Suddenly the NY Times is concerned about the economic viability of Venezuela
Venezuela Braces for Economic Collapse From U.S. Blockade
Even before American forces blasted their way into Venezuela’s capital and seized President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, the nation was already facing dire economic prospects.
The partial blockade imposed by the United States on Venezuela’s energy exports was expected to shutter more than 70 percent of the country’s oil production this year and wipe out its dominant source of public revenue, according to people briefed on Venezuela’s internal projections compiled in December.
The Trump administration’s decision last month to begin targeting tankers carrying Venezuelan crude to Asian markets had paralyzed the state oil company’s exports. To keep the wells pumping, the state oil company, known as PDVSA, had been redirecting crude oil into storage tanks and turning tankers idling in ports into floating storage facilities.
If the blockade held, the Venezuelan government expected national oil production to collapse from about 1.2 million barrels per day late last year to less than 300,000 later this year, said the people briefed — a drop that would significantly reduce the government’s ability to import goods and maintain basic services. The people had access to the projections and discussed them on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
OK, you see where this is going, Orange Man Bad for potentially maybe possibly seeing oil production crash. Even though one would think leftists who are usually climate cultists hate oil. And the money previously made was not going back into helping the people of Venezuela
Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate
Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, is a case study in the perils of becoming a petrostate. Since it was discovered in the country in the 1920s, oil has taken Venezuela on an exhilarating but dangerous boom-and-bust ride that offers lessons for other resource-rich states. Decades of poor governance have driven what was once one of Latin America’s most prosperous countries to economic and political ruin.
In recent years, Venezuela has suffered economic collapse, with output shrinking significantly and rampant hyperinflation contributing to a scarcity of basic goods, such as food and medicine. Meanwhile, government mismanagement and U.S. sanctions have led to a drastic decline in oil production and severe underinvestment in the sector. Though Washington eased some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas sector in 2023, signaling a potential détente, Caracas’s failure to meet conditions for a fair election prompted the U.S. government to reimpose sanctions in 2024.
Well, that’s one way to look at it, because it comes down to Venezuela being run into the ground by hardcore leftist dictators. Other petrostates are doing fine. And the above article was before Trump took office the second time.
(Economic Observatory) Living standards in oil-rich Venezuela plummeted by a staggering 74% between 2013 and 2023. This is the fifth largest fall in living standards in modern economic history.
The country’s economy collapsed under a single government during peacetime. But this economic implosion is comparable to those seen in Iraq, Lebanon and Liberia – countries that have been ravaged by war or civil war – or Georgia, Moldova and Tajikistan after the Soviet Union fell and brought down the state and entire economic system.
Venezuela had problems getting food to the point that zoos were being raided. They couldn’t get toilet paper and beer.
Here’s the UK Guardian as they attempt to say arresting Maduro was Bad and causing problems
“Anger,” said Sauriany, a 23-year-old administrative worker from Venezuela’s state-owned electricity company as she queued outside a supermarket on the other side of town with her 24-year-old partner, Leandro.
Leandro voiced shock as the couple waited in a 100-person queue to buy flour, milk and butter alongside a quartet of nuns. “Who could have imagined that his would happen? That right at the start of the year they’d bomb our country while everyone was asleep?” he asked. (snip)
But many locals were quietly rejoicing at the demise of a politician who many loathe for leading their oil-rich country into years of ruin and repression since he took power in 2013 and is widely believed to have stolen the 2024 presidential election.
The nation is already in economic collapse. It’s why about one third of the citizens left and moved to other countries: US, Argentina, Brazil, EU nations. Arresting Maduro didn’t lead to those food lines within a few hours. The Trump admin will use pressure to get reform into Venezuela via their oil production, which could lead to the ability to produce other products, like rice, corn, fish, tropical fruit, coffee, pork and beef in levels that would feed the citizens and allow exports. The nation needs political stability, and to actually rely less on oil revenues. We’ll see what happens, but, the current economic crisis is not because of Trump arresting Maduro, and can only get better.
William and the Venezuelans need not worry any longer.
trump has assured the world that he is now “running” Venezuela, and he has a wealth of experience with bankruptcies!!
Will the U.S. taxpayers get to pay for the oil that trump won’t allow Venezuela to sell? Oh joy.
trump is a political day-trader who doesn’t plan more than one day at a time.
He has two objectives – money and power.
According to Rimjob, the U.S. is the world’s largest oil producer but only has 15 years of reserves.
And, CumBreath?
Proven World’s Oil Reserves by Country
Ranked: The Countries With the Most Oil Reserves
Country
2024 in Billion Barrels
1 Venz 303,221
2 Saudi A 267,200
3 Iran 208,600
4 Canada 163,000
5 Iraq 145,019
6 UAE 113,000
7 Kuwait 101,500
8 Russia 80,000
9 Libya 48,363
10 U.S. 45,014
The US of A produces 23 million barrel/day, by far the most of anyone! Thank you, President Biden.
That’s about 8.4 Billion barrel/ year. Even you could do the arithmetic from there.
Globally, in 2024, consuming around 102 million barrels per day, or 37 billion per year. The world may have 2 trllion barrels proven reserves (it increases with new discoveries). That’s about 55 years worth at today’s consumption. But we have a thousand years of coal left!! CO2 would reach about 2000 ppm if we burn all the coal, oil and gas, but your boyfriends’ kids will have to worry about that.
