Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. Crude exports earn the country 95 per cent of its foreign exchange. That figure used to be lower, but relentless nationalization and the government’s insistence on controlling prices and exchange rates have made other exports unviable. Not that productive activity has reoriented inward: the IMF expects Venezuelan GDP to have dropped by 15 per cent in real terms each year in 2016 and 2017, and to do so again in 2018. This is a country in freefall. Nor have price controls helped to sustain Venezuela’s currency. The bolivar, dubbed with cruel...