Want the 40-second version of what socialism does to a country? Issues & Insight's John Merline has found a beaut in the research of economist Mark Perry, who brilliantly placed his findings from International Monetary Fund data on an animated video on YouTube.  Get a load: In 1982, Venezuela ranked number one among all South (Perry mistakenly uses the term "Latin") American nations and notes that this country was always in the top tier before Hugo Chávez came along in 1998.  Today, Venezuela has skidded to the unhappy bottom of the barrel, well below perpetual laggards such as Suriname and Bolivia. Merline writes: Of course, Venezuela is just the latest example of socialism’s failure. Despite the lure of "fairness" and "economic security" and "taking on the rich" — sound familiar? — every socialist country ends up in the same desperate...(Read Full Post)