Venezuela Outdoes The Onion

[Valin]

The Feed:

October 23, 2014

 

The lead story of that summit of satire, The Onion, on Wednesday told us the tale of supermarket worker whose “entire job consists of undoing the handiwork of the store’s self-checkout machines.” But it appears that yet again, whatever jokes The Onion can come up with, Venezuela can top in real life.

 

According to * The Wall Street Journal, the Bolivarian Revolution has succeeded so spectacularly that the government in the Venezuelan state of Zulia is now rationing groceries by scanning customers’ fingerprints. Naturally, though, the country that can’t keep toilet paper on the shelves is having trouble producing smoothly-functioning futuristic technology. The result:

 

(Snip)

 

We like to laugh at Chavismo here, but lately the scene there has become more laugh-lest-you-cry. Other Venezuelans interviewed by the Journal could not find diapers or soap, and many had the water cut off in their houses for up to 108 hours per week. National default might be right around the corner. Despite floating on a sea of oil, the thugs who govern Venezuela have managed to run it into the ground. Its people are the ones paying the price.

 

 

* Behind Paywall, try Google

[Valin]

Venezuela Burns Money, China
October 24, 2014

The only thing in a sorrier state than Venezuela’s finances is Venezuela’s ability to handle the sorry state of its finances. The petro-state’s strategy seems geared toward maximizing the suffering of its people while minimizing its chances to ever turn things around. Case in point: Venezuela is defaulting on promises to its ally, China. The FT reports:

Last week, Venezuela’s national gazette made it official that Caracas no longer needed to export 330,000 barrels bpd to China to pay for its loans. Instead, according to BancTrust, a boutique investment bank, PdVSA can now send as much or as little oil to Beijing as it wants. Furthermore, the terms of the loans have been extended beyond their current three years, perhaps indefinitely. China’s Ministry of Commerce has since confirmed the changes, pointing out they were made at Venezuela’s request.

[...] China apparently agreed to the debt rescheduling perhaps because its banks believed in taking the long view. After all, Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves – so one day it will pay. But was the rescheduling China’s preferred choice? As the old saying goes: if you owe the bank $5, you have a problem, but if you owe the bank $5m, the bank has a problem. Either way, China is unlikely to be a source of fresh finance for Venezuela from now on.

(Snip)