By Victor Tangermann - Futurism
Venezuelans are faced with a terrible choice:
- Continue making purchases using the country’s almost-worthless local currency, the bolivar.
- Go to the black market and buy U.S. dollars.
- Flee the country.
It got this way because the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, made some pretty terrible economic decisions. For one thing, he put all of Venezuela’s (economic) eggs in one notoriously bumpy basket: oil. The country’s always had a lot of it, but for a long time, it was just one of many resources the country exported, along with heavy industry products (steel, aluminum, cement) and agricultural products like rice and corn. By 2017, though, oil had taken over, accounting for 98 percent of the country’s export revenue. And when the price of oil took a nosedive in 2014 (from $115 to just $35 a barrel), the Venezuelan economy plummeted, too.
Basically all domestic businesses took a big hit — imported goods cost more, so local businesses were forced to charge higher prices, even for basic necessities. People could afford less, so they spent less money, which meant the government made less money in tax revenue. And instead of increasing interest rates or cutting back its own spending, the government took exactly the wrong tack: printing more money.