'World of Warcraft' Game Currency Now Worth More Than Venezuelan Money (theblaze.com)

schwit1 quotes TheBlaze: Digital gold from Blizzard's massive multiplayer online game "World of Warcraft" is worth more than actual Venezuelan currency, the bolivar, according to new data. Venezuelan resident and Twitter user @KalebPrime first made the discovery July 14 and tweeted at the time that on the Venezuela's black market -- now the most-used method of currency exchange within Venezuela according to NPR -- you can get $1 for 8493.97 bolivars. Meanwhile, a "WoW" token, which can be bought for $20 from the in-game auction house, is worth 8385 gold per dollar. According to sites that track the value of both currencies, KalebPrime's math is outdated, and WoW gold is now worth even more than the bolivar.
That tweet has since gone viral, prompting @KalebPrime to joke that "At this rate when I publish my novel the quotes will read 'FROM THE GUY THAT MADE THE WOW GOLD > VENEZUELAN BOLIVAR TWEET.'"

Comments

Re:Leftism is incompatible with functioning econom

[MightyMartian]

Can you define "leftism"? Some of the most successful economies in the world could be defined as "leftists" if you include social Democrat nations like Sweden and Germany.

The Chavista regime certainly can be defined as leftist, but a more accurate description would be a kleptocracy.

Re:western bankers

[xenog]

Right, the CIA. I am Venezuelan. I know how this came to be. I saw it happen. If it wasn't for your signature I would have accused you of being a communism apologist coming up with another explanation that excuses the Venezuelan people for repeatedly and obstinately choosing an administration hell-bent on turning the the country into a communist utopia.

Re:western bankers

[mikael]

I thought the target was Saudi Arabia. Drive down the price of oil, so that they are forced to dip into their savings and rainy day funds. It might take a few years but eventually they will be living hand-to-mouth in terms of bringing money into the country.

The side effect was that Venezuela also suffered a loss of earnings from the oil industry. There was a national strike, the government punished those oil workers that supported the strike, froze wages and fired experienced workers like geologists. Now with that knowledge lost, the replacements make mistakes when drilling which causes damage to machinery. which causes further loss of productivity. So oil production is in decline.

An international web site called Oil Pro is actually shutting down: www.oilpro.com