Thread: Enter the 'petro': Venezuela to launch oil-backed cryptocurrency

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Yep, still wittering. Are you having your period or something?




You quite literally have no fucking idea what you're wittering on about!

You're such a fool. Who do you think PDVSA management were? the people who were aiding and abetting the merkin profiteering you bellend. As for the 20,000 number? Well that's bollocks. But alas... CNN . reuters .... same same. See it, believe it... in the world of dumbo immigrant harryturdnose.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

You're such a fool. Who do you think PDVSA management were? the people who were aiding and abetting the merkin profiteering you bellend. As for the 20,000 number? Well that's bollocks. But alas... CNN . reuters .... same same. See it, believe it... in the world of dumbo immigrant harryturdnose.

Since you don't appear to have a fucking clue and keep squealing the same old shit, just assume that this is my default response:

You quite literally have no fucking idea what you're wittering on about!

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

You're just a twit.

that's just irony too strong even for you, have another glass of arab jizz

fucking brilliant

Originally Posted by pseudolus

NEWSFLASH -

Harry is clueless. Chavez was the antidote to Merkin hegemony, raping the country, using the IMF and world bank to do their dirty work. He could read something like Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins and see exactly what was done to VN by the merkins, but instead, he slurps his iced spunk cappuccino and keeps watching CNN.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

Harry is clueless. Chavez was the antidote to Merkin hegemony, raping the country, using the IMF and world bank to do their dirty work. He could read something like Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins and see exactly what was done to VN by the merkins, but instead, he slurps his iced spunk cappuccino and keeps watching CNN.

If this is where you get your whackjob nonsense, no wonder you need mental health care.

"This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense......".

"Perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong"."

"the author of the State Department release states that the NSA "is a cryptological (codemaking and codebreaking) organization, not an economic organization" and that its missions do not involve "anything remotely resembling placing economists at private companies in order to increase the debt of foreign countries"."

Who are you going to quote next, whackjob, David Icke?

FFS

Originally Posted by uncle junior

Chavez took office right after oil production hit its peak.

Lols... how many do you get for 1 baht? They'd be better off with cryptototty...

in for a penny?

...in for a pound.

Before you book your flight Cap'n....

As Venezuelan bulls go, Vice President Tareck El Aissami is hard to beat. Who else could announce that the travel and leisure industry in the hemisphere's most deranged economy was on a roll? "Our country was dependent on oil for many years, but now has come the time of tourism for economic development," El Aissami said at a trade fair on Margarita Island last week. "Tourism has become the first engine of economic development in our country."


Nothing unusual from the Bolivarian Republic, where hype and fake news are as plenteous as empty cash machines. Look no further than President Nicolas Maduro's claim in August that 8 million people voted for his cherry-picked Constitutional Assembly - apparently more than the entire voter turnout.


Yet touting tourism took some special cheek, not least because the man flogging that trade recently won notoriety for his alleged enterprise in another industry, international drug trafficking.


Perhaps they're trying to corner the market on adventure travel, catering to adrenaline junkies who take jeep safaris to Rio de Janeiro's favelas, sometimes to tragic result. After all, political turmoil has brought impromptu barricades and clouds of tear gas to Caracas's streets, which were already some of the world's meanest. Not enough for you? How about what may be the world's worst inflation rate, and one of the most convoluted currency and bank transaction systems. Driving is a game of Bolivarian roulette. Thanks to scarcity of medicine, falling ill or suffering injury can quickly become life threatening.


That's assuming you can even get to Venezuela. Since last year, despairing of ever recovering profits, the airlines that have pulled out include Brazil's Gol, Lufthansa, United and Aeromexico. Scarcity has left even high-end hotels short of linens and elevator parts, according to a recent Euromonitor report on Venezuelan tourism. "Even if you're not worried about safety, visiting Venezuela is a logistical nightmare," Fernando Freijedo, Venezuela analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, told me.


Drawn by excitement over the late Hugo Chavez's experiment in 21st century socialism, international visitors once streamed to Venezuela - Hollywood grandees and ring-kissing celebrities among them.


But the thrill is gone. Chavez died of cancer in 2013, leaving the inn to Maduro, a hapless successor who, even as global tourism soared, saw the inbound flow shrink 20 per cent in three years. Exit stage left the queue of celebrities at the Palacio de Miraflores. Now travel warnings trump the encomiums to the revolution. The view in Venezuela today is of a slow motion debacle.


El Aissami's assertions might best be seen as another addition to the genre of Bolivarian magical realism. "It's a lot like Maduro's plan to restructure debt," said Freijedo. "Every once in a while we hear announcements like this. There's no investment plan, and nothing comes of it. In the end, what's left is a sound bite."


In Venezuela, squandered opportunities compound the tragedy. Few nations, after all, are so seductively endowed. The country straddling the Andes and the Caribbean boasts the world's highest waterfall, jungle-clad islands, oceanfront to die for, snowcapped mountains, and probably the continent's yummiest cornmeal treats, if you can still find them. Venezuela has everything a tourist could want - at a cost that few will be willing to pay.

