Socialism = Penury, Says New York Times

Last week the New York Times ran a series on the current near famine in southern Africa. The following line appeared in passing in the story:

War wrecked Mozambique's economy; socialism and plunging copper prices reduced Zambia to penury; Zimbabwe's economy collapsed after the government seized its richest farms, which were owned by whites.

Perhaps some small amount of progress is being made when it is the unremarkable conventional wisdom in the New York Times that "socialism" reduces countries to penury.