофы в Бангладеш, где из-за полного наплевательства на технику безопасности при обрушении здания погибли больше тысячи человек, в основном работниц швейных фабрик, правительство таки озаботилось минимальными мерами по охране труда. Теперь буржуи рыдают крокодиловыми слезами, жалуясь, что ежедневно теряют из-за этого профит, что денег на обеспечение безопасности у них нет и что вся эта охрана труда наносит ужасный-пеужасный вред экономике. Что для экономики вообще было бы лучше наплевать на любую технику безопасности и потерпеть тысячу-другую трупов во имя рыночного процветания - открытым текстом не говорится, но явно чувствуется в каждом слове.