Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Matias Vernengo — Is Venezuela a threat to the US?


Matias knows a thing or two about Latin America. Here is his take.

Naked Keynesianism
Is Venezuela a threat to the US?
Matias Vernengo | Associate Professor of Economics, Bucknell University

4 comments:

Dan Lynch said...

Agree with everything that Matias said, but was more interested in his link to Celso Furtado:

Furtado soon realized that the presence of an abundant natural resource - in this case the oil - producing a structural surplus in the external accounts and maintaining the exchange rate in a position incompatible with the diversification of the local production base. ... As oil production and activities directly related to it only absorb a small portion of the population, the vast majority of Venezuelans remained in low productivity activities. Hence the expression, seemingly paradoxical, that Venezuela was an atypical case of "underdevelopment with plenty of currencies".

Also known as Dutch Disease.

Matt Franko said...

Right Dan ... tptb may be forecasting a humanitarian crisis down the road if oil goes down even more.... they might not be in a position to even feed themselves. ... and would head north to invade the US foraging for food.... millions of them.... chaos.... rsp

Matt Franko said...

Europe should be looking at the same issues wrt their southern flank MENA instead of taking turns trying to F each other over ....

Ignacio said...

Matt what you mention is an other demonstration of the big mess that is Europe.

The southern countries have to stop the hordes of Muslim invaders while the northern countries moralize them about how to do (or not) it and do not pay for the costs. And at home they moan about rising immigration.

The whole MENA region is going to be a source for some huge conflicts the next decades.