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How Venezuela imploded (update)

By Robert Smith,
Noel King, Nick Fountain, Sally Helm
Published October 3, 2024 at 8:58 AM EDT
People queue to buy basic food and household items outside a supermarket in Caracas, on September 28, 2016. Venezuela is in a highly tense political crisis, with the South American oil-exporting nation slammed by low crude prices, inflation, food shortages and violence.
Federico Parra
/
AFP via Getty Images
People queue to buy basic food and household items outside a supermarket in Caracas, on September 28, 2016. Venezuela is in a highly tense political crisis, with the South American oil-exporting nation slammed by low crude prices, inflation, food shortages and violence.

(Note: A version of this episode originally ran in 2016.)

Back in 2016, things were pretty bad in Venezuela. Grocery stores didn't have enough food. Hospitals didn't have basic supplies, like gauze. Child mortality was spiking. Businesses were shuttering. It's one of the epic economic collapses of our time. And it was totally avoidable.

Venezuela used to be a relatively rich country. It has just about all the economic advantages a country could ask for: Beautiful beaches and mountains ready for tourism, fertile land good for farming, an educated population, and oil, lots and lots of oil.

But during the boom years, the Venezuelan government made some choices that add up to an economic time bomb.

Today on the show, we have an economic horror story about a country that made all the wrong decisions with its oil money. It's a window into the fundamental way that money works and how when you try to control it, you can lose everything.

Then, an update on Venezuela today. How it went from a downward spiral, to a tentative economic stabilization... amidst political upheaval.

This original episode is hosted by Robert Smith and Noel King. It was produced by Nick Fountain and Sally Helm. Today's update was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk, produced by Sean Saldana, fact checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Neal Rauch. Alex Goldmark is our Executive Producer.

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Music: Universal Production Music - "Trenton Channel"

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Robert Smith
Robert Smith is a host for NPR's Planet Money where he tells stories about how the global economy is affecting our lives.
See stories by Robert Smith
Noel King
Noel King is a host of Morning Edition and Up First.
See stories by Noel King
Nick Fountain
Nick Fountain produces and reports for Planet Money. Since he joined the team in 2015, he's reported stories on pears, black pepper, ice cream, chicken, and hot dogs (twice). Come to think of it, he reports on food a whole lot. But he's also driven the world's longest yard sale, uncovered the secretive group that controls international mail, and told the story of a crazy patent scheme that involved an acting Attorney General.
See stories by Nick Fountain
Sally Helm
Sally Helm reports and produces for Planet Money. She has covered wildfire investigation in California, Islamic Finance in Michigan, the mystery of declining productivity growth, and holograms. Helm is a graduate of the Transom Story Workshop and of Yale University. Before coming to work at NPR, she helped start an after-school creative writing program in Sitka, Alaska. She is originally from Los Angeles, California.