Crude Nation
How Oil Riches Ruined Venezuela
by Raúl Gallegos
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Pub Date Oct 01 2016 | Archive Date Oct 31 2016
University of Nebraska Press | Potomac Books
Description
Beneath Venezuelan soil lies an ocean of crude—the world's largest reserves—an oil patch that shaped the nature of the global energy business. Unfortunately, a dysfunctional anti-American, leftist government controls this vast resource and has used its wealth to foster voter support, ultimately wreaking economic havoc.
Crude Nation reveals the ways in which this mismanagement has led to Venezuela's economic ruin and turned the country into a cautionary tale for the world. Raúl Gallegos, a former Caracas-based oil correspondent, paints a picture both vivid and analytical of the country's economic decline, the government's foolhardy economic policies, and the wrecked lives of Venezuelans.
Without transparency, the Venezuelan government uses oil money to subsidize life for its citizens in myriad unsustainable ways, while regulating nearly every aspect of day-to-day existence in Venezuela. This has created a paradox in which citizens can fill up the tanks of their SUVs for less than one American dollar while simultaneously enduring nationwide shortages of staples such as milk, sugar, and toilet paper. Gallegos's insightful analysis shows how mismanagement has ruined Venezuela again and again over the past century and lays out how Venezuelans can begin to fix their country, a nation that can play an important role in the global energy industry.
Crude Nation reveals the ways in which this mismanagement has led to Venezuela's economic ruin and turned the country into a cautionary tale for the world. Raúl Gallegos, a former Caracas-based oil correspondent, paints a picture both vivid and analytical of the country's economic decline, the government's foolhardy economic policies, and the wrecked lives of Venezuelans.
Without transparency, the Venezuelan government uses oil money to subsidize life for its citizens in myriad unsustainable ways, while regulating nearly every aspect of day-to-day existence in Venezuela. This has created a paradox in which citizens can fill up the tanks of their SUVs for less than one American dollar while simultaneously enduring nationwide shortages of staples such as milk, sugar, and toilet paper. Gallegos's insightful analysis shows how mismanagement has ruined Venezuela again and again over the past century and lays out how Venezuelans can begin to fix their country, a nation that can play an important role in the global energy industry.
Advance Praise
"Raúl Gallegos is a sharp-eyed guide to the alternate universe that is contemporary Venezuela. His new book, Crude Nation, makes for a lively, surprising read.”—Paul M. Barrett, author of Law of the Jungle
“Gallegos provides a compelling, enlightening view into the everyday—challenging readers to understand life in one of the world’s most volatile economies.”—Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and author of Superpower: Three Choices for America's Role in the World
“Crude Nation ponders Hugo Chavez’s legacy: an economy run more on magical realism than either Keynes or Marx. How does a country with the world’s largest oil reserves fail so miserably in virtually every critical sector? Gallegos has a compelling theory why and has more answers than most.”—Ann Louise Bardach, PEN award-winning journalist and author of Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana, and Washington
“Crude Nation is essential reading for those wanting to understand what is happening in Venezuela today and what it will take to turn that nation around.”—Shannon K. O’Neil, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead
“Raúl Gallegos does a superb job chronicling Venezuela’s myriad woes. No other account captures in such stark terms and vivid detail how calamitous the utter mismanagement of oil riches can be for an economy and society. Crude Nation tells a tragic, cautionary tale—one with untold costs for most Venezuelans.”—Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank
“Gallegos provides a compelling, enlightening view into the everyday—challenging readers to understand life in one of the world’s most volatile economies.”—Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and author of Superpower: Three Choices for America's Role in the World
“Crude Nation ponders Hugo Chavez’s legacy: an economy run more on magical realism than either Keynes or Marx. How does a country with the world’s largest oil reserves fail so miserably in virtually every critical sector? Gallegos has a compelling theory why and has more answers than most.”—Ann Louise Bardach, PEN award-winning journalist and author of Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana, and Washington
“Crude Nation is essential reading for those wanting to understand what is happening in Venezuela today and what it will take to turn that nation around.”—Shannon K. O’Neil, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead
“Raúl Gallegos does a superb job chronicling Venezuela’s myriad woes. No other account captures in such stark terms and vivid detail how calamitous the utter mismanagement of oil riches can be for an economy and society. Crude Nation tells a tragic, cautionary tale—one with untold costs for most Venezuelans.”—Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781612347707 |
| PRICE | $34.95 (USD) |
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Featured Reviews
Reviewer 153322
Gallegos, who lived in and covered Venezuela as an economic journalist, returns to give a popularly aimed explanation of how the country's governments--left and right--have, through being tied to a single resource product, warped their economy to the point that inflation makes toilet paper smugglers of civil servants, the dollar has three exchange rates, the risks of saving are outweighed by spending big on consumer goods, and banks regularly give loans for plastic surgery.
