In unstable countries, the fuse of revolution is lit from a burning dollar bill. And right now in Venezuela, there’s very dry tinder indeed. Billions of dollars of oil cash is being stolen by the cronies of dictator Hugo Chavez on a scale never seen while poverty there rises. Forty percent of Venezuela’s economy is oil, and all of that from an inefficient state oil company. What does that mean? Money that should be used to reinvest in equipment and maintenance to create jobs and keep the operation going is instead going into corrupt pockets while the pumpjacks, pipelines, refineries, tankers and economy rust. As economists say: ‘Anything that can’t go on, won’t.’ Gustavo Coronel and Daniel Duquenal report on the extent of the loss and the likelihood of political trouble once this money tree is burned for firewood. The end result is Venezuela will have neither oil nor money, only simmering resentment fuelling revolution ahead. Read it here and here.