Socialism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, I guess. Give Chavez a bit more time, and Venezuela will begin to ration gasoline despite its abundance of oil.
It’s like the old Soviet joke: “Is it possible to build socialism in Sahara? – Sure, if you don’t mind sand shortages”.
“The Venezuelan President may be forced to moderate his revolutionary policies and ease regulations on foreign investment”, writes BusinessWeek.
“We’re at a fork in the road,” says [Ignacio] De Leon, a managing director of economic consultancy Econlex. “Chávez has to choose—to moderate or radicalize.”
We know where his heart is, of course:
“Socialism is the only way to save us,” Chávez said at an early November election rally.
(Via The Oil Drum, a great blog about energy and the future.)