Venezuela is going the way of all socialist dictatorships. Having nationalized and spoiled the profitable bits and still not having achieved utopia, Chavez is trying to devalue the currency (by 50%!) without affecting prices at the consumer level. Good luck pal.
Argentina, famous for defaulting once already on their national debt, is also in deep doo-doo. The President(e) is stealing the peoples' retirement money and now also trying to take over the central bank. This will end in nasty fashion for whoever was foolish enough to invest in either of these countries. It may also drag the governments of the continent into a tailspin.
This, of course, sucks. At least it is giving authoritarian dictatorship and socialism a(nother) huge black eye as a theory of governance in the process.
Countries that hate us, and countries that hate our high prices, have looked to South America for their food and energy recently. We are a mess, but not as much as the other guys. It is just possible that (e.g.) China will look back North again to the place where food is, if not super-cheap, at least capable of being grown as reliably as crops can be grown, and then exported for trade.
That's us. IF we don't screw it all up with punitive import tarriffs (which it looks like the Obama administration is trying to do) we might have a way, however temporary, to get a leg up on economic recovery. By supplying the former customers of failed and failing nation states.
The guy at the top of the shit pile is on a pile of shit, but at least he is on top. Let's be that guy.
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