Hugo Chavez arrests Sam the Butcher

CNBC: Hugo Chavez wants some meat.

It's getting harder to put meat on the table in Venezuela and the government of President Hugo Chavez is blaming the butchers.

At least 40 butchers were detained last week on charges of speculation for allegedly driving up their prices. Some say they were held at a military base and were later strip searched when turned over to police.

Cold cases are empty—or display only chicken—at many of Caracas' butcher shops. Chain supermarkets and crowded municipal markets often offer cuts, but only in small quantities.

Remember 2 years ago when oil spiked? As opposed to the 1970s, we didn't see any gas lines because we didn't put in price controls. Prices rose, speculators piled in, then they got burned in a spectacular collapse. Melonhead is too stupid to see the correlation.