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2008-10-20 Caribbean-Latin America

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Posted by Fred 2008-10-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11126 views ] Top

#1 That's the thing about central bank money. One minute it's there, and the next, it's gone, as if by magic.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-10-20 00:25|| 2008-10-20 00:25|| Front Page Top

#2 Hang in there, Hugo. Three months and you should be able to get the US foreign aid you're requesting.

Posted by KBK 2008-10-20 00:32|| 2008-10-20 00:32|| Front Page Top

#3 Go hit up Joe Kennedy for some spare change, Oogo.

Posted by Seafarious 2008-10-20 01:03|| 2008-10-20 01:03|| Front Page Top

#4 OT --- Sea -- I think there have been a couple of APB's out for you. Just so you know.... it's nice to be missed.

Posted by Sherry">Sherry 2008-10-20 01:06|| 2008-10-20 01:06|| Front Page Top

#5 Venezuela was making plenty of money two and a half years ago, when oil was about the price it is now.

Posted by Tranquil Mechanical Yeti 2008-10-20 01:29|| 2008-10-20 01:29|| Front Page Top

#6 But since then Hugo bought a new place and he can't face the mortgages.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-10-20 01:41|| 2008-10-20 01:41|| Front Page Top

#7 We will know he has a problem if he cuts back his orders for aircraft, tanks and guns (unless he plans to use them to reinforce FARC in invading his neighbors).

Posted by tipover 2008-10-20 01:44|| 2008-10-20 01:44|| Front Page Top

#8 The US gets 10% of its oil imports from him. Arrgh.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-10-20 03:16|| 2008-10-20 03:16|| Front Page Top

#9 hindsight is 20 20. bobo failed to capitalize on the bubble in oil prices, unlike Saudi Arabia who pumped for all they were worth capturing a larger share of the bubbles, venezoo actually had declining production, believing that the bubble could be made to go higher through scarcity. now the price has receeded, and bobos production is still falling, his 40 billion will become 20 then 10 then 5. some suggest he will cut back on his adventures in modernizing his military....but he wont, again he'll increase his spending believing it will add too his power....it wont battle field assets are only as durable as the oppositions ability to counterprogram them, here too bobo, has mistook the essence and nature of bubbles.Soviet willingness to aid bobo in his end run around moral certaintude, speaks to the regularity of what lenin characterizes as long lines of useful idiots....who the revolution can always count upon, to meet the CPU's demand for extemporaneous largesse.

Posted by Spiny Gl 2511 2008-10-20 08:03|| 2008-10-20 08:03|| Front Page Top

#10 Capitalism: "Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated".

Socialism, being parasitic in nature, requires capitalism to feed off of.

Posted by Ulusoling Hatfield4645 2008-10-20 08:21|| 2008-10-20 08:21|| Front Page Top

#11 The problem is that it takes much more refining productivity and cost to break down his crude to gasoline and No. 2 fuel oil. If bunker C is goo - Venezuela crude is tar pitch. High sulfur also. Not the most environmentally friendly. There is some emulsification that can take place to allow to burn in atomized burners for power but it is more costly. Oil needs to be over $90 for them to net out.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2008-10-20 08:42|| 2008-10-20 08:42|| Front Page Top

#12 Chavez has compounded Venezuela's problems in several ways. He has underinvested in the oil sector and Venezuelan production has dropped. That drop, as much as 500,000 bbd, was masked by the rapid increase in prices, but will exacerbate the revenue drop as prices come down. Second, he has subsidized domestic consumption of oil, which has left less for revenue producing exports. Third, he has taken over most private farms, turning Venezuela, once self sufficient in food, into a massive importer of basic foodstuffs. Fourth, he has corrupted the financial sector, which now depends on government business for profits. Finally, he has nationalized most non-oil basic industries, which has left them unproductive.

The Venezuelan economy is poised for collapse and the Venezuelan people are going to suffer greatly.

