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Countdown to Newsprint-geddon
As reported in earlier posts, the ongoing newsprint shortage crisis has been deepening in the last few weeks with more newspapers closing shop, and others being forced to heavily reduce their content....
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Countdown to Newsprint-geddon, cont. (Updated)
The latest casualty in the ongoing newsprint crisis is, surprisingly, one of the hegemony’s main newspapers: Diario VEA. In Monday’s edition (seen the photo), they informed their readers that they...
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SICAD II, the sequel, coming to theaters Feb 24th
In the midst of social crisis, an airline boycott and massive amount of bolivar liquidity Ramirez announced that SICAD II will be launched on Feb 24th. Not many details available yet as they will be...
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The Cadivi Barricades
Quico Toro, the founder of this blog, wrote an OpEd for yesterday’s New York Times in which he ponders the reasons for the massive protests currently rocking Venezuela. His theory is that the protests...
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A Caracas City Shuffle
Venezuela’s government is about to unleash the biggest economic reform set forth in the last 11 years. A currency market is about to be set in place, with far fewer restrictions than the previous...
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Why Exchange Rates and Interest Rates are the Al and Peg Bundy of Economic...
Did you hear? The government is going to liberalize the dollar-bolivar market! It’s huge news! On paper, the Convenio Cambiario #27 setting up what’s known locally as SICAD2 – a legal, market-driven...
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SICAD II: Lost in Translation
Confused about SICAD II? Wondering whether the new currency exchange system really is a legal, market-based alternative to the black-market, or whether it just plays one on TV? Don’t worry, you’re not...
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On a wing and a prayer
The ongoing saga between international airlines and the Venezuelan government continues. Just when you thought airlines were going to get their money, the government is now suggesting they will only...
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PANINI-nomics in Venezuela
Over the past two weeks, Venezuelans have poured into the streets, but not simply to protest. Throngs are desperately trying to get the officially licensed sticker albums of this year’s FIFA World Cup...
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Cadivi dies, and so does the middle class
(Since Cadivi is gasping its final breaths surrounded by controversy and not a minute too soon, this guest post by Iesa professor Pedro Luis Rodríguez could not be better timed. Rodríguez takes on...
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Curious in Bogotá
As you may remember, I (Anabella) decided to bid on Sicad II the same day that I handed in my Cadivi folders. The trámite was due to my need to go to Bogotá for my sister’s wedding. The second I put a...
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The Ripping-The-BandAid-Off-Sloooooowly School of Devaluation
Today, International Air Travel was “switched to the SICAD II rate” - a wonderfully euphemistic way of saying the bolivar was aggressively devalued in the international air travel sector. In...
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When did freedom die?
Last night, Nicolás Maduro announced that all purchases at every supermarket, convenience store, and mom-and-pop abasto would have to be verified through a fingerprint scanner in order to prevent...
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Things you find in your septic tank
Over the years, we’ve been hard on traditional Venezuelan media outlets. Sometimes, we’re really hard on them. So it came as a refreshing surprise to read the latest reportage from El Nacional’s Siete...
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Venezuela’s encripted devaluation
An obscure document was published yesterday by Venezuela’s Central Bank (BCV), allowing PDVSA to sell the dollars it makes via oil exports to the BCV for deposit into an undeclared, secret fund at a...
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Money for baseball (and trips for free)
Before the baseball season began back in October, the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP) publicly thanked government currency distributor CENCOEX for handling their requests right on...
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Maduro’s stealth devaluation
It’s easy to be dispirited by Maduro’s address last night. The three-hour rant was only occasionally peppered with substantive announcements, and none of them were clear enough to really know where the...
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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 at least $11 billion dollars worth...
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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 about...
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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 his cronies”) a dollar costs BsF...
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