Do you have any professional conflicts advocating for gas and oil? We know William does.
No wonder trump wanted Venezuela’s oil!! He’s just trying to secure America’s future, LOL.
Elwood P. Dowd says:
January 5, 2026 at 9:37 am
The U.S. is the world’s largest producer but with only 15 years of reserves.
Wanna try again, Rimjob?
We stand corrected. CumBreath cannot do simple arithmetic. Maybe one of your buddies will help you out.
The United States of America drills and produces 23 million barrels of oil every day. The United States of America has proven reserves of some 45 billion barrels. At the current production rate our reserves will last *2,000 days!! Yay. 2000 days/365 days/yr comes out to 6 or 7 years of oil left! But we’ll likely reduce production and increase proven reserves.
What is your estimate of proven reserves?
Do what you do best, you ignorant dungsack!!
______________________
*45,000,000,000/23,000,000 = 45,000/23 = 1,965 days
You were given a chance to correct your misleading comment and you still blew it, Rimjob.
You blew it. But you are good at blowing it, CumBreath.
Lol
Way way long ago back in 2024 the trumpets blasted
America First
Stop trying to fix fucked up countries
In the 60s in Vietnam it was “we had to destroy that village up save it from communism’
Do we really want to become nationally involved in Venezuela?
Does anyone else remember Afghanistan and Iraq?
Are we really going to vail out international oil companies because Venezuela nationalized them in 1976?
USA gas prices are low not because of Trump. USA ga as prices are low because global gas prices are low. Global gasoline prices are T $1.75 gal. About 15% lower than 1 year ago. The reason is lower global Demand. The the global economy never really fully recovered from the Covid/Trump epidemic nor the supply chain disruptions of Trump’s on again off again tariffs.
Affordability is actually more a fear of future job losses
Did anyone actually believe that 4.3% GDP growth?
Did anyone really believe that narco terrorism have anything to do with the USA deposing bad government in Venezuela?
Lol and the Epstein cover-up continues with Trump in fact blurting out in answer to a reporters question about refusing to release unredacted Epstein files and videos ” they can’t be released it would hurt my friends”
Bill Clinton Called for the complete release of all the holes unredacted.
Teach do you think Trump is afraid to release all the files?
Do you think Trump could be indicted for sex crimes against minors ?
Don’t believe for a second that Donnie’s Ocean Armada (DOA) is in place only for Venezuela. He will time his actions strategically. He wants to “take back” the Panama Canal. He wants to make money off Cuba. He’s pissed at Colombia’s prez. All of Central America needs to be disciplined. And then Mexico.
He will space these out. All the way to the mid-terms, where his billionaires will “invest” billions to keep the House and Senate neutered. After all, Elon “bought” PA and the upper midwest for just a quarter billion and now is the world’s first trillionaire!! An excellent return on the investment!! They love money!
” one would think that the leftists who hstecoil would be …….”
“One would think that the rightists would be horrified at the thought of stoping oil production….. ”
Most leftists recognize the immediate necessity of using fossil fuels. Most also are pleased that individual Americans carbon footprint has been decreasing on average about 1% per year for the last 20 years. Does that make you sadz Teach ?
What is the cause of the unemployment skyrocketing is it because of the migrants refusing to go to workout of fear?
Hugo Chavez nationalized the oil industry, replacing skilled and professional American leaders, professional, and technical employees with Venezuelans who simply did not know what they were doing, and the oil industry started experiencing management and technical problems. Shocking, I know.
Hugo Chavez
nationalizedstole the oil industry from the people who created it…Fixed it for you.
The root of communism is theft. It’s always theft. Whether it is taking the means of production from the people who worked generations to create the capital investment, or it is taking the political power from elected or aristocratic people, it is always the communists taking stuff that doesn’t belong to them and sharing it with their friends. Sure, they will talk a good game about collectivism, land reform and workers rights, but in all of human history, it has always just been theft in practice. If you have something nice, there is always a communist who has noticed and wants to take it from you.
Communism in practice is largely a failed ideology, not the least because of the seemingly inevitable slide into totalitarianism.
There are 5 communist nations left: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam. China and Vietnam have both incorporated market-oriented reforms.
Unbridled capitalism has long-term problems as well – monopoly, income/wealth inequality, environmental degradation, exploitation of labor, disproportionate political power, etc.
According to NPR, as of December 18th, 317,000 federal government jobs were ended. That would contribute to the unemployment numbers, but it’s the unemployment we wanted to see. This is for what we voted!
A large number of those were people who were already in the zone for retirement and took the deal of early retirement + continuing full pay until 30 Dec 2025, so they are not technically “unemployed”. They were still getting paid and then went into retirement. They left the job market entirely. Only the silly people like the HR DEI executives left the job and went into unemployment. And with NGOs and universities getting unfunded by cuts in USAID grants, there were no NGO/university jobs for them to transition into without fierce competition. Ask yourself, what does competition look like among people who have no skills. What do you offer a future employer when you have NOTHING to offer? Only party loyalty.
“Democrats solemnly remember Jan. 6th anniversary, the only riot they didn’t like….
BB
“Democrats solemnly remember Jan. 6th anniversary, the only riot they didn’t like….