Earlier quoted context omitted.
Talking about Venezuela, US or both?
In the US the money mostly goes to AI companies it seems.
Not to all, only to those who are in line with the president...
Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
101–110 of 111 posts
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#102They should do an Argentina. Every 10 years or so Argentina defaults on it's debt. The next day banks/hedge funds line up to loan it money again. The ways of finance are mysterious. > The country has defaulted on external sovereign debt nine times since independence: in 1827, 1890, 1951, 1956, 1982, 1989, 2001, 2014, and 2020. Three of those defaults occurred since the year 2001. https://maseconomics.com/argentinas-r…
Argentina's interest rate is ~30% right now. So I would argue both the investors and the Argentinian government are aware of how risky these loans are.
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#103[dead]
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kinda, if you're the oil industry you are allowed to invest in Venezuela. But in a deep irony it seems like the oil industry is mostly uninterested. I kinda wonder if the White House has just forgotten about Venezuela - there's not any clear reason they are still under general sanctions.
The reason for the reticence by the oil industry may well relate to the nature of the deposits. Although Venezuela has huge reserves they are tar sands[1] which are extremely expensive, industrially intensive and environmentally destructive to extract. Most oil companies don't have that much experience in extracting tar sands also. And that's not to mention the optics and political backdrop. Oil companies are used to…
You can do similar oil sands development with much less risk in Alberta, which might be a bigger reason. Its not like itll be cheaper getting the bitumen to Texas by boat than by pipeline
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not a bad policy, considering America's disastrous history of spreading democracy and then finding out those voters want different shades of fascism
America has more history of destroying democracies and actively proping/helping dictators then of trying to create democracies. It did made germany democratic after wwii. That really happened. But then it has stream of helping dictators and killing democracies while being acting confused when locals did not appreciated it ... and when different violent movements joined the game. America is even supporting fascists pa…
> Where exactly this happened, really?
Iraq, Egypt, Gaza, Post-Soviet Russia comes to mind among others
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
America has more history of destroying democracies and actively proping/helping dictators then of trying to create democracies. It did made germany democratic after wwii. That really happened. But then it has stream of helping dictators and killing democracies while being acting confused when locals did not appreciated it ... and when different violent movements joined the game. America is even supporting fascists pa…
> Where exactly this happened, really? Iraq, Egypt, Gaza, Post-Soviet Russia comes to mind among others
Any government that isn't democratically chosen is illegitimate. Better a democratic fascist government than a dictatorial fascist government, which will have to be more brutal to maintain power.
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Where exactly this happened, really? Iraq, Egypt, Gaza, Post-Soviet Russia comes to mind among others
Any government that isn't democratically chosen is illegitimate. Better a democratic fascist government than a dictatorial fascist government, which will have to be more brutal to maintain power.
And you suppose the Nazi party that had won a large enough of the seats to enforce democratic consensus is also better than any alternative?
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any government that isn't democratically chosen is illegitimate. Better a democratic fascist government than a dictatorial fascist government, which will have to be more brutal to maintain power.
And you suppose the Nazi party that had won a large enough of the seats to enforce democratic consensus is also better than any alternative?
Do you think a government not supported by its populace would have fared better? Unless it brutally represses it's opposition, it would be violently overthrown by the government that the people wanted, and then that government would do what the people wanted. The solution to a bad government isn't to install one that doesn't have the support of the people it governs.
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you suppose the Nazi party that had won a large enough of the seats to enforce democratic consensus is also better than any alternative?
Do you think a government not supported by its populace would have fared better? Unless it brutally represses it's opposition, it would be violently overthrown by the government that the people wanted, and then that government would do what the people wanted. The solution to a bad government isn't to install one that doesn't have the support of the people it governs.
What I am saying is that as often missed by American policy makers, bringing Democracy does not make a population automatically Liberal, and they often vote for disaster for both them and for the US.
Also, contrary to your theory, most of human history people were ruled by non-democratic governments that were deemed legitimate, so I think you are conflating the two
Re: Venezuela reveals $240B in debt it cannot pay (~$100B more than expected)
#110Smart move to acknowledge this and go for the debt restructuring while the current U.S. president sees Venezuela as his major foreign policy win. The government will be able to leverage that to get the U.S. government to push for far more favorable terms for Venezuela than it ever would have otherwise.
Like him or hate him, Venezuela has been quite literally a fabulous win.
In what sense exactly? Apart from that they caught a high-level criminal in a questionable way?