CARACAS, Venezuela - Last Christmas, devastated Venezuela saw shortages of everything from tinsel to toilet paper. This year, the socialist government has given a weary nation an unexpected holiday gift.

The sight of huge corporations swallowing up small businesses is where the term “free market” takes an ironic turn. Big C’s “mobile grocery stores” are just a glimpse of the nightmares that await us in an age when monopolies hide behind “noble” claims.