“Mommy, can we get some French fries?” asked my daughter as we drove past the massive granite monolith that is the McDonald’s store of La Castellana in Caracas. “There are no French fries in Venezuela, baby” sentenced my wife. My daughter’s eyes dampened like that was the saddest thing she ever heard. And perhaps it was.…
Less than a week after announcing an open tender for bids on security paper meant for printing Bs.50 and Bs.100 bills, the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV), revealed that they are conducting a study on the merits of issuing a BsF. 500 banknote. That this realization is past-due would be an understatement: the graphic designs and printing sheet for…
On Tuesday evening, President Nicolás Maduro announced what in revolutionary newspeak is referred to as a sacudón (shake-up), otherwise known to the rest of the globe as cabinet reshuffle. The most noteworthy replacement happened in the Ministry of the Popular Power for Petroleum and Mining. Eulogio Del Pino, who is, and will continue to be, the chief of state oil company PDVSA, will be taking…
Somewhere between not publishing official economic data and overseeing a banknote printing frenzy on steroids, Venezuela’s Central Bank (BCV) still finds time for the mundane. According to this tweet from Bloomberg News correspondent Nathan Crooks, our maximum monetary authority just announced an open tender for the procurement of (and I’m not making this up) tuxedos for waiters. As in,…
There’s no doubt about it: The central government has a huge “bachaquero” problem, that is, thousands of people buying regulated goods and reselling them at black market prices to make ends meet. Instead of attacking the roots of this problem, that is, the spectacular price distortions that make waiting in line one of the most lucrative jobs…
Non-reading TSJ magistrates and Central Bank economist can rest easy, thanks to Nelson Bocaranda´s feature of Anabella and Barbara´s open letter to the TSJ in his prime-time radio show today. Maybe TSJ folks just needed our request in audio format to get the memo. Yeah, that´s probably it. Listen in to Anabella´s on-point interview, which…
Estimado TSJ, Nos enteramos de que rechazaste la demanda que Transparencia Venezuela interpuso contra el presidente del BCV, Nelson Merentes, por no publicar indicadores macroeconómicos, por considerar que no presentaron “ninguna prueba” que demuestre que le solicitaron cumplir con su obligación de publicar “las principales estadísticas económicas del país”. Somos economistas, así que no nos movemos…
Milagros Socorro broke Twitter yesterday with her reporting of a guajiro upheaval in the border town of Sinamaica. The Zuliana journo summarized the story in 26 tweets and then filled in the blanks with an article at Konzapata. Turns out a pissed wayuu crowd raided -as vikings do- the town hall of the Bolivarian Municipality of La…
Have you ever wondered where it all started? Bachaqueo, I mean – standing in line waiting to purchase price-controlled products in order to resell them in the black market. As I learned on my recent trip to Maracaibo, local lore has it that after gasoline smuggling had become a common reality in this border state, bachaqueo was born in a…
Yesterday was not a good day for businesses operating inside Venezuela. First, the government decided to expropriate significant parts of Polar, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi. The government claims the factories and distribution centers, located in Caracas’ working-class district of La Yaguara, were built on land they need for public housing. Never mind that the government is broke…
“On July 14th three pasta-making factories stopped working. Bread manufacturing could stop in October. The problem in both sectors is the same: lack of wheat. The reason for this is that requirements for importing wheat have not been approved, and the dollars approved have not been paid since last March. There is also scarcity of bottled water, because…
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been hearing dire warnings that unless Venezuela got its act together, it could just plain miss the short critical window of opportunity for monetizing its vast oil resources. “Other” technologies would inevitably catch up and make oil as irrelevant to the future as Whale Blubber was to our…
(Former CC intern Rachelle Krygier is back, and is reporting from Caracas.) Venezuelans go to bed not knowing if in the morning they will be able to find, let alone afford, basic staples. Providing for leisure activities for themselves or their families is so far beyond the pale, many have stopped thinking about it. And what…
It’s 6:30 PM, and it’s already pitch dark in Maracaibo, courtesy of Hugo Chávez’s tantrum that led to a change in the time zone a few years back. I’m having dinner with an old high school friend at the shore of the lake. The warm, humid July breeze brings with it a mixture of dust and nostalgia. We’re…
While I was in Caracas, I spoke to economist Asdrúbal Oliveros about what it’s like to be an economist in a country with, essentially, no economy to speak of. I wrote my latest Transitions piece about our talk. The sirloin: In order to come up with his numbers, Oliveros relies on a web of contacts…
Caracas Chronicles 