Venezuela touts tourism, welcoming all tourists crazy enough to visit

Nicolás Maduro, president of crisis-stricken Venezuela, will run for re-election in Venezuela in 2018, Vice President Tarick Al Aisammi announced in a November 29 press conference.
Just a few months ago, it would have seemed unlikely that the Maduro regime would opt for elections as a way to hold onto power. After three years in office, Venezuela is in full political and economic meltdown, with hyperinflation expected to top 2,300 per cent this year.
Facing a 20 per cent approval rating, in October the government unilaterally cancelled a presidential recall referendum called by the opposition. It also put off gubernatorial elections, originally scheduled for December 2016, for nine months.
But when they were finally held, on October 15, Maduro’s Socialists saw surprising success. In an election widely denounced as fraudulent, three-quarters of states in Venezuela elected governors from the ruling party.
Now, according to analysis from the Political Studies Center at Andrés Bello Catholic University, where I am director, Maduro will once again make use of voter frustration and confusion to take on its opposition at the ballot box.
First up: the country’s December 10 mayoral elections. If the Socialists win big there, I expect Maduro will call an early presidential election in the first half of 2018.
Despite the Maduro regime’s lack of popular support, I believe that ruling-party mayoral candidates could actually triumph in upcoming elections.
The regime has clearly been reprising the two tactics that worked for him back in October: suppressing turnout among opposition voters and using pork-barrel incentives to motivate his own base.
In other words, Maduro’s electoral strategy seems to be less about winning democratic legitimacy than about ensuring that his opponents lose it.
Abstention should be what most concerns Venezuela’s beleaguered opposition movement. Post-election analysis of October’s regional elections shows that abstention – in large part due to voter suppression and manipulation – played a major role in the Maduro regime’s big win.


The regime-controlled National Electoral Council used dirty tricks to confuse voters. It kept candidates who had withdrawn from the governor’s race on the ballot and relocated voting centers in opposition-dominated areas into high-crime neighborhoods just hours before voting began.
The government also influenced voter opinion using disinformation. Spreading fake news about having purportedly reached agreements with opposition parties, it stoked doubt among the many Venezuelans who oppose all engagement with Maduro’s authoritarian regime.
This split the opposition in the October elections. While some Venezuelans still see democratic elections as the only way out of this crisis, many others accused opposition parties of complicity with the regime and refused to vote.
All the while, the government was persecuting popular opposition leaders, disqualifying them from running.
Now, as the December 10 municipal elections approach, Maduro is again undermining the opposition to ensure a Socialist victory.
He’s been doing his best to keep some opposition parties engaged in talks with the government, asserting that negotiations in the Dominican Republic are making progress. In fact, as most commentators agree, these mediated talks have long been fruitless.
But insisting on negotiations helps Maduro deepen the divide within this polarised, struggling opposition.
The government has also sought to dampen criticism by releasing a few political prisoners – typically not jailed dissident leaders but citizens who’ve been arrested for protesting. Simultaneously, it’s been cracking down ever harder on resistance.
All of this stirs up voter mistrust and confusion, making it less likely voters will head to the polls next week. It may also be stoking violence. On Nov 29, a congressman was shot in his car.
Maduro is also catering to his own dwindling base. How does a president with record low approval still even have supporters to motivate? The answer is patronage.


In September 2017, Maduro government introduced a new identity document called the Carnet de la Patria, which promised card-holders benefits like food and medicine in exchange for loyaltyto the regime. In a time of great scarcity, the offer of basic necessities was compelling.
Today, more than 12 million government employees and Venezuelan citizens – or about half the population – have the Carnet. Their gratitude helped Maduro’s Socialists attract over half a million more votes in October’s gubernatorial election than it had in the last legislative election, even though nearly 90 per cent of Venezuelans say their country’s crisis has worsened in the past year.
Such voter inducement will surely help again in the upcoming mayoral elections. And when Maduro runs for president next year, Carnet beneficiaries will give him a substantial leg up.
In other words, Maduro’s increasing turn toward “democratic” elections should not be understood to mean that this Socialist government enjoys the same wild support it did under Hugo Chávez.
The vast majority of Venezuelans want a change in government. Maduro also faces internal opposition within the Socialist Party. He may be Chávez’s chosen successor, but not everyone in government supports Maduro just because he’s heir to Chávez’s legacy.
This is why three of the four main opposition parties have decided to boycott municipal elections in December. Rather than run mayoral candidates in a fraudulent election, they say, they’re focusing on demanding fairer conditions for the 2018 presidential election.
There, they hope to capture voter anger and defeat the president fair and square.
They have their work cut out for them. Venezuelans demand new leadership, but that doesn’t mean they’ll trust anyone who opposes Maduro. To forge a future of freedom and democracy, Venezuela’s opposition must first regain the faith of the people.

https://capx.co/maduros-dirty-electoral-tricks/

Meanwhile, back in the real world:

CARACAS - Crisis-wracked Venezuela has defaulted on two bonds, failing to make a $183-million (R2.5-billion) coupon payment, ratings agency S&P said Friday.
The agency said OPEC-member Caracas failed to make the payment within a 30-day grace period on global bonds due in 2023 and 2028. The grace period expired Friday.
"In line with our criteria for timeliness of payments, we are lowering the issue ratings on these bonds to "D" from "CC," the agency said.
Falling oil prices and corruption have decimated the economy under socialist President Nicolas Maduro, leading to hyperinflation and chronic food and medicine shortages in the oil-rich but cash-poor South American nation.


