A few days ago, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez devalued the bolivar. This comes as no surprise. As I wrote in this space in November,

Buffeted by the fall in oil prices and high inflation, there are signs that the Venezuelan economy, and with it Chavez himself, is almost certainly going to implode. He may be able to buy time with various measures to stabilize his currency (the bolivar), such as the sale of dollar-denominated bonds to those willing to risk the investment, but the long-term outlook for the economy is dim…

Inflation is the highest in Western hemisphere, officially around 30%, but likely higher. All this drives demand for a more stable currency such as the dollar. The recent issuance of dollar-denominated Venezuelan bonds, purchasable in bolivars, is intended to soak up the demand for dollars and allow the purchaser to obtain a rate somewhere between the official and the parallel market rate. The big question, of course, is whether Venezuela can make good on the promise…

This weekend, Chavez devalued the bolivar right on cue, sending the people of Venezuela scrambling to buy goods which will spike in price once the measures take effect. The country actually has two exchange rates now – one of 4.3 bolivars/dollar, close to current black market rates, and the other subsidized at 2.6/dollar. The second rate applies to a few classes of goods deemed necessary for the country, including heavy industrial equipment, food and medicine, reported Reuters.

As usual, this will create privileged class of well-connected cronies who snag contracts to buy at 2.6 and sell at 4.3. This has been a recurring problem with the current CADIVI (the government office which controls foreign exchange policy in Venezuela) regime, and it remains a serious criticism of Venezuela’s tightly managed currency regime. Dual exchange rates have a long and ignominious history in Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. Indeed, Venezuela used to have a body called RECADI in the 1990′s, which established preferential exchange rates to strengthen certain sectors of the economy. As the black market adjusts to the new system and people strive to take advantage of the difference in rates, Chavez will find that the dual rate is not a sustainable system.

The move will benefit certain politically and economically vital industries, said several Venezuelan officials. State oil company PDVSA will get relief from stagnant oil prices, as each barrel of oil sold in dollars yields more local currency with which to pay many of its outstanding debts. Export industries like coffee will find their competitiveness increasing as Venezuelan exports become cheaper.

Chavez’s popularity may take a hit as prices rise. Indeed, the president has threatened to deploy the army in order to shut down and seize the stocks of speculators seeking to take advantage of price differences and shortages, according to the Financial Times. “Go ahead and speculate if you want, but we will take your business away and give it to the workers, to the people,” the British financial paper quoted him as saying.

At this time last year, Chavez did not even acknowledge the existence of a parallel market in the bolivar. For him to now create a dual-rate exchange scheme set near the level of that same black market deals a serious blow to the regime’s credibility and confidence.

Control of his planned economy is slipping through Chavez’s fingers. Eventually, he may realize that trying to strangle private enterprise and market forces will simply delay the inevitable. Hopefully, that realization comes before the country suffers too much more, as Venezuela faces a long and painful road back to economic health no matter what it does.

Global Finance magazine sought me out for comment in their latest issue. The article discussed the state of global credit markets and the significant distortions introduced by massive monetary expansion and stimulus.

Some analysts say government stimulus packages could prove to be a double-edged sword. “Injecting massive monetary stimulus into the world economy is like taking huge doses of anabolic steroids into your body; expect urges to take risks that you would not normally take, and to have some body parts shrink, while others bulge,” says Robert Smith, founder and managing director of Turan Corporation in Boston and author, along with Peter Zheutlin, of Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy. He says shrinking body parts are a metaphor for the US dollar, while commodity prices, high-coupon currencies, debt and equity prices, and Chinese real estate represent the bulges.

“Investors, crazed by monetary steroids, are playing Russian roulette with a pistol loaded with duration and credit risk. Investors are crawling out farther and farther on the yield curve looking for higher yields; they are taking greater and greater credit risks just to get a few hundred basis points above the paltry yields of US treasuries,” says Smith. He points to access to international bond markets by El Salvador, Angola, Nigeria and Vietnam, and the expected market return this year by Russia at just a few percentage points above US treasuries, as proof.

Overconfidence in the liquidity and creditworthiness of emerging markets led to minor panics in places like Greece and Dubai, as investors suddenly realized they had overestimated the security of those investments. It remains to be seen how long surging asset values can continue, but central bank interest rates will surely be a key factor.