Ban violent video games: Venezuela’s proposed legislation to fight high crime rate

Is Venezuela’s proposed legislation to ban violent video games in order to fight crime rate a façade of some sort?

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During the next couple of weeks Venezuela’s National Assembly will decide on a legislation proposed in September banning violent video games and toys. While parents are in support of a possible ban, Chavez’s critics are saying that this is just a cover up for the government’s failure to deal with the country’s high crime rate, which according to public polls is of concern to the public. Weekly, on average 152 homicides occur, which for a country the size of Venezuela is high.

Chavez’s critics also claim that even though the law could close internet cafes and arcades the selling of pirated video games would not be affected as the people selling these games are from the working class which make up the majority of Chavez’s electorate.

If Venezuela does go through with this law it would firstly become one of the few countries to ban the "manufacture, importation, distribution, sales and use of violent video games and bellicose toys," and secondly this law would give the consumer protection agency the right to chose the prohibited products and impose fines.

The 163 inspectors of this consumer-protection agency are already busy containing Venezuela’s high inflation rate, which for 2008 was estimated to be 30.4%.

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Australia raises interest rates

The model of a sound economy today, Australia's wealth is underpinned not by an excessive service economy but by raw materials people can't do without. This helps explain why the 'land down under' experienced one of the milder recessions of major industrialized nations. Aside from natural geologic advantages though, Australia has pursued a decidedly more prudent monetary policy. See:http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20091006/tbs-australia-first-big-economy-to-lift-5268574_1.html

Australia's regulators are already raising interest rates in a still weak world economy in a bid to stave off the full negative effects of their monetary 'easing.' Compare that to zero percent interest rates and continuing 'quantitative easing' in America. Of course, this is contingent on the idea that the Fed can, at the last moment, raise rates sharply to prevent rampant inflation from occurring. But with so many academic voices extolling the benefits of low interest rates and the economy far from positive growth, the Fed seems unlikely to tighten monetary policy soon enough and to the necessary extent.
see: http://mises.org/story/3432