By Nathan Crooks and Jose Orozco, Bloomberg News, Nov. 25, 2011

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s move to expand price controls this week sparked panic purchases by consumers, leading to shortages of everything from coffee to toilet paper. People are buying more than they need to stock their homes and resell the products at a profit in the black market, Food Minister Carlos Osorio said yesterday on state television. [....]

Under regulations that took effect on Nov. 22, the government can fix the price of 15,000 goods in an attempt to slow inflation that reached 26.9 percent in October, the highest in the Western Hemisphere. [....] Speaking on state television today, Chavez said that he had detected “capitalists” hoarding thousands of kilograms of powdered milk, coffee and cooking oil and threatened to nationalize companies and factories caught stockpiling goods. “I’m at the front of this operation, and we’re going to occupy factories and companies,” Chavez said. “We’re going to nationalize what needs to be nationalized. The bourgeoisie hoard milk, sugar and cooking oil and then blame me. But it’s their fault, the hoarders.” [...]