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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| For Venezuelan Regime, the Party's Over | |
| 2014-02-19 | |
According to a source in Venezuela's Central Bank, the country's international reserves have dwindled to $21 billion -- less than half the reserves of Colombia, an economy of the same size. Worse yet, $12 billion of Venezuela's dwindling reserves is in the form of gold that is claimed by China as security for more than $30 billion in loans made in the last two years. Because Venezuela is not keeping up with oil deliveries to service that Chinese debt, the gold cannot be touched. Another $7.5 billion of the reserves is in the form of bonds issued by Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua, a source in the Central Bank told me. Apparently that amount used to be held in U.S. Treasury bonds, but the regime traded these for useless paper from some of the region's most insolvent countries. These bonds cannot be liquidated for cash because they are worth less than their face value, making their sale illegal under Venezuelan law. Thus, what is left in the bank is less than a half-billion dollars, which would cover the cost of about two weeks worth of imports. So shortages of essential goods will worsen in the days ahead. After nearly two decades of mismanagement and corruption, oil production is faltering and over-subscribed -- committed to domestic consumption and China, and international giveaways to Cuba, the leftist party in El Salvador, and the Caribbean. Sources say that Rafael Ramirez, the president of the Venezuelan state energy company PDVSA, will have to terminate these giveaways. He also will continue to shortchange China in order to generate revenue by maximizing oil sales to the United States. However, a woman is only as old as she admits... this scramble for cash is both inadequate and unsustainable in meeting Venezuela's needs. So, history will record that a revolution dedicated to "Socialism of the 21st Century" disintegrated for lack of U.S. greenbacks. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Why do things always have to get so dire before people clue in to the socialist lie? |
| Posted by: Iblis 2014-02-19 18:58 |
| #3 "Eventually, Socialists run out of other peoples' money [to spend]." Margaret Thatcher (PBUH). |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2014-02-19 10:03 |
| #2 Reaping the inevitable from the three tenets of socialism - Thou shall covet Thou shall bear false witness Thou shall steal |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-02-19 08:12 |
| #1 All that will happen is Venezuela will default and like Argentina it will blamed the problems on its creditors and institutions like the IMF. |
| Posted by: BernardZ 2014-02-19 08:05 |