<story><title>When Boris Yeltsin Went Grocery Shopping in Clear Lake</title><url>https://www.nhregister.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php#photo-6130393</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>smogcutter</author><text>Alright I got one:&lt;p&gt;So it&amp;#x27;s a chilly Thursday morning in Brno, and everybody&amp;#x27;s in line to buy meat. They&amp;#x27;re waiting and waiting, and the line&amp;#x27;s not moving at all.&lt;p&gt;Eventually a Party official comes out and says &amp;quot;Due to the conspiracy of wreckers, there isn&amp;#x27;t enough meat. All the Jews need to get off the line&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;So the Jews all get off the line and go home, but still everyone&amp;#x27;s waiting and there&amp;#x27;s no meat. Hours pass, and eventually the Party official comes back: &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m sorry to report that there&amp;#x27;s still not enough meat. Everyone who&amp;#x27;s not a Party member needs to get off the line.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;So all the non-party members get off the line and go home. But still all the Party members are waiting and waiting, no meat. After another two hours waiting in the cold the official comes back and says, &amp;quot;We&amp;#x27;re sorry but there&amp;#x27;s no meat today. Everybody get off the line.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;As they&amp;#x27;re walking away from the line, one of the people who was waiting turns to the other and says: &amp;quot;You see? The Jews always have it the best!&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>When Boris Yeltsin Went Grocery Shopping in Clear Lake</title><url>https://www.nhregister.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php#photo-6130393</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dmix</author><text>The same thing happened in Venezuela in the early 2000s when they initiated price controls to make food more &amp;quot;affordable&amp;quot; for the poor. The variety of products was the first thing that dropped to only the necessities. Then even the necessities started to drop in supply:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Further yet, price controls, expropriation of numerous farmlands and various industries, among other disputable government policies including a near-total freeze on any access to foreign currency at reasonable &amp;quot;official&amp;quot; exchange rates, have resulted in severe shortages in Venezuela and steep price rises of all common goods, including food, water, household products, spare parts, tools and medical supplies; forcing many manufacturers to either cut production or close down, with many ultimately abandoning the country as has been the case with several technological firms and most automobile makers. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Economy_of_Venezuela#1999–2013&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Economy_of_Venezuela#1999–2013&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>