Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Pdvsa Pres. offers USD 1 billion to nationalize Exxon.

The nationalization of Exxon mobil will be good for Venezuela insofar as the oil profits would remain domestically, albeit possibly lost via corruption; however, nationalization or the threat thereof is a scary concept for foreign investment.

If Exxon accepts the 1 billion to nationalize its assets, the foreign investors will likely direct their funds to countries with more stable and secure business sectors. In the short term, a drop in foreign investment into Venezuela will be particularly damaging as the country's resources are spent on social programs and yet these programs have yet to aid the many very poor Venezuelans. With less foreign investment, venezuela will need to allocate more funds to maintaining and expanding its primary business sector; this reallocation will take away from the already unsatisfactory social programs.