¿Cuánto dura Chávez y el "socialismo del siglo XXI" con un barril de crudo a este nivel, a pesar de la suba de hoy?
Petro-states dominated by state-owned oil companies employ no such strategy. In booms, their revenues overwhelm their economies, driving out small, non-oil businesses and leaving oil as the only game in town. They also tempt governments to become dictatorships. Flush with oil cash, rulers can slash taxes for their supporters, who will demand even less transparency and accountability.
But it never lasts, and the hangover when prices fall is always ugly. "I call petroleum the devil's excrement. It brings trouble," as Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso, once Venezuela's oil minister, famously said in 1975. "Look at this lunacy — waste, corruption, consumption, our public services falling apart. And debt, debt we shall have for years."
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