By GARRET ROBINSON
Staff Writer
In the 1970s, Venezuela had a massive oil boom which should have helped its economy, but instead in the 1980s because of the surplus of crude oil, the demand dropped significantly. The presidency of Hugo Chavez distorted all market activity through price controls and exportation. By 2013 when Hugo Chavez died and Nicolas Maduro came into power, everything got worse. Shortages were so bad in 2017 that the average Venezuelan lost twenty-four pounds and by 2018 the inflation for their currency was up by eighty thousand percent, but because President Maduro eased import and dollar restrictions the inflation rate is now down to three thousand seven hundred percent. The citizens of Venezuela are still using the United States’ dollar as their currency because it is more stable than their own and will most likely continue to do so for a long time because there is still $2.7 billion US dollars circulating in Venezuela.