Chavez threatens economic war

Chavez threatens economic war

OIL: March NYMEX crude trading at about $93.79, up $2.02 on the day
after Venezuela's Chavez threatened economic war on the US after oil
giant Exxon-Mobil obtained a freeze on Venezuelan assets as it seeks to
halt nationalization of its assets in Venezuela. Analyst Win Thin of BBH
notes though that "the interesting thing about Venezuelan oil is that it
is very sour (high sulfur content) and that not too many refineries
worldwide are capable of handling this oil (most are located in the US).
It would be virtually impossible for Venezuela to simply sell its oil
elsewhere, and so Chavez is unlikely to follow through on this immediate
threat." Thin does not expect Venezuela to risk becoming a global pariah
by halting debt payments or defaulting on loans but he cautions "Look
for Chavez to make more inflammatory comments in the coming days, but
without actually following through on these threats. Either way, we do
not think Venezuela (with GDP of only $225 bln) is large enough to cause
any sort of EM-wide selloff."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well what do you think. Does he have the balls to follow through on this latest stand against the US bully?

Came out on news wire as oil shot up 2 bucks in as many minutes, looking now for supporting news links


(visit the link for the full news article)

Can't find a corresponding story on msm, tried BBC and CNN. Probably the story will be written up in the business news soon enough. I'll then add the link to the OP

This has been going on for a while. I have a thread down below of him threatening to halt all oil sales to the U.S., and he has also been trying to convince his allies to start up their own banks, independent of the U.S. / World Banking systems. I love Chavez' feistiness.

Originally posted by DimensionalDetective
I love Chavez' feistiness.

Yeah, but I wonder if his people will after he shoots himself in the foot over this?