Venezuela tops list of most miserable economies amid financial collapse

Immense debt levels, skyrocketing inflation, declining oil revenues, socialist nutjob policies and a corrupted political establishments. These are all elements contributing to the collapse of the Venezuelan economy.

Thanks to Hugo Chavez and his successor, President Nicolas Maduro, who recently declared an “economic emergency,” (SEE: Venezuela’s economic collapse deepens with 141% inflation, 7.1% GDP contraction) the Latin American “socialist paradise” topped the list of most miserable economies for the second consecutive year.

According to Bloomberg’s list, which ranked 63 economies using data points like inflation and the unemployment rate, Venezuela tallied 159.7 for the 2016 misery index.

Venezuela’s expensive socialist state is on the brink of collapse, despite the insistence of the government that these elaborate and unaffordable programs must stay. The bolivar has essentially been wiped out, shortages are widespread and everyone is suffering. Getting rid of these programs is the only next logical step for the stubborn leadership.

Here’s a chart courtesy of Economic Policy Journal:

Back to the list. Second on the Bloomberg list was Argentina, followed by South Africa, Greece and Ukraine. These are countries suffering from high joblessness, and some are going down because of weakening fiat currencies.

What are the happiest economies in the world? Thailand, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and Japan.