Who can stop the plunge? (Updated)
Here is the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2015: Caracas is one of the cheapest cities in the world. Here is the same source just two years ago, in...
Economy
"Nothing here except what people don't want"
I loved Efecto Cocuyo’s via crucis through several government-owned Farmapatria drug stores. “In the Ipasme location, we read the list to the sales person and he did not...
What is a dollar worth? Depends on who you know
Venezuela today has four different prices for the dollar – three of them official, one of them not. For basic imports (chavista code for “available only to Godgiven and...
An announcement about nothing
The Expectation-Disappointment cycle around Venezuela exchange-mechanism announcements is so well established by now, we barely get our hopes up any more. Today was no different. There was little...
Día Día speaks
(Día Día Practimercados is a small grocery store chain that caters to Venezuelans living in the country’s slums. Last week, they were taken over by the government. The...
The Guy Who Refinanced His House to Buy PDVSA 2037 Bonds
The horror…the horror…the HAT! Ross was so taken with the returns he enjoyed in 2011 that he had three green baseball caps custom-made with P-D-V-$-A on the front...
Earth to Jaua: we're broke
It’s funny how Minister Elías Jaua hasn’t fully realized how broke we are. Last week, the Minister, along with Infrastructure Minister Haiman El-Troudi, gave a bloated press conference...
It's the economic war, stupid!
Ever since scarcity began, Venezuelans were presented with a new phenomenon: “economic war.” Hazily defined and poorly communicated, economic war basically says that someone – the opposition, private industry,...
The Sound of 1.1 Trillion Pennies Dropping
People are starting to put 2 and 2 together. This Reuters report finds that 40 major U.S. companies have big-time exposure to the Venezuelan shitshow, in the form of...
Nicolás Maduro cracks down on Farmatodo
Farmatodo is one of the largest pharmacy chains in Venezuela. To our foreign friends, the Venezuelan equivalent to a Walgreens or a CVS. A productive family business that has...
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