11–20 of 80 posts
Scary times ahead for Venezuela. It's too bad it will be the average person paying the price for the corrupt few.
The "average person" is guilty of voting the communist government. Corruption is just the normal result of communism/socialism.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/25/exec...
when you cant sell assets, you cant repay a bond. PDVSA, the nationalized oil asset of the state of Venezuela, is now legally prohibited from dealing with US markets.
While this all seems to be a reasonable response to the Maduro leadership issues in the country, one becomes immediately suspicious of the US intent in latin america when Vice President Pence cites the motivation as 'ensuring democracy.' the sentiment has about a 40 year grim history in the region as it applies to US foreign policy.
If you run sovereign debt in a currency you don't control, you become a colony, not a country. Venezuela private firms should all be run through administration to wipe out the creditors and re-floated with Bolivar investment.
Nobody wants BSF. Plus the government does shenanigans with the exchange rate, with the official exchange rate having no relationship to reality. If you refloat debt in a different valueless currency that you control the exchange rate on, you're de facto defaulting - nobody wants your currency. They want hard currency. Re: currency you don't control, do you consider Ecuador a colony? They have debt in the sucre, whic…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "average person" is guilty of voting the communist government. Corruption is just the normal result of communism/socialism.
As two notable countries of significant interest to HN readers recently proved, frustrated voters are easily led astray by populist demagogues with big promises and low tolerances for truth-telling.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's never a completely true statement. It is much nearer false for Venezuela, where the last free elections filled their Congress with the opposition, and where people are literally fighting their government on the streets.
There was local elections a week ago and the government won majority.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "average person" is guilty of voting the communist government. Corruption is just the normal result of communism/socialism.
I’m just wondering... in which governing scheme is corruption not the default? I can’t think of any in use today by a country or large organization where it’s not there in one way or another. The only solution, I think, is to have an extremely low tolerance for corruption (and incompetence because that’s often what corruption is disguised as) such that anybody in power would be too scared to do corrupt shit because t…
On August 25, 2017, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order limiting the government of Venezuela's ability to access certain types of international financing. This would certainly curtail the governments ability to ease the pressure of bond payments. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/25/exec... when you cant sell assets, you cant repay a bond. PDVSA, the nationalized oil asset of the st…
These restrictions are forcing an inevitable outcome sooner. Venezuela's debt load is unsustainable for reasons entirely of Chavez and Maduro's doing (as well as the people who elected them in elections that were, until fairly recently, fair and free [1]).
Suspicion is good. Using baseless suspicion to deflect attention from a well-based problem is not.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Venezuela#Voting_...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's never a completely true statement. It is much nearer false for Venezuela, where the last free elections filled their Congress with the opposition, and where people are literally fighting their government on the streets.
There was local elections a week ago and the government won majority.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "average person" is guilty of voting the communist government. Corruption is just the normal result of communism/socialism.
I’m just wondering... in which governing scheme is corruption not the default? I can’t think of any in use today by a country or large organization where it’s not there in one way or another. The only solution, I think, is to have an extremely low tolerance for corruption (and incompetence because that’s often what corruption is disguised as) such that anybody in power would be too scared to do corrupt shit because t…