What exactly is going on in Venezuela and why? I thought they were just overly dependent on oil and collapsed when the oil prices dropped so sharply, but everyone seems to think it's more important than that.
What exactly is going on in Venezuela and why...
Henry Cook
Other urls found in this thread:
youtube.com
youtube.com
twitter.com
Levi Clark
It's a mix of that and purposeful economic sabatoge. I forgot the exact term for it, but groups in venezuela are purposefully hoarding goods in order to create an artificial shortage, with corporations allowing tons of flour and other goods to rot instead of selling them.
Justin Allen
Currency collapse
Their oil became worthless because it's some of the lowest quality (but highest quantity) raw crude on the planet, so it costs more for them to extract it than most other countries. As the price of oil lowered, they could no longer efficiently break even on oil extraction… so nobody traded with them for a while
Well, oil was basically Venezuela's only export. As a result their exchange rate slowly slid because they still wanted to import shit. That sparked a period of hyperinflation and mass shortages which in turn sparked mass civil unrest
Basically they were too dependent on oil, didn't know shit about international trade, and lost the support of the local populace. If they had developed literally any other industry to be competitive on the international level, this wouldn't have happened
James Price
The situation was caused by the nationalization of oil, which the country depends on, which they then used to pay for insane amounts of welfare. Then the aforementioned oil price issue screwed their industry, putting the welfare that had become such a huge part of the citizens' lives. The Venezuelan government, being run by fucking idiots if you couldn't already tell, then decided to compensate by instituting terrible policies like price controls and wage setting, all in an economy that was still capitalist outside the large nationalized oil sector.
There is some sabotage going on, but those are "just" attempting to prevent the situation from being remedied. The situation itself was caused by Maduro and his braindead administration. Never trust reformist succdems.
Carson Hall
Venezuela: to get a background, watch this video, the guy explains it pretty good.
youtube.com
Oliver Ross
the tldr version here:
youtube.com
Connor Gomez
...
Evan Peterson
Don't the Saudis also control their own oil?
Jackson Green
Petro dollar my man. Saudis can only sell their oil using US currency. Been that way since FDR
Jayden Price
Being too weak to resist your enemies isn't an excuse for failure.