The New Revolucion is GOLD |
Standard & Poor's on Friday downgraded Venezuela's credit ratings as it implemented a new methodology more heavily focused on political risk—a key weakness in the oil-producing country.
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Political risk has been a constant issue in Venezuela, where change in economic rules and nationalization of companies are common. Uncertainty about the health of President Hugo Chavez, who had surgery in Cuba earlier this summer to remove a cancerous tumor followed by chemotherapy treatment, has added to those risks, S&P said in a statement.
"In our opinion, changing and arbitrary laws, price and exchange controls, and other distorting and unpredictable economic measures have undermined private-sector investment and hurt productivity, weakening Venezuela's domestic economy," S&P analyst Roberto Sifon Arevalo wrote in a report.
Venezuela's vast oil and gas reserves "somewhat" offset the policy uncertainty, S&P said. The country posts steady current account surpluses which, combined with strict capital controls, result in positive net asset positions.
However, S&P expressed concern about the actual level of Venezuela's gold and foreign exchange reserves after reports that the country plans to repatriate them.
"When you have the reserves held abroad, you do have some level of confidence," Arevalo told Reuters in an interview. "That is not going to be the case anymore. They are going to be held at the central bank domestically, then you fall in the same circle of lack of transparency that everything else has in Venezuela."
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Hmm, let's review: They've got Oil and they've got Gold. Sounds like Venezuela just became the new land of opportunity. The S&P just lost whatever shred of credibility it still had.
The worry is "they might be next Libya" as Libya had exactly the same oil & gold, since Chavez, is not part of the cartel, they will 'create' a reason to 'regime change'
S&P lost "all" credibility when they were giving AAA ratings to mortgage backed security funds days before they collapsed and caused the economic disaster. And we cant forget about the 2 trillion dollar mistake they made when downgrading the US credit rating. Oops.
Their credit ratings are a joke.
In terms of Venezuela, I'm sure the US has sent in their jackals and something is brewing.
From the looks of it this seems like it is going to be quite a feat. See this article
http://lonerangersilver.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/traders-brace-for-...
I was wondering what the blowback would be
http://12160.info/video/chavez-calls-back-venezuelan-gold-interview...
"Destroying the New World Order"
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