by kleinbl00

What has happened is that low oil prices have revealed the extent of the Venezuelan government’s mistakes, which had nothing to do with taxing the economy too much and everything to do with managing it too poorly. The simple story is that the government took over one sector of the economy after another — steel, mining, agriculture, to name a few — and got rid of people who were good at their jobs so they could bring in ones who were good at being loyal. This made production predictably crater, and things that used to be made at home suddenly needed to be bought from overseas.