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Crude nation : how oil riches ruined Venezuela / Raul Gallegos.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Lincoln : Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, [2016]Copyright date: ©2016Description: 1 online resource (255 pages)Content type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9781612348599 (e-book)
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Crude nation : how oil riches ruined Venezuela.DDC classification:
  • 330.987 23
LOC classification:
  • HD9574.V42 G35 2016
Online resources: Summary: "Beneath Venezuelan soil lies an ocean of crude--the world's largest reserves--an oil patch that shaped the nature of the global energy business. Unfortunately, a dysfunctional anti-American, leftist government controls this vast resource and has used its wealth to foster voter support, ultimately wreaking economic havoc. Crude Nation reveals the ways in which this mismanagement has led to Venezuela's economic ruin and turned the country into a cautionary tale for the world. Raúl Gallegos, a former Caracas-based oil correspondent, paints a picture both vivid and analytical of the country's economic decline, the government's foolhardy economic policies, and the wrecked lives of Venezuelans. Without transparency, the Venezuelan government uses oil money to subsidize life for its citizens in myriad unsustainable ways, while regulating nearly every aspect of day-to-day existence in Venezuela. This has created a paradox in which citizens can fill up the tanks of their SUVs for less than one American dollar while simultaneously enduring nationwide shortages of staples such as milk, sugar, and toilet paper. Gallegos's insightful analysis shows how mismanagement has ruined Venezuela again and again over the past century and lays out how Venezuelans can begin to fix their country, a nation that can play an important role in the global energy industry"-- Provided by publisher.Summary: "Crude Nation tells the story of how ruinous mismanagement has resulted in the economic implosion of Venezuela, the country with the largest oil reserves in the world"-- Provided by publisher.
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Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Ebrary Online Books Ebrary Online Books Colombo Available CBERA10001749
Ebrary Online Books Ebrary Online Books Jaffna Available JFEBRA10001749
Ebrary Online Books Ebrary Online Books Kandy Available KDEBRA10001749
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Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Beneath Venezuelan soil lies an ocean of crude--the world's largest reserves--an oil patch that shaped the nature of the global energy business. Unfortunately, a dysfunctional anti-American, leftist government controls this vast resource and has used its wealth to foster voter support, ultimately wreaking economic havoc.





Crude Nation reveals the ways in which this mismanagement has led to Venezuela's economic ruin and turned the country into a cautionary tale for the world. Raúl Gallegos, a former Caracas-based oil correspondent, paints a picture both vivid and analytical of the country's economic decline, the government's foolhardy economic policies, and the wrecked lives of Venezuelans.





Without transparency, the Venezuelan government uses oil money to subsidize life for its citizens in myriad unsustainable ways, while regulating nearly every aspect of day-to-day existence in Venezuela. This has created a paradox in which citizens can fill up the tanks of their SUVs for less than one American dollar while simultaneously enduring nationwide shortages of staples such as milk, sugar, and toilet paper. Gallegos's insightful analysis shows how mismanagement has ruined Venezuela again and again over the past century and lays out how Venezuelans can begin to fix their country, a nation that can play an important role in the global energy industry.





Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Beneath Venezuelan soil lies an ocean of crude--the world's largest reserves--an oil patch that shaped the nature of the global energy business. Unfortunately, a dysfunctional anti-American, leftist government controls this vast resource and has used its wealth to foster voter support, ultimately wreaking economic havoc. Crude Nation reveals the ways in which this mismanagement has led to Venezuela's economic ruin and turned the country into a cautionary tale for the world. Raúl Gallegos, a former Caracas-based oil correspondent, paints a picture both vivid and analytical of the country's economic decline, the government's foolhardy economic policies, and the wrecked lives of Venezuelans. Without transparency, the Venezuelan government uses oil money to subsidize life for its citizens in myriad unsustainable ways, while regulating nearly every aspect of day-to-day existence in Venezuela. This has created a paradox in which citizens can fill up the tanks of their SUVs for less than one American dollar while simultaneously enduring nationwide shortages of staples such as milk, sugar, and toilet paper. Gallegos's insightful analysis shows how mismanagement has ruined Venezuela again and again over the past century and lays out how Venezuelans can begin to fix their country, a nation that can play an important role in the global energy industry"-- Provided by publisher.

"Crude Nation tells the story of how ruinous mismanagement has resulted in the economic implosion of Venezuela, the country with the largest oil reserves in the world"-- Provided by publisher.

Description based on print version record.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2016. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Venezuela's economy is imploding, and Gallegos, a Latin America analyst and former Wall Street Journal oil correspondent, writes a timely, important book on what went wrong, which is a lot. Sharply written and vividly detailed, the book documents how Venezuela's oil reserves-the world's largest-subsidize an unsustainable life for its citizens. Hugo Chávez, elected president in 1998 on a socialist platform, triggered the most recent disasters, but the country's ills are structural and attitudinal, Gallegos shows, going back to the boom years of the 1960s. The one-commodity nation has an infrastructure in shambles; electricity is iffy, and drought looms over a country that generates more than half its power hydroelectrically. The national debt and inflation rate are staggering. Many fed-up foreign banks and bondholders fear default. The nation's elites exhibit astonishing self-interest, rapaciousness, and superficiality. The rich, whom Gallegos describes as "obsessed with physical beauty," spend their money in salons and on plastic surgery, while others go hungry. Facing destitution, Venezuelans remain convinced that oil will come to their rescue. According to Gallegos, "Venezuela became a different country when it discovered crude." The arrival of the petro state has led to an "insane economy" that Gallegos hopes will provide a "moral lesson" for other nations. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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