Imagine blaming the rain for the leaks in your ceiling. It doesn’t make sense, right? And yet this is what is going on in Venezuela’s public sphere, as government officials blame natural cycles in prices for the problems caused by their own mistakes. Predicting the behavior of any economic variable is a thankless task. Oil prices…
Prosperity is more than just material wealth. It is also the joy of everyday life and the prospect of being able to build an even better one in the future. Under this premise, The Legatum Institute –a London based public policy think-tank- created the Prosperity Index six years ago. The Prosperity Index benchmarks countries using…
If you want to know more about Venezuela’s economy, politics and history (and a little extra about Latin America), you should subscribe to the “Seis Por Derecho” videoblog. This is an initiative of Daniel Raguá (@danielragua), a good friend of ours, who happens to be a terrific young economist from Venezuela. Seis Por Derecho is…
On September 22nd we came across this Tweet: It reads, more or less, “8.92 million tourists confirm that #Venezuela is the most #Chévere [cool] destination”. This tweet seemed kind of misleading… and we were right. Those 8.92 million were domestic tourists, Venezuelans that mobilized throughout the country during the summer holidays. This number also meant…
It is rather irresponsible to make harsh statements without hard data to sustain them (thank you, Central Bank!), but we are going to go out on a limb and say that Venezuelans face multiple shortages on a daily basis. Now, we know that shortages (and rationing) are a side product of Venezuela’s failed Socialismo del Siglo XXI…
After a never-before-seen, jaw-dropping, soul-crushing three-month delay, the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV for its acronym in Spanish) published inflation rates for June, July, and August. But with the jumbled way in which they rolled out these figures, they might as well have saved themselves the trouble. So far, and according to these numbers, prices have risen by 39% in…
First came the man. Then came his famous signature. A little over a month ago came his own typeface. And who can forget the “get a tattoo of the Eternal President’s face and signature for free. Yes, free!“…? But now, it seems that the love and admiration for this man has reached a new height. Hugo Chávez…
Our calendar says it’s 2014, but Venezuela seems to be stuck in the XXth Century: we are dealing with the return of malaria, and shortages. Yes… the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world is -ironically- filled with empty supermarket and pharmacy shelves. Needless to say, Venezuela is in a recession. Again. And now,…
The Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL for its acronym in Spanish) published its Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2014. After downloading the report, the first thing we looked for were GDP growth estimates. It’s sad, but not surprising, that Venezuela is the only country in the region that CEPAL expects to have…
The Venezuelan Ministry of Torism has just released the Adventures of Cheverito, a comic that revolves around an eco-friendly Venezuelan – Cheverito (how many meetings did it take to come up with that?) – who travels around the country alongside his trusted companion Eco. After identifying the cost of Cheverito’s adventures in Venezuela – anything but cheap -,…
Every year, AméricaEconomía releases a ranking of the 500 largest companies from Latin America. This year, 5 of the 10 biggest companies in the region are part of the oil/natural gas industry. The semi-public Brazilian multinational energy company, PETROBRAS, came at number 1. And the Mexican state-owned petroleum company, PEMEX, came at number 2. Venezuela’s…
On July 3rd, our Twitter TLs were filled with the rumor that Rafael Ramírez would leave PDVSA to occupy the Executive Vice-Presidency of Venezuela. On July 8th, President Maduro said that Ramírez would stay in the cabinet “because he is the leader of the economic cabinet, the economic team, and the goal is to destroy…
First came the man. Then came his famous signature. You can put it on your nightstand for just BsF 850. You can use it to watch over your house keys. You can wear it on your wrist, or near your heart. You can even have it tattooed onto any part of your body. Buildings bear his mark.…
Venezuelans are taking extra precautions to protect ourselves and our belongings. What are these precautions, you might ask? Well, to give you a sense, we made this short list over lunch hour … and let’s just say that we decided to skip dessert. The saddest part of it all is that most of the things…
Less than an hour after the closing of the polling stations, we learned that Oscar Ivan Zuluaga –Uribe’s boy- pushed President Santos to a presidential runoff vote, actually beating him in the 2nd round of Colombia’s presidential election. What shocked Venezuelans the most? How quickly they announced the results. Venezuela is said to have one of…
Caracas Chronicles 