The appeasers
Venezuela’s economic crisis is showing no signs of abating, and people are increasingly frustrated – and rightly so. In lieu of this, the opposition umbrella group, the MUD,...
Life
Still searching for a narrative
The economic armaggedon Venezuela is undergoing gives the opposition a golden opportunity to break myths and lay the groundwork for the Venezuela of the future. Sadly, and barring a...
He traveled hard for the money
On Friday, January 2nd, Brent crude oil prices closed at around US$57 per barrel. Two days later, an alarmed Nicolás Maduro announced that he would travel to China...
Sobremesa chronicles
(This week I am starting a new Caracas Chronicles column: the weekly Friday-afternoon-suggestion-for-a-controversial-conversation-topic-over-Sunday-lunch post. Many extended Venezuelan families get together around the lunch table on Sundays, and after the meal...
The Dizzying Highs and Terrifying Lows of Living Off Somebody Else's Oil
My first post for FiveThirtyEight.com is up on their site now. Behold: It’s easy to lose sight of just how central Venezuela’s oil largesse has been to the...
Sounds like a whisper
Remember 1991? Back then, you heard about signs of trouble from several quarters. One day it was an important intellectual such as Arturo Uslar Pietri warning about a coup, the...
No shortage of violence
Public attention in the last few days has been all about the long, long queues in the country’s supermarkets, and the shortage of food and other basic products. But...
What is the state for?
The Venezuelan government headed East last week to beg for funds from the Chinese in order to save their Revolutionary State. Yet chavismo’s global treasure hunt, regardless of the outcome, is not...
The Week in Bullets
National Hoodlum’s Vacation On January 3rd the government was expected to announce the new economic measures for 2015. During that day we received a bunch of messages regarding the manner...
Maduro-in-China
After Richard Nixon went to China, historians began coining the phrase “Nixon in China” or “Nixon goes to China” to signal an unexpected shift by an ideological politician who...
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