Bloomberg: Venezuela Turns to Privatization After Being Bankrupted by Socialism

Early in 2007, after winning a second six-year term as president, Hugo Chรกvez announced his plan to nationalize Venezuelaโ€™s largest telecommunications company, CANTV, hinting at wider nationalization plans to come.

โ€œAll that was privatized, let it be nationalized,โ€ announced Chรกvez, who had run under the banner of democratic socialism.

Nearly a decade and a half later, on the brink of mass famine and a growing energy crisis, Venezuela is now moving in the opposite direction.

According to Bloomberg News, Venezuelan president Nicolรกs Maduro has quietly begun transferring state assets back into the hands of private owners in an effort to reverse the country’s economic collapse.

โ€œSaddled with hundreds of failed state companies in an economy barreling over a cliff, the Venezuelan government is abandoning socialist doctrine by offloading key enterprises to private investors, offering profit in exchange for a share of revenue or products,โ€ write Caracas-based journalists Fabiola Zerpa and Nicolle Yapur.

The transfer, which was not announced publicly but was confirmed by โ€œnine people with knowledge of the matter,โ€ reportedly includes dozens of coffee processors, grain silos, and hotels that were confiscated as part of Venezuela’s widespread nationalization that began under Chavez.

Venezuelaโ€™s Collapse

In some ways, Venezuela’s plight is the most unlikely of stories.

In 1950, Venezuela was one of the most prosperous nations in the world. It ranked among the top 10 in GDP per capita and had a labor force with higher productivity than the United States.

Venezuelaโ€™s economic growth began to stall in the mid 1970s, however, after it nationalized the petroleum sector, which resulted in a surge of government revenue and public spending. Itโ€™s estimated that Venezuela brought in $7.6 billion in 1975 alone from nationalization ($37 billion in 2021 dollars). This led to an unprecedented surge of public spending. John Polga-Hecimovich, a professor of political science at the US Naval Academy, said the Venezuelan government spent more from 1974 to 1979 than in its entire previous history.

Despite the growth in government spending, the political situation remained relatively steady. In the late 70s, University of Michigan political science professor Daniel H. Levine asserted that โ€œVenezuelans have achieved one of the few stable competitive political orders in Latin America.โ€

However, Venezuelaโ€™s flirtation with socialism would eventually turn into a love affair.

In 1998, Venezuelans voted in Chavez, a populist and self-described Marxist. He was re-elected in 2000 (59.8% of the vote) and in 2006 (62.8%), at which point he began to nationalize various sectors of the economyโ€”including agriculture, the steel industry, transportation, and miningโ€”and confiscating more than a thousand companies, farms, and properties.

At the time of Chavezโ€™s death, his socialist policies were heralded by Salon as an โ€œeconomic miracleโ€โ€”but in reality the Venezuelan economy was already in a free fall.

By Jon Miltimore

Read Full Article on Fee.org

The Thinking Conservative
The Thinking Conservativehttps://www.thethinkingconservative.com/
The goal of THE THINKING CONSERVATIVE is to help us educate ourselves on conservative topics of importance to our freedom and our pursuit of happiness. We do this by sharing conservative opinions on all kinds of subjects, from all types of people, and all kinds of media, in a way that will challenge our perceptions and help us to make educated choices.

Columns

Viewers like you

There is no constitutional authority for any spending on public broadcasting โ€“ period. Any questions: See Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.

Trans-wormal

No worm ever said "I am anthropomorphizing, I am a butterfly" to a toad or flock of geese and expected acknowledgement and support.

In Greenlandโ€™s Icy Capital, Past Troubles Haunt Hopes for the Future

As geopolitical realities and ongoing economic growth raise the stakes, U.S. interest in Greenland and the dream of independence may change things in a big way.

How a Chinese Government Statistician Was Forced to Report Fake Data

Chinese local govt employee produced a non-authorized report on bees and was visited by police and threatened with being sent to a mental hospital.

โ€˜This One Time, at Groomer Campโ€™

All Camp Brave Trails programs focus on helping LGBTQ+ youth find what they need most to thrive: their people, their place, and their passion.

News

Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow Dismantling of Education Department

Trump admin asked Supreme Court to allow it to resume dismantling U.S. Dept of Education, following a lower courtโ€™s previous order halting process.

FTC Warns of Rising Student Loan Scams, Says Fraudsters Took Millions From Borrowers

FTC is warning borrowers to steer clear of student loan debt-relief scams, after shutting down group of companies that allegedly charged millions in illegal fees and left customers worse off.

Walmartโ€™s Drone Delivery Coming to 5 More US Cities

Walmart is set to launch its drone delivery service in five more U.S. cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa, the company.

Court Orders Trump Administration to Restore AmeriCorps Funding to States

Federal court ordered Trump admin to restore AmeriCorps funding to states. The ruling comes as part of a lawsuit filed by 24 states and DC.

Tax Deductions You Can Take Without Itemizing

Itโ€™s not always beneficial to itemize. With IRSโ€™s current standard deduction for 2025 most Americans who canโ€™t itemize go with standard deduction.

US Economy Adds 139,000 New Jobs in May, Topping Market Forecasts

U.S. economy added 139,000 new jobs last month, surpassing economistsโ€™ expectations and indicating U.S. labor market remains in a robust position.

Guatemalan Deportee Arrives in US After Judge Orders Trump Admin to Facilitate Return

โ€œAmericaโ€™s asylum system was never intended to be used as a de facto amnesty program or a catch-all, get-out-of-deportation-free card,โ€ McLaughlin said.

Trump-Musk Feud Escalates Over Spending Bill: 5 Things to Know

A public feud between Musk and Trump took a turn for the worse. Musk claimed president wouldnโ€™t have won without him and president suggested Muskโ€™s subsidies could be pulled.
spot_img

Related Articles