Article

2015-10-30 Caribbean-Latin America

Venezuela starts selling off gold reserves

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Posted by Steve White 2015-10-30 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 As the saying goes:

What happens if commies take over the Sahara desert. It will run out of sand.

Posted by European Conservative 2015-10-30 00:27|| 2015-10-30 00:27|| Front Page Top

#2 "What kind of government does it take to bring a country with the largest oil reserves in the world to the brink of bankruptcy?" says Russ Dallen,

I'm gonna go with "Socialist" for that one, Russ. The amusing part, if tragedy on a national scale can be funny, is that this isn't the first time a country has done this.

Someone once explained to me that socialism works, the problem is nobody has done it right yet. Hey, maybe next time they'll get it right.

Posted by SteveS 2015-10-30 00:29|| 2015-10-30 00:29|| Front Page Top

#3 ...and tries to maintain its social welfare programs.

We all know the Margaret Thatcher quote on that one, like these dumb fucks will ever figure it out or admit they were wrong about it.

Posted by Raj 2015-10-30 00:30|| 2015-10-30 00:30|| Front Page Top

#4 "What kind of government does it take to bring a country with the largest oil reserves in the world to the brink of bankruptcy?" says Russ Dallen, managing partner at LatInvest, a Miami-based firm that invests in Venezuela.

This is comedy gold; I hope that 'investment firm' loses every god damned dime in their Venezuelan 'investments'.

Posted by Raj 2015-10-30 00:36|| 2015-10-30 00:36|| Front Page Top

#5 ...When the money does run out and they default, I'd love to see every multinational that Venezuela tried to extort/steal their property line up in front of a Federal court politely requesting immediate confiscation of their assets in the US...

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2015-10-30 05:44|| 2015-10-30 05:44|| Front Page Top

#6 The last gold delivery will be hand delivered by president Nic himself as he picks out his asylum condo.

Posted by Airandee 2015-10-30 06:18|| 2015-10-30 06:18|| Front Page Top

#7 It's ironic that Venezuela goes under during Obama's reign.
Will he take credit for it or will he bail them out?

Posted by jvalentour 2015-10-30 06:40|| 2015-10-30 06:40|| Front Page Top

#8 Oil isn't going to rebound to its high, ever, now.

The extremely high prices over the past few years served bad actors like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and the Blue State model rent-seekers in the alternative energy scam industry. High fossil fuel prices gave a false sense of economic solvency to wind, solar, etc., that bore no resemblance to reality.

We all owe the oil companies a great debt of gratitude for building all of those fracking wells the over the past few years. Yes, they are sitting idle right now and producing nothing because the price of oil is so low.

But the minute it gets to $70.00 per barrel, they will be running again. It only take ten days or so to restart a fracking well. So if there appears to be a major upswing, the fracking wells get turned on, and oil will now probably never get above $80.00 per barrel.

This effectively caps the ability of the Saudis to mess with the market. It insures that our energy costs at home now have a practical upper limit. It forces the alternative energy industry to either make it in a real market environment or be overt in terms of only existing due to subsidies and take the political flak for doing so.

It also limits the abilities of evil regimes like Venezuela to persist and be solvent.

Posted by no mo uro 2015-10-30 07:04|| 2015-10-30 07:04|| Front Page Top

#9 Blue State model rent-seekers in the alternative energy scam industry.

Excellent term of reference :-) Higher crude prices will return. When we will again see $80. oil, who knows. It was $3.75 pb before the oil embargo of the 70's so I suppose anything is possible.

Posted by Besoeker 2015-10-30 07:17|| 2015-10-30 07:17|| Front Page Top

#10 The Left believes in the fantasy that socialism is economically viable.

The Right believes in the fantasy that this is still a constitutional republic.

Both lie to themselves saying that if only the 'right' person was in charge it would all work.

Posted by Procopius2k 2015-10-30 08:43|| 2015-10-30 08:43|| Front Page Top

#11 "What kind of government does it take to bring a country with the largest oil reserves in the world to the brink of bankruptcy?" says Russ Dallen, managing partner at LatInvest, a Miami-based firm that invests in Venezuela.

Venezuela's oil is a high sulfur type oil that takes an expensive and complex refinement process to remove it, unlike the light sweet crude from the ME or Northern Europe (or fracking). There isn't a huge demand for it since it has to be shipped as crude to the US (which is the only major country in the world that can refine there shitty oil) and then sold as gasoline. So even though Venezuela has oil, not many people want it when the world is awash in better and cheaper to refine crude types.

So not only the socialist policies are killing the country, the fracking revolution is as well.

Posted by DarthVader 2015-10-30 08:58|| 2015-10-30 08:58|| Front Page Top

#12 This is what happens when the wrong type of socialists are in charge! It'll all be OK as soon as the right type of socialists take charge, just you wait and see!
It's all Bush's fault anyway!

Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839 2015-10-30 10:02|| 2015-10-30 10:02|| Front Page Top

#13 Socialism used to work. It was called the nuclear family. Dad worked to provide wealth and income. Together with Mom, they would budget and redistribute that wealth to the areas of the family which were in need. Things like housing, general welfare, maintenance, healthcare, food, safety, etc. even charity was important. Let's not forget education for the kiddies. Alas that model only worked within a capitalist system.

Posted by Lowspark 2015-10-30 11:31|| 2015-10-30 11:31|| Front Page Top

#14 Venezuela may still be #1 in terms of proven oil reserves, but looking at actual production, the U.S. tops the list, while Venezuela languishes down at number twelve. As I recall from discussions here, after Hugo Chavez nationalized the oil complanies, driving out the foreign staff, the equipment quickly began breaking down. And then there's the fact that he sold a good portion of Venezuela's future annual oil output to China at a price considerably under the market price at the time in exchange for a large infusion of cash. (It now occurs to me to wonder if that price is still below market, and what China might do if it is not.)

Posted by trailing wife 2015-10-30 12:44|| 2015-10-30 12:44|| Front Page Top

#15 ...depends on how they agreed to pay. Remember that was the time everyone was attacking the Yankee dollar and looking to use other currency. If the 'deal' was in Chinese currency, remember that in the last year the Chinese devalued theirs, which would mean they're already getting the effects of cheaper level of return on the payments.

Posted by Procopius2k 2015-10-30 16:35|| 2015-10-30 16:35|| Front Page Top

#16 TW Venezuela nationalized their oil company PDVSA many years ago. It was the pride of their country, a professional, non corrupt arm of the pueblo. This died in 2002'after the general strike. Some day day I will go back and send pictures, I hope.

Posted by Shipman 2015-10-30 17:05|| 2015-10-30 17:05|| Front Page Top

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