[WS:] It looks like the root cause of the problem. The same situation existed in Eastern Europe. The black market exchange rate of the greenback was about twenty times of the official rate. As a result, the imported goods were extremely costly. A pair of jeans that sold for $10-$12 in the US in the 1970s would go for the equivalent of a monthly wage.
However, it is not necessarily a result of "failed socialist policy".
Currency exchange rates are an important policy tool. If you want to encourage exports, you keep your currency artificially low in relation to the dollar so your products are competitively priced abroad. However, that hurts imports because imported goods are extremely expensive. If your domestic industry can supply those goods in sufficient quantities, this is not a big issue, but if it cannot - it is a problem. I am not sure which is the case in Venezuela, but judging from the article, the "price gauging" is on on luxury status goods - electronic gizmos etc.
for which it is difficult to find a domestic substitute, because glitzy marketing of such goods is the main part of their appeal. For example, you could buy domestic bluejeans in Eastern Europe but they did not have US brand labels so there was little demand for them, It would not surprise me if the same situation existed in Venezuela.
If this is the case, the problem is not as much as economic policy but human status seeking behavior. I do not see why a socialist state should make it easy for the proles to buy status symbols.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."