Stories coming out of Venezuela in the past days, weeks and months have been disturbing to say the least, and inflation is out of control. On the latter point, this helps put it into jaw-dropping perspective:

This morning I took a friend for breakfast at a hotel in Venezuela. It cost about $4.50. This is how I paid. pic.twitter.com/qvPsLiYaii — Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) March 22, 2019

And from the side: pic.twitter.com/2JKx9LNgPI — Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) March 22, 2019

Wow!

did they count it or weight it? — Oliver (@orvtech) March 22, 2019

I counted it. Took about 5 minutes — Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) March 22, 2019

but, us, the Venezuelan people ( the "regular one") we don't have access to that amount of cash. — Psicoloco (@acosta2602) March 22, 2019

Yes and it was very very very veeeery hard to locate. There is almost no cash here in Venezuela anymore — Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) March 22, 2019

That’s amazing and terrible all at the same time.

this is unbelievable. you'd need to carry a backpack stuffed full of cash around with you https://t.co/49tD1ffbcc — Alex Sarnowski (@Sarnowaj) March 22, 2019

It takes a sick genius to make money worth this little… https://t.co/tab0eL0EIP — Michael Deibert (@michaelcdeibert) March 22, 2019

The paper the currency is printed on probably costs more than $4.50. — Joshua Decter (@joshuadecter) March 22, 2019

Socialism at work. Send this to AOC. https://t.co/1wGEFc33q3 — Ugonnia (@AustinYugo) March 22, 2019

AOC and Sanders would probably argue that “Democratic socialism would have far different end results!”