Thanks, Nit. It is very sad about Venezuela. And it began long before the current administration who are regularly blamed for all the country's ills. Yes, they have made things worse, but Chávez would never have been voted into power had the previous administrations made the economy and society a success for the general population. The episode I recount here was in the 1990s, under Rafael Caldera and his IMF-approved economic policies, in turn a response to/continuation of previous economic problems.

And in a post-oil world, the country will never have a chance to catch up in a crude oil boom cycle, even if it had a government that would wisely invest the revenues rather than splurging on vanity projects and siphoning off to Switzerland, as has been the norm since the 1970s.