In almost every article about Venezuela, we're told that the economy collapsed because the oil price did.
Here is the price of crude oil adjusted for inflation.
Today, the price is almost three times higher than when Chavez took power.
There are two Venezuelas: the Venezuela of yesterday, prosperous and thriving, and the Venezuela of today: poor, corrupt and in the dark.
"Compra velitas, no hay luz," a Venezuelan man says to me at the border between Colombia and Venezuela, "Buy candles, there is no electricity". A few days ago, the Venezuelan military started allowing pedestrians to cross the Simon Bolivar bridge after closing the border completely in February.
A Team of FTN Editors talks to Gloria Alvarez in Washington DC. about South America, Socialism, Venezuela, Karl Marx, CheGuevara, Fidel Castro, Pinochet, the Libertarian Movement and much more...
In Venezuela, not only the main industries have been taken or highly regulated by the State, education has also been the victim of a totalitarian project that aims to manufacture a mass of serfs, while pursuing any individual with critical thinking.
As a Venezuelan and an economist, I believe we economists sometimes need to go beyond economic indicators. We need to speak from our hearts about our experiences. Only by doing this can we truly communicate the social implications of an economic collapse of this magnitude.
A growing number of people have no home to call their own.
Africa is known for its vast untapped mineral resources than any other place in the world. Its human and technological potentials are also limitless but all are greatly limited by the inability of leaders to solve problems affecting key areas towards development like agriculture and the electoral process.
I spent a long time deciding whether or not to post this. I don’t expect it will make my friends on the right or the left happy.