Posted by DoDo 2008-10-20 10:59|| 2008-10-20 10:59|| Front Page Top

#13 The Venezuelan economy is poised for collapse and the Venezuelan people are going to suffer greatly.

10-1 BoBo isn't going to be hung by angry mobs when it happens either.

Posted by DarthVader 2008-10-20 11:10|| 2008-10-20 11:10|| Front Page Top

#14 Who knows, maybe Hugo will get his Allende moment yet. It's not like he doesn't have one coming for all the idiocy he's promulgated.

Posted by Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-10-20 12:07|| 2008-10-20 12:07|| Front Page Top

#15 The only country that pays cash for Hugo's oil is the US, the rest buy on easy credit terms. Cashflow as Hugo knows it would change in an instant if we stopped buying Venezuelan oil.

Posted by Minister of funny walks 2008-10-20 14:43|| 2008-10-20 14:43|| Front Page Top

#16 I wonder if we'll be seeing the steady stream of 1-800-Joe-4-Oil ads this winter.

Posted by Woozle Unusosing8053 2008-10-20 15:37|| 2008-10-20 15:37|| Front Page Top

#17 The US gov ~~wish~~ pipe dream plan is for Canada to ramp up by 3 million barrels/day their oil sands production to replace, if required, Venezuelan and Saudi imports. Though I'm not sure how many Canadians will agree.

This while there are many untapped energy reserves at home. ANWAR alone could already be producing 800,000 barrels a day or over 15% of US production, replacing the majority of Venezuelan imports. But our so called "leaders" are too damned myopic and vested in their little D.C. power games to actually lead the country into a sane future. Damn them all to hell.

Posted by ed 2008-10-20 18:07|| 2008-10-20 18:07|| Front Page Top

#18 Damn them all to hell.
Posted by: ed 2008-10-20 18:07

DOUBLE damn them all.... and Bernacke and Paulson along with them.

Posted by Besoeker 2008-10-20 18:08|| 2008-10-20 18:08|| Front Page Top

#19 Deflation. BOHICA for all the POS. heh

Posted by Last Breath Farm Resident 2008-10-20 19:47|| 2008-10-20 19:47|| Front Page Top

#20 800,000 barrels/day at $70/barrel is over $20B/year. That will support 250,000 middle class jobs or 750K-1M jobs if you consider that the money will circulate 3-4 times in a year instead of leaving the country.

That's what it is really about. Starving the middle class into pissed off lower class voters.

Posted by ed 2008-10-20 21:23|| 2008-10-20 21:23|| Front Page Top

#21 Hugo is in a curious pickle, like most south of the border tinpots. Argentina tried to break the mold by taking on UK, but thankfully Lady Thatcher was around to stop that - the rest of SA tyrants don't have the typical outlet of tyrants elsewhere - namely attack the neighbor. Bolivarian solidarity and all that make for a tricky situation - more amenable to the low-level meddling like the Sandanistas, or purely internal suppression.

Hugo's courting trouble already within Venezuela, and risks disaster if he tries anything overt against Colombia, and doesn't have any other useful enemies. There's little chance he could provoke us into anything approaching the Cuban situation - where we have our own axes to grind.

Unfortunately, ZimBob Mugabe is probably the likeliest mentor for him to follow - horrible for locals, not much effect on the rest of us.

Posted by Don Vito Omeling5062 2008-10-20 21:28|| 2008-10-20 21:28|| Front Page Top

23:58 JosephMendiola
23:57 3dc
23:53 General_Comment
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23:28 Sherry
23:28 CrazyFool
23:26 Sherry
23:26 General_Comment
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23:17 Capsu 78
23:13 Hyper
23:05 Thrinegum Jones8447
22:59 Barbara Skolaut
22:46 ex-lib
22:44 Jolutch Mussolini7800
22:42 Tranquil Mechanical Yeti
22:40 Jolutch Mussolini7800
22:39 Tranquil Mechanical Yeti
22:23 General_Comment