Why Not Just Stop Buying Venezuelan Oil?

Hugo Chavez has been one royal socialist pain in theimplode his political future, even if he blames all the
rear for the US, and his boisterous rhetoric is a severeeconomic circumstances on the USA.
danger to all in his region. His actions and angry movesSo, should we just stop buying Venezuelan Oil? One
against the US are quite problematic indeed. Not longbig issue with Venezuela is that when we stop buying
ago, an acquaintance and I were discussing the issuestheir oil they sell it to China. Thus, they still have the
of Venezuela nationalizing oil assets and Chavez'smoney to gallivant themselves over to Iran and Nigeria
threats.to try to do a power play at OPEC, it isn't working but
He wondered why the US doesn't just stop buyingit shows you how adamant they are about economic
Venezuelan Oil and let them suffer thewarfare. Even as all three of those countries are in
consequences? Well, interesting plan and it would havedeep inflationary doo-doo.
worked 10 years ago. Do you remember the last timeTherefore, whereas this seems like an excellent plan,
oil was above $70 a barrel, we were buying 180 Billionthere is a lot more to the story than this, but there are
worth of Venezuelan goods, mostly oil, but at that timesome pretty hurt feelings of major corporations in
they were buying 100 billion in products from us.several industries now, which have been nationalized in
The Venezuelan middle class was rising and theyVenezuela, and Chavez has gone out of his way to
loved the US. Many may eventually try to flea here asthreaten his neighbors and destabilize neighboring
things get worse there. Today, Hugo Chavez hasgovernments. So, there is a lot more at play than
really hurt the Venezuelan economy, inflation ismeets the eye. Please consider all this.
destroying it. So, it's almost as if Chavez is going to