Venezuelan Bonds Surge as Sanctions Wreck Its Economy
When the Financial Times reports on 'Venezuelan bonds surge as Trump administration 'plays hardball' on sanctions,' one might mistake economic warfare for a sporting event. Venezuela's bonds soared from 10 cents to 18 cents on the dollar after whispers of eased sanctions, a windfall for savvy (or well-connected) hedge funds who bought pennies on the dollar. The FT, ever the beacon of finance
journalism, focuses on the speculative profits, not the decades of U.S. meddling, coups (2002), and crippling sanctions that decimated Venezuela's economy, leading to hyperinflation and mass migration. They call it 'hardball;' ordinary Venezuelans call it collective punishment. This 'hardball' tactics, applied to nations not aligned with Washington, consistently generates financial opportunities
for elite investors by creating artificial scarcity and economic collapse. Instead of questioning the ethics of profiting from engineered suffering, the mainstream press uncritically parrots the State Department's framing. Perhaps the FT should investigate which financial institutions held those deeply discounted bonds before the 'whispers' of eased sanctions started. One might wonder how many
humanitarian crises are simply profit opportunities for the well-informed.