Maduro is under fire internationally for marginalising the opposition and stifling independent media. Earlier this year, 125 people were killed in several months of violent protests against his rule.
Despite this, Maduro is set for the latest in a sweep of poll victories in mayoral elections on Sunday, with the main opposition parties boycotting the polls and showing little sign they can prevent his re-election next year.
Next year's presidential election is scheduled for December, but some experts believe it could be brought forward to March.
Global ratings agencies already had declared Venezuela and state-owned oil company PDVSA to be in "selective default" due to late payments on multiple bond issues. PDVSA is Venezuela's primary source of income.


Key bosses at the oil company have been sacked and arrested on corruption chargesin what analysts see as a purge by Maduro to consolidate power ahead of next year's elections.
Newly-installed oil minister Manuel Quevedo, a former general, told reporters recently that oil production at PDVSA had been sabotaged as a preamble to a coup attempt.
Although it sits atop the world's biggest oil reserves, Venezuela is struggling under an estimated debt burden of $150-billion.
S&P on Thursday said the worsening financial and social crisis in the country had put the credit of Venezuela's US-based oil company Citgo at risk.
The ratings agency put the ratings of Citgo Holdings and Citgo Petroleum on "CreditWatch with developing implications" - indicating a credit move is likely within 90 days.
AFP

https://www.enca.com/money/venezuela...ratings-agency

Harry, would you be so kind and give us always just a resume of your posts by 2 - 3 lines. Then, the ones who can read well (not me) can read the link by them selves - if they have the time to that - and if they find it worth of the time spent...

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Harry, would you be so kind and give us always just a resume of your posts by 2 - 3 lines. Then, the ones who can read well (not me) can read the link by them selves - if they have the time to that - and if they find it worth of the time spent...

Since this is the News thread and the link is mandatory, simply scroll to the end, look at the link, realise that it contains lots of big words that you don't understand and then go and fuck yourself.

Meanwhile China are losing patience with Maduro.

One of China’s biggest state-held companies, Sinopec, is suing Venezuela’s debt-ridden state oil firm PDVSA in a US court over unpaid bills, in a sign that China may be losing patience with its Latin American ally and is changing tone and tactics.

The US unit of Sinopec filed the lawsuit at the Texas Southern District Court in Houston on November 27 and the nature of the suit is “other fraud”, Oil Price reported.

The language of the complaint suggests that the Venezuela-China alliance may be over, Financial Times reported, citing the court documents it has seen.

In the lawsuit, Sinopec is suing PDVSA for $23.7 million plus punitive damages, alleging that PDVSA has only paid half of the bill in a contract from 2012 to purchase steel rebar—which is used in oil rigs—for $43.5 million from the Chinese firm.

In the complaint, Sinopec accuses PDVSA of having used “an under-capitalized shell with the sole purpose of preventing Sinopec from having a remedy” and says its conduct “constituted intentional misrepresentations, deceit and concealment of material facts” involving “willful deception” and coordinated conspiracy to defraud several units of PDVSA.

“This is when we know that China is not going to bail these guys out,” Russ Dallen of boutique investment bank Caracas Capital, who follows Venezuela closely, told FT.

"The lawsuit initiated by Sinopec could be interpreted as mounting evidence that China would no longer want to extend loans to Venezuela and that changed position may have tipped the country and its oil firm into default," he added.
China, as well as Russia, has been extending credit to Venezuela in oil-for-loan deals. But PDVSA has been struggling to ship oil to Russia and China in return. As early as in February this year, PDVSA was said to have been months behind in oil shipments to its key allies.

The only creditor apparently still willing to work with Venezuela is Russia. Last month, when rating agencies started declaring Venezuela in selective or restricted default, Russia and Venezuela signed a deal to restructure $3.15 billion worth of Venezuelan debt owed to Moscow.

https://financialtribune.com/article...r-unpaid-bills

Yes, I'm sure a Venezuelan Crypto-currency would be backed an important thing needed.

Confidence!

Why not just create a currency of magic wands or lucky rabbits feet?

Originally Posted by CaptainNemo

Why not just create a currency of magic wands or lucky rabbits feet?

I'm surprised they aren't, they've got fuck all else.

Meanwhile Maduro does a passable impression of Hun Sen, presumably with Pseudopuss cheering from the sidelines...

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro announced Sunday that leading opposition parties will be barred from taking part in next year's presidential vote after they boycotted mayoral polls, in a move set to further consolidate his grip on power.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro bans opposition parties from election

Originally Posted by CaptainNemo

Why not just create a currency of magic wands or lucky rabbits feet?

Sort of like the USD then? Already been done.