The David McWilliams Podcast How to Destroy a Country: Venezuela with Noah Smith
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Aug 15, 2024 
In this discussion, Noah Smith, an expert commentator on economic policies, sheds light on Venezuela’s dramatic decline from wealth to poverty. He outlines how misguided economic strategies, including nationalization and price controls, paved the way for hyperinflation and a humanitarian crisis. The conversation draws parallels with leadership trends in Latin America and unveils the broader implications of Venezuela's plight on global economic policies. Listeners gain insights into the complexities of economic ideology and the stark realities of mismanagement.
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Money As Social Technology
- Money is an organizational technology whose mismanagement can wreck societies across history.
- Venezuela shows how monetary and fiscal choices can cause collapse far beyond politics.
Chávez Emptied The Oil Piggy Bank
- Hugo Chávez raided PDVSA's investment budget to fund redistribution and cronies.
- He fired 19,000 oil workers after a strike and replaced them with political loyalists, crippling competence.
How Policy Broke Production Incentives
- Nationalizations and price controls destroyed incentives and provoked hoarding and shortages.
- Those policies, combined with falling oil prices, converted mismanagement into full economic collapse.