🇻🇪 Who is to blame for Venezuela’s economic collapse? - UpFront

Venezuela, the country with the world's largest oil reserves, is in turmoil. Heavily in debt and with inflation soaring, its people continue to take to the streets in protest.

Were years of socialist economic policies the cause of this catastrophe, and could it have been predicted?

According to economist and former Venezuelan Planning Minister Ricardo Hausmann, the answer is yes.

"What happened is that President Hugo Chavez used a period of high oil prices, not to put some money aside, but to quintuple the foreign debt," says Hausmann. "If Maduro is out soon, I think we can turn the country around relatively quickly with sound economic policies."

However, former Chavez adviser Temir Porras says it’s not the socialist policies to blame, but dropping oil prices and poor debt oversight.

"It’s not a problem of amount of debt, it’s a problem of management of that debt," says Porras. "There has been a sharp fall in oil prices and there has been, I would say, a management of that crisis that has been deficient."

Porras adds that the opposition wants to retry policies that failed before, and that the scale of the crisis is exaggerated.

In the Arena, Ricardo Hausmann and Temir Porras debate the roots of the economic collapse in Venezuela.

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[pedronevett]

"is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

[beard]

of solving the problems....another day with human government doing a fine job

[jgroenveld]

It is pretty simple on who is to be blamed; Aliens and the tooth fairy because President Maduro is so perfect.

[TheRoguelement]

The idea is to get the IMF involved to "HELP" them with a bail out .. Which if you ask the people of Greece is the last thing you want to do.. The People pay the price the Banking cartel makes the money and austerity get forced upon the people ..

[Den]

it's called over spending.... U.S. is doing the same....

[DipakBose-bqvv]

If the private sector is running the economy, how can Venezuela be a Socialist country?

[bryansmalley]

USA and Saudi Arabia have over pumped oil to cause the price of oil to drop. This is harming Venezuela. USA has placed harsh sanctions on Venezuela, freezing their out of country assets. Holding their GOLD ransom. Which has cause hyper inflation.

They have goods for sale just certain items that are extremely expensive.

They held fair elections and voted Madura in as President for another term.

I am a USA Citizen who recognises President Madura as the legitimate President of Venezuela. No regime change needed here. I am unwilling to have my Son or Grandsons fighting another Vietnam War in Venezuela. Tell John Bolton and Elliott Abrams they are fired. Send them home. Is this Why General Maddog Matis and Nicky resigned?

[nuria]

Somebody please remove Bolton by whatever means necessary

[mansarayify]

If Venezuelan was freely governing by one government without any foreign interfearanses, will that country go true all problems we're seeing today?

[matheusfarias]

chat started out good, became ideological real quick

[victor]

I’m leftist by ideology but socialism it’s not the best solution in the current economic times.
Countries have to adapt to the reality of the world economy .
Socialist countries that have done that are succeeding.
Like China

[yikinkahnkawil]

How is it that that two very different political ideologies have both failed venezuela?

[jeviosoorishas]

The Keynesian vs. The Socialists

Sigh...

Seems Venezuela has been doomed for a long time.

[robertbobbypelletreaujr]

Constantly talking over each other loses another viewer.

[reachforthesky]

Poor discussion management. That was a mess and missed opportunity

[stupedass]

A lot of folks are going to lose weight.

[Allindays]

Chomsky...and a dozen other Hollywood celebrities who praised Venezuela.
lol

[MarStoryTime]

Just really surprised that they actually invited Ricardo Hausmann on this show.

[rapmonster]

He didn't say that the debt wasn't big. He said the debt issue has been poorly managed. He also said they have had 10 years in a row of economic growth. He also said the ratio Debt/GPD is not a huge issue.
Now my personal view Venezuela lived under a total different regimen for hundreds of years before adventuring in socializing certain economic aspects.

[titob.yotokojr.]

No amount of foreign interference would induce people to join long queues in supermarkets or join protest marches by the thousands if there's nothing basically wrong with governance in Venezuela which resulted to high prices and food shortages.
The government must stop blaming external forces and focus on what it is doing wrong and start implementing corrective measures.
And please stop listening to apologists, or talking about what happened in the past, and doing the blame game. Focus instead on what is happening right now and start doing remedial and corrective